"In 1872 Ned was sentenced to three years in prison for possessing a horse which had been leant to him by the well-named "Wild" Wright, a sometime friend who had neglected to tell him that the animal was stolen. Wild's silence on this issue had unfortunate consequences for Ned--a brutal pistol whipping from Constable Hall and a sentence of three years hard labour from the Magistrate. The thief himself received a much shorter sentence.

"In August of 1874, fresh from serving his time, Kelly met Wright in a boxing match which was intended to even the score.

The historian Ian Jones describes it: 'They fought bare-knuckle to the old London Prize Ring rules already illegal for professional fights. Ignoring the niceties of the gentlemanly Marquis of Queensberry code, they simply came up to 'the scratch'--a line drawn in the ground--an hammered at each other until a man was felled or blood was drawn ...'

"Wild was a notorious an experienced fighter. The following month it would be reported that, 'He is rather given to commit assaults [and] is quite indifferent whether it is the police or a civilian he lets drive at' At 25 he was an inch taller and a stone heavier than his 19 year old opponent .... The fight lasted for twenty bloody rounds, perhaps for hours, until at last Wild conceded defeat ... Four years later Wild said, 'Ned Kelly is mad'--a strange comment from a man who was by then totally dedicated to Ned. After another two years the world saw Ned Kelly wage a battle against impossible odds, crippled by serious wounds, weakened by loss of blood to the pointy of death, but still fighting. Ned simply didn't know when he had had enough. Perhaps Wild was right and it was a sort of madness, but it made him almost unbeatable."

- quotes from Ned Kelly: A Short Life by Ian Jones, Lothian Books, 1995