Boxing

Hitting with extremities of the body, such as kicks and punches, as an act of human aggression, has existed across the world's cultures throughout human history, being a combat system as old as wrestling. However, in terms of sports competition, due to the lack of writing in the prehistory and the lack of references, it is not possible to determine rules of any kind of boxing in prehistory; ancient history can be inferred from only the few intact sources and references to boxing-like activities.

The origin of the sport of boxing is unknown. According to some sources,^[] however, boxing may have prehistoric origins in present-day Ethiopia, where it appeared in the sixth millennium BC. When the Middle Kingdom of Egypt invaded Nubia, it learned the art of boxing from the local population and brought the sport back to Egypt, where it became popular. From Egypt, boxing spread to other lands, including Greece, eastward to Mesopotamia, and northward to Rome.

The earliest visual evidence of any boxing comes from Egypt and Sumer both from the third millennium BC. A relief sculpture from Egyptian Thebes c. 1350 BC shows both boxers and spectators. These early Middle Eastern and Egyptian reliefs depicted contests wherein fighters were either bare-fisted or had a band supporting the wrist. The earliest evidence of the use of gloves can be found in Minoan Crete (c. 1500–1400 BC).

A number of boxing forms existed in ancient India. The earliest references to musti-yuddha come from Indian epic poetry, such as the Rig Veda (c. 1500–1000 BCE) and Ramayana (c. 700–400 BCE). The Mahabharata describes two combatants boxing with clenched fists and fighting with kicks, finger strikes, knee strikes and headbutts during the time of King Virata. Duels (niyuddham) were often fought to the death. During the period of the Western Satraps, the ruler Rudradaman—in addition to being well-versed in Indian classical music, Sanskrit grammar, and logic—was said to be an excellent horseman, charioteer, elephant rider, swordsman, and boxer. The Gurbilas Shemi, an 18th-century Sikh text, gives numerous references to musti-yuddha. The martial art is related to other forms of martial arts found in other parts of Greater India, including Muay Thai in Thailand, Muay Lao in Laos, Pradal Serey in Cambodia, and Lethwei in Myanmar.

Ancient Greek boxing (Ancient Greek: πυγμαχία, romanized: pygmakhia, lit. 'fist-fighting'; also transliterated as pygmachía) was a well-developed sport and enjoyed consistent popularity. Boxing was introduced in the Ancient Olympic Games of 688 BC. The boxers would wind leather thongs around their hands in order to protect them. There were no rounds, and boxers fought until one acknowledged defeat or could not continue. Weight categories were not used, which led to heavier fighters often dominating. The style of boxing typically featured an advanced left-leg stance, with the left arm semi-extended as a guard, used for striking, and the right arm drawn back, ready to strike. The head of the opponent was primarily targeted, and there is little evidence that targeting the body or using kicks was common, thus resembling modern Western boxing.

Boxing was a popular spectator sport in Ancient Rome. Fighters protected their knuckles with leather strips wrapped around their fists. Eventually, harder leather was used, and the strips became a weapon. Metal studs were introduced to the strips to make the cestus. Fighting events were held in Roman amphitheatres.^[]

Records of boxing activity disappeared in the West after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when the wearing of weapons became common once again and interest in fistfighting waned. However, there are detailed records of various fist-fighting sports that were maintained in different cities and provinces of Italy between the 12th and 17th centuries. In ancient Rus, bare-knuckle boxing was known as kulachniy boy (Russian: кулачный бой, lit. 'fist fight'), first appearing in the Church Slavonic Primary Chronicle published c. 1117.

As the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport later resurfaced in England during the early 16th century as bare-knuckle boxing, also known as prizefighting. The first documented account of a bare-knuckle fight in England appeared in 1681 in the London Protestant Mercury, and the first English bare-knuckle champion was James Figg in 1719. It was at this point that the term "boxing" first came to be used, though the earliest form of modern boxing was very different from boxing as practiced now. Contests in Figg's time, in addition to fistfighting, also included fencing and cudgeling. On 6 January 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain with Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (later the lieutenant governor of Jamaica) engineering a match between his butler and his butcher; the latter won the prize.

Early fighting had no written rules, weight divisions, round limits, or referees. As a result, it was an extremely chaotic and brutal affair. An early article on boxing was published in Nottingham in 1713 by Sir Thomas Parkyns, 2nd Baronet, a wrestling patron from Bunny, Nottinghamshire, who had practised the techniques he described. The article, a single page in his manual of wrestling and fencing, Progymnasmata: The inn-play, or Cornish-hugg wrestler, described a system of headbutting, punching, eye-gouging, chokes, and hard throws, not recognized in boxing today.

The first boxing rules, called the Broughton Rules, were introduced by champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring, where deaths sometimes occurred. Under these rules, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over. Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were prohibited. Broughton encouraged the use of "mufflers", a form of padded bandage or mitten, to be used in "jousting" or sparring sessions in training, and in exhibition matches.

These rules gave fighters an advantage not enjoyed by today's boxers; they allowed a fighter to drop to one knee to end the round and begin the 30-second count at any time. Thus, a fighter realizing he was in trouble had an opportunity to recover. However, this was considered "unmanly", and it was frequently disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the seconds of the boxers. In modern boxing, there is a three-minute limit to rounds (unlike the downed fighter ends the round rule). Intentionally going down in modern boxing will result in the recovering fighter losing points under the scoring system. Furthermore, as the contestants did not have heavy leather gloves and wristwraps to protect their hands, they used different punching techniques to avoid injury, since the head was a common target to hit full force.^{[ – discuss][]} Almost all period manuals have powerful straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face (including forehead) as the basic blows.

The British sportswriter Pierce Egan coined the term "the sweet science" as an epithet for prizefighting—or more fully "the sweet science of bruising"—as a description of England's bare-knuckle fight scene in the early nineteenth century.

Boxing could also be used to settle disputes, even by females. In 1790, in Waddington, Lincolnshire, Mary Farmery and Susanna Locker both laid claim to the affections of a young man; this led Farmery to challenge Locker to a fight for the prize, which was accepted. Proper sidespersons were chosen, and every matter was conducted in form. After several knock-down blows on both sides, the battle ended in favour of Farmery.

The London Prize Ring Rules introduced measures that remain in effect for professional boxing to this day, such as outlawing butting, gouging, scratching, kicking, hitting a man while down, holding the ropes, and using resin, stones, or hard objects in the hands, and biting.

In 1867, the Marquess of Queensberry rules were drafted by John Graham Chambers for amateur championships held at Lillie Bridge in London for lightweights, middleweights, and heavyweights. The rules were published under the patronage of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, whose name has always been associated with them.

There were twelve rules in all, specifying that fights should be "a fair stand-up boxing match" in a 24-foot-square or similar ring. Rounds were 3 minutes, with 1-minute rest intervals between rounds. Each fighter was given a 10-second count if knocked down, and wrestling was banned. The introduction of boxing gloves of "fair-size" also changed the nature of the bouts. An average pair of boxing gloves resembles a bloated pair of mittens and is laced up around the wrists.

The gloves can be used to block an opponent's blows. As a result of their introduction, bouts became longer and more strategic, with greater importance placed on defensive maneuvers such as slipping, bobbing, countering, and angling. Because less emphasis was placed on the forearms and more on the gloves, the classical forearms-outwards, torso-lean-back stance of the bare-knuckle boxer was modified into a more modern stance in which the torso is tilted forward, and the hands are held closer to the face.

Throughout the late 19th century, boxing, or prizefighting, was primarily a sport of dubious legitimacy. Outlawed in England and much of the United States, prizefights were often held at gambling venues and broken up by police. Brawling and wrestling tactics continued, and riots at prizefights were common occurrences. Still, throughout this period, some notable bare-knuckle champions developed fairly sophisticated fighting tactics. The English case of R v. Coney in 1882 found that a bare-knuckle fight was an assault occasioning actual bodily harm, despite the consent of the participants. This marked the end of widespread public bare-knuckle contests in England.

The first world heavyweight champion under the Queensberry Rules was James J. Corbett, who defeated John L. Sullivan in 1892 at the Pelican Athletic Club in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The first instance of film censorship in the United States occurred in 1897 when several states banned the showing of prize-fighting films from the state of Nevada, where it was legal at the time. Throughout the early 20th century, boxers struggled to achieve legitimacy. They were aided by the influence of promoters like Tex Rickard and the popularity of great champions such as John L. Sullivan.

Modern sport arose from illegal venues and outlawed prizefighting and has become a multibillion-dollar commercial enterprise. A majority of young talent still comes from poverty-stricken areas around the world. Places like Mexico, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe prove to be filled with young aspiring athletes who wish to become the future of boxing. Even in the U.S., places like the inner cities of New York and Chicago have produced promising young talent. According to Rubin, "boxing lost its appeal with the American middle class, and most of who boxes in modern America come from the streets and are street fighters".