The Early Years Of Boxing

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Fist fighting or as we now know it, boxing has been about since as early as 3000BC, but formal boxing was first acknowledged in the late 1700’s. The ancient Greeks believed that pugilism or fist fighting was a game played by the Gods in Olympus; this was then included into the Olympic Games in 688BC. However back then there were no padded gloves, they merely used leather bound hand coverings sometimes filled with metal, which you can picture led to some brutal and bloody duels some even ensuing in battles to the death. Sadly fist fighting began to die away after the fall of The Romans on September 4th, 476AD, when the last Ruler of the Western Roman Empire was removed from power.

It wasn’t until the 18th century it began to gain fans and sportsmen back to the sport when it changed into a working man’s sport during the Industrial Revolution which completely transformed the look of Britain’s agriculture. The bouts and fights in the 18th and 19th century weren’t well thought through and looked a lot like savage street fights rather than the modern day materpeices that we witness now.

The past-time was ultimately recognised as bare-knuckle boxing and the first champion was a man named James Figg back in 1719, the only hitch surrounding this was there were no rules set out, so contenders could punch their opponents below the waist and sometimes fights resulted in death.

Something had to be done about this and in 1743 Jack Broughton a heavy weight champion was determined to set seven rules for how boxing should be conducted, these rules ultimately adapted and became part of the London Prize Rules and eventually the Marquess of Queensbury’s Rules which are today’s set values. These set of laws helped defend all contenders by enforcing the 30 second rule which meant if a man was down for 30 seconds or more the fight was over, so ultimately a man who is down for the count could not be continually hit. Jack Broughton also invented the first form of padded gloves which were called mufflers; these seriously cut the total of blood and harm received from a jab.

Progressing towards present times, one of the most dominant and admired boxers of all time, and perhaps the best of all time is Muhammad Ali who won the World Heavyweight Title on three separate occasions which makes him the only man to have done so in boxing history.

One of the most famous fights of all time also included Muhammad Ali and was staged in 1974 which was promoted by Don King and branded as The Rumble In The Jungle which saw one of the prime upsets in boxing history as the underdog Ali faced defending champion George Foreman, in which Ali “danced” his way to victory. After this bout Ali was on top of his game and kept his form going as he went into the Thrilla In Manila bout against Joe Frazier and defeated him in a boxing match that Ali described as the closest he has felt to death.

Muhammad Ali changed the boxing world and left a legacy of greatness in the golden age of boxing.