The Progression Of Boxing

The sport of boxing has been about since as early as 3000BC, but formal boxing was first recognised in the latter part of the 18th century. The ancient Greeks assumed that pugilism or fist fighting was a game that the Greek Gods took part in; this was then implemented into the Olympic Games in 688BC. The only drawback in these early times were that competitors didn’t have any padded gloves, they simply used leather bound hand coverings sometimes filled with metal, which you can imagine led to some fierce and bloody duels some even leading in battles to the death. Unfortunately 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 deposed.

In England, in the 18th century, it began to gain fans and sportsmen back to the game when it was transformed into a working man’s game 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 organised and looked a lot like savage street fights rather than the modern day performances that we witness now.

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

Luckily this wouldn’t last forever and in the year 1743 Jack Broughton a heavy weight champion decided to set seven rules for how boxing should be carried out, 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 principles. These regulations helped defend all contenders by enforcing the 30 second rule which meant if a man was down for 30 seconds or longer the fight was finished, so ultimately a downed man could not be repeatedly hit. Jack Broughton also invented the first form of padded gloves which were called mufflers; these seriously cut the total of blood and injury taken from a hit.

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

There were a number of fights that can be claimed as the best of all time, but two main ones stand out. The first being 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 triumph. After this fight 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 transformed the world of boxing and left behind a legacy of distinction in the golden age of boxing.

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Chloe is a dedicated writer writing about the history of boxing on behalf of Setanta Online

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