The first record (or physical depiction) of boxing comes from around 3000BC in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). Since then there have been other notable ancient depictions of boxing and in 1650BC we have the first depiction of Boxing in front of spectators, dating back to Thebes in ancient Egypt.
The first illustration of boxers with gloves was seen on a fresco from the Minoan civilization dating back to the Bronze Age in Crete c1650BC.
The modern day sport of boxing as we would recognise it has some seriously dodgy roots and was pretty much outlawed within what we would know as *civilized society* through most of the 19th Century. In America, boxing's roots are directly traceable to the illicit world of gambling and casinos.
The Queensbury Rules (this will be my Q post) were written in 1867 by John Chambers for use in amateur championships in London.
1882 saw the demise of bare-knuckled fights following a case in the Crown Court where it was found that a bare-knuckle fight was an assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) under the Offences Against The Person Act of 1861, despite the consent of the fighters.
In 1892 the first ever world heavyweight championship was held (under the Queensbury Rules) with Jim Corbett (Gentleman Jim) defeating John Sullivan in New Orleans at the Pelican Athletic Club.
Today boxing is a multi-million dollar enterprise with the best boxers able to earn amazing sums of money, though the reality remains that most boxers come from predominantly poorer communities.
Audley Harrison is one of my favourite British heavyweight boxers, he won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the Super Heavyweight division.
My favourite female boxer is Nicola Adams a British flyweight boxer who holds two Olympic gold medals (London 2012 & Rio 2016) as well as having an undefeated record in the ring. In 2019 Adams held the WBO female flyweight title.
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2022.
I imagine you are proponents of what used to be called Muscular Christianity and is now more likely called Youth Outreach?
ReplyDeleteI shall follow your progress - thanks for visiting me at
https://how-would-you-know.com/2022/04/bread-in-geopolitics-in-vegetarianism-and-as-an-ingredient.html#comments
The first line got me interested! Interesting depiction of boxing by the egyptians!
ReplyDeleteLeaving my link here:
http://namysaysso.com/blog/boketto-short-poetry-forms/
That's alot of years of history. Wonder what the first champs won?
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy the month of A to Zing.
The Basics
Didn't imagine there would be boxing gloves depicted so long ago!
ReplyDeletehttps://thequietwriter.com/2022/04/02/building-bridges/
Such an interesting story about boxing. I never knew most of it. That picture of the ancient Egyptians boxing is great. It looks more like a dance than a fight. The boxers are very flexible and they have very thin dancer bodies.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a very big fan of boxing, but my father used to love watching it. However, there are several boxing movies that I've enjoyed. In recent months I've been toying around with writing a screenplay about a female boxer. So far I've written a theme song for it, but rest I've been mulling about in my head.
ReplyDeleteNice post about this topic.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out Battle of the Bands
So interesting!
ReplyDeleteI don't know anythong about boxing, and I cn't wait to read more of ou challenge.
Will you blog about women boxers too? :-)
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter - Enter the New Woman
Thanks for visiting! Interesting topic for your A to Z!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of boxing but mainly watched it as part of watching the summer Olympics in years gone by. I do remember reading a book called "The Contender" when I was in grade school that had to do with boxing. It does seem like an interesting sport!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the rest of the challenge!
betty
https://benchsnotebook.blogspot.com/
I'll bet a lot more people got interested in boxing when gloves became a thing!
ReplyDeleteI´ve never thought that boxing could be such an ancient sport, I´m amazed!
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