Sam Rabin (1903–1991), a painter and sculptor trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1921-24), had always been interested in boxing and wrestling. Barnett Freedman sketched him in August 1925. In 1928 Rabin represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam when he won a bronze medal. William Roberts first knew him as an artist, then met him again later on when he went to watch all-in wrestling matches. Sam Rabin had his own exhibition of paintings at the Leicester Galleries in 1960, mainly boxing subjects. He appeared as the champion wrestler in Alexander Korda's film The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and as the Jewish prize-fighter, Mendoza, in Harold Young's The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934).
Black Eagle was the wrestling name of (Wilfred) Robert Adams (c.1900–1965). Adams was born in Georgetown, British Guiana. Having trained as a teacher, after arriving in Britain in the 1920s he was forced to earn a living in low-paid jobs, such as labouring, before a sports promoter encouraged him to become a professional wrestler. As the Black Eagle, he became heavyweight champion of the British Empire. In 1931 he was a founder member of Dr Harold Moody's League of Coloured Peoples. He had produced and acted in amateur stage productions in British Guiana and in 1934 he began appearing as a supporting player in films. In 1938 he starred in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones at Cambridge's Arts Theatre, repeating the role for the BBC in 1938 – he had earlier become the first black actor to appear on British television. He later returned to British Guiana (now Guyana) becoming headmaster of a school and also working in the government's information department.
Several fights involving either Sam Rabin or Black Eagle took place in London in 1934 but not recorded between the two depicted here and therefore it is possible that the artist imagined the scene.
