BOXING HISTORY PART ONE

by Tom Sarney

The bell rings. The crowd roars. From opposite corners of a square ring
two opponents emerge. Immediately they circle each other, throwing jabs,
straights and hooks, bobbing to the left, then weaving to the right. One
man connects with a powerful combination, the other goes down and the
referee steps in to separate the fighters. He counts 1…2…3…

Stars

It would be difficult to find a sport which divides the sporting world so extremely
as boxing. What are your views? Do you think it is a “noble art”, a “sweet
science”, or is it just a barbaric and brutal display of violence? The fact remains
though, regardless whether you love it or hate it, pugilism has continued to
capture the worlds imagination. It has provided us with some of the most
famous and infamous sporting legends – Muhammed Ali, “Iron” Mike Tyson or
Thailand’s Khao Sai Galaxy and Olympic gold medal winner Somluck Kamsing.
It has provided us with some of the most popular and inspirational stories of our
time; like ‘Rocky’ or ‘Million Dollar Baby’.It has also introduced idioms like “to be
on the ropes” or “to throw in the towel” into our everyday speech. But exactly
how did boxing come to occupy such a place in our sporting hearts and minds?

Boxing History

The precise origins of boxing are unknown but records indicate that the first
recognition of boxing as a sport was in the 23 rd Olympiad, in 688BC. In those
days boxers took far more risk than their modern day Olympic counterparts.
Unlike the padded 8 or 10oz gloves worn today, gloves were made of very thin
strips of leather worn to protect the fighter’s hands rather than the opponent’s
head. While today’s Olympic boxers fight a maximum of 4 rounds, in Ancient
Greece there was only one continuous round and the winner was declared
when one of the combatants was so badly hurt he was unable to continue. As
you can imagine many fighters were blinded, crippled or killed.

The Romans transformed boxing into an even more grueling competition with
the invention of the “caesteus”, a glove strengthened with iron and lead. If this
wasn’t enough for the spectators, either opponent could call a “Klimax” at any
time during the fight. The ‘Klimax” was when both competitors stood still facing
each other and took turns to strike until a victor emerged. These matches were
truly “no holds barred” and some legends even suggest that metal spikes could
be attached to the gloves if the bout lasted too long.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the sport of boxing disappeared from the
record books but resurfaced in London in the 1600s. Around this time James
Figg declared himself the first English boxing champion. He and his protégé
James Broughton decided to formalise the rules and changed boxing into a
sport similar to what we see today. Although matches were still ‘bare knuckle’
they decided that hitting below the belt was prohibited, as was attacking a man
while he was down. Prizefighters fought in a 24 square area instead of in the
centre of a ‘ring’ of spectators. He also changed the sport into one which
focused on punching skill rather than wrestling, kicking and head-butting
(techniques that were common before these rules). In 1719 they opened a
school called “The School of Arms and Self Defense” and began to teach what
we know as modern boxing.

Official Rules

About two hundred years later British boxing official John Chambers created the
‘Queensbury’ rules, which have been used up to this day. These rules were
designed to make boxing less savage than previous bare-knuckle bouts. Now
boxers were forced to wear padded gloves and rest for one minute after each
three minute round.

The rules also introduced weight categories, so lighter-weighted fighters could

enter the ring. After the introduction of these rules, boxing gained a lot of
respectability and began to reach new audiences. Until the Queensbury rules
boxing was mainly a working-class sport, however, after the rules were
introduced  members of the upper classes began to appreciate the skill and
courage of boxers and many even saw the ring as a way of settling
‘gentlemen’s’ disputes. By the late 1800’s many boxing matches were the most
important sporting events of their time.

However, although boxing is often seen as a British sport, it wasn’t until it

reached the other side of the Atlantic that it reached its ‘Golden Age”. Find out
how modern boxing developed in ‘Round Two’ in two weeks’ time.