Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a boxing match, a fight.

1838		West Kent Guardian 1 Dec. 8/3: Never did I see such a pounding match. — Both were what the boxers call gluttons.
1845		Cork Examiner 27 June 4/5: The sporting gentry of our town [...] were on the qui vive, in consequence of a pounding match which was to take place on horseback.
1847		Morn. Post 30 Nov. 5/4: The somewhat famous ‘pounding match’ upon the plains of Waterloo.
1858		Norfolk Chron. 6 Nov. 6/6: A pounding match between two blackguards.
1862		Dover Exp. 5 Apr. 2/4: The first resuklt of this pounding match will probably be to save us the best half of millions [...] which were to have been expended on the fortification of our ports.
1875		Glasgow Herald 4 Nov. 6/7: I have shot with some of their gentlemen, and seen them ride a severe steeplechase (pounding match) in pink and tops.
1887		Western Times 29 Dec. 3/6: The ‘great fight’ [...] was a mere pounding match in which there was not a trace of the ‘science’ of boxing.
1892		Yorks. Gaz. 6 Aug. 3/5: Result, pounding match for a thousand pounds aside. Both real good plucked ones and not likely to give in.
1900		Eve. Post 25 Jan. 2/2: The two men quarrelled, and both tumbled out on to the platform, and had a regular pounding match.
1918		Western Dly Press 18 July 3/3: The question now is whether the Germans will continue the effort as a pounding match of the Verdun type.
1925		Aberdeen Jrnl 19 Nov. 2/5: That pounding match, Waterloo.