Boxing is a sport that is popular all around the world. But the much-loved sport has had a long and checkered history to get to where it has got today. Boxing in its various forms has been in existence since the start of human civilization. The sport evolved from prize-fights held in the seventeenth century, mainly in Great Britain. But the forerunner of modern boxing was the establishment of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. The earliest depiction of the sport in boxing history comes from a Sumerian relief in Iraq nearly a thousand years before Christ. A relief sculpture from Egyptian Thebes represents both the spectators and the boxers. These early Egyptian and Middle-Eastern depictions showed matches where the boxers had a band supporting the wrist or bare-fisted.
In boxing history, the first evidence of fighting with gloves is found on Minoan Crete. Many types of boxing also existed in India. The first references to such fist combat come from the classical Vedic epics such as the Rig Veda and the Ramayana. The Mahabharata depicts a couple of combatants fighting with clenched fists and using headbutts, knee strikes, finger strikes, and kicks. Many combats were often over only with the death of a rival. During the Western Satraps, the ruler Rudradaman was said to be an excellent boxer apart from being well-versed in various other arts. The Gurbilas Shemi is a Sikh text that provides many references to such fist combat.
In Greece, the sport was well-developed and enjoyed good popularity, according to boxing history. In Olympic terms, it first started in the seventh century BC. The boxers would tie leather straps around their knuckles to keep them safe. There were no rounds, and the fighters fought until one of them could not continue or acknowledge defeat. There were no weight categories. This meant that heavyweight boxers tended to dominate mostly. Boxing was also a famous spectator sport in Rome. The boxers protected their hands with leather strips around their hands. After that, firmer leather was utilized, and the strips became a type of weapon. Metal studs were installed on the strips. The events took place at Roman amphitheaters.
Boxing History: Early London prize ring rules
In boxing history, the records of classical boxing activity stopped after the fall of the Western Roman Empire when the donning of weapons became commonplace, and the general public's interest in combating with the fists declined. But there are detailed records of several fist-fighting sports that continued in different provinces and cities of Italy between the 13th to the 18th centuries. There was also a sport in ancient Russia which was called Kulachniy Boy. As the wearing of the sword also declined, there was greater interest in fencing with the fists. Boxing would later come back in England during the 16th century as bare-knuckle boxing, sometimes referred to as prizefighting. The initial documented account of bare-knuckle combat in England happened in the late seventeenth century in the London Protestant Mercury.
The initial champ in English boxing was James Figg. This was also when the word boxing came to be associated with the sport. In boxing history, the first type of modern boxing was held in another format. The matches that happened at that time also contained different combats in addition to the usual fighting with the hands. The first recorded boxing match happened in the late seventeenth century in Britain when Christopher Monck, the Duke of Albemarle and later the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, held a match between his butcher and butler, which the former won. Early combat had no written rules. There were no round limits or weight divisions. There was also no referee. It was very chaotic in general. There was an initial article on boxing in the early 18th century by Sir Thomas Parkyns. He was a wrestling patron from Nottinghamshire who had practiced all the described techniques.
The article was one page in his manual of wrestling. It described a system of various devices to injure rivals which are not recognized in boxing today. The set of boxing rules used first was called Broughton's rules. They were created by the champion Jack Broughton in the mid-eighteenth century to protect boxers in the ring whose deaths sometimes happened. In these rules, if a fighter went down and could not continue even after thirty seconds, the match was over. Hitting a downed man and grabbing below the waist was not allowed. Broughton also encouraged the usage of mufflers, a type of padded mitten or bandage, to be utilized in sparring or jousting sessions in training and exhibition matches. These rules gave the boxers an advantage that present-day boxers do not have. They allowed the boxer to drop to one knee and finish the round and start the thirty-second count anytime they wanted.
So, a boxer realizing that he would lose had a chance to recover. But, this was seen as unsporting and was disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the Seconds of the Boxers. In present-day boxing, there are time restrictions to rounds. Intentionally going down in today's sport will cause the recovering boxer to lose points in the scoring system. Also, as the fighters did not have wrist wraps and heavy leather gloves to protect their hands, they had to use different punching techniques to preserve their hands because the head was a usual target to hit full out. Almost all the period manuals have strong straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face and the forehead as well as the basic punches. The London Prize Ring Rules started measures that are in effect for pro boxing to this day. This includes outlawing biting, using hard objects, stones, or resin in the hands, holding the ropes, hitting a boxer while down, kicking, scratching, gouging, and butting.
Boxing History: Marquess of Queensberry rules
In the late nineteenth century, these rules were created by John Chambers for amateur championships that were held at Lillie Bridge in London for Heavyweights, Middleweights, and Lightweights. There were more than ten rules in all. They outlined that the fight should be a fair boxing match in a square or similar type of ring. The rounds were three minutes with rest intervals of a minute between rounds. All the boxers were given a count if they were knocked down, and wrestling was entirely banned. The introduction of boxing gloves of fair size also modified the nature of those matches. A typical pair of boxing gloves started resembling a bloated pair of mittens laced up around the wrists. The gloves were utilized to block the blows of the rivals.
As a result of the introduction of these gloves, the fights became longer and more strategic, with importance being placed on defensive maneuvers. Till the start of the twentieth century, the martial art of prizefighting or boxing was seen as a sport with dubious legitimacy. It was outlawed in much of the United States and England. The prize-fights happened mostly at gambling venues and were broken up by the police. Wrestling and brawling tactics continued, and riots were common occurrences at such prize-fights. But throughout this period, several notable bare-knuckle champs had sophisticated fighting tactics.
Boxing History: Conclusion
The modern sport of boxing started from prizefighting and illegal locations and became a huge commercial enterprise. Most of the young talents still come from poverty-stricken locales around the world. These young aspiring athletes wish to become the future of the sport. Even in the United States, places such as the inner cities of Chicago and New York have given rise to many young talents. The sport is only going to continue to rise further with several superstar athletes, big-ticket matches, and fans around the globe.