The earliest known depiction of boxing comes from a
Sumerian relief in
Iraq from the 3rd millennium BC.
[2] Later depictions from the 2nd millennium BC are found in reliefs from the
Mesopotamian nations of
Assyria and
Babylonia, and in
Hittite art from
Asia Minor.
[citation needed] A relief sculpture from
Egyptian Thebes (c. 1350 BC) shows both boxers and spectators.
[2] These early Middle-Eastern and Egyptian depictions showed contests where fighters were either bare-fisted or had a band supporting the wrist.
[2] The earliest evidence of fist fighting with the use of gloves can be found on
Minoan Crete (c. 1500–1400 BC).
[2]
Various types of boxing existed in
ancient India. The earliest references to
musti-yuddha come from
classical Vedic epics such as the
Ramayana and
Rig Veda. The
Mahabharata describes two combatants boxing with clenched fists and fighting with kicks, finger strikes, knee strikes and headbutts.
[3] Duels (
niyuddham) were often fought to the death.
[citation needed] During the period of the
Western Satraps, the ruler
Rudradaman - in addition to being well-versed in "the great sciences" which included
Indian classical music,
Sanskrit grammar, and logic - was said to be an excellent horseman, charioteer, elephant rider, swordsman and boxer.
[4] The
Gurbilas Shemi, an 18th-century Sikh text, gives numerous references to musti-yuddha.
In
Ancient Greece boxing was a well developed sport and enjoyed consistent popularity. In Olympic terms, it was first introduced in the 23rd
Olympiad, 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 of them acknowledged defeat or could not continue. Weight categories were not used, which meant heavyweights had a tendency to dominate. The style of boxing practiced typically featured an advanced left leg stance, with the left arm semi-extended as a guard, in addition to being used for striking, and with the right arm drawn back ready to strike. It was the head of the opponent which was primarily targeted, and there is little evidence to suggest that targeting the body was common.
[5]
Boxing was a popular spectator
sport in
Ancient Rome.
[6] In order for the fighters to protect themselves against their opponents they wrapped
leather thongs around their fists. Eventually harder leather was used and the thong soon became a
weapon. The Romans even introduced metal studs to the thongs to make the
cestus. Fighting events were held at Roman
Amphitheatres. The Roman form of boxing was often a fight until death to please the spectators who gathered at such events. However, especially in later times, purchased slaves and trained combat performers were valuable commodities, and their lives were not given up without due consideration. Often slaves were used against one another in a circle marked on the floor. This is where the term ring came from. In AD 393, during the Roman
gladiator period, boxing was abolished due to excessive brutality. It was not until the late 16th century that boxing re-surfaced in London.
[citation needed]
Early London prize ring rules
A straight right demonstrated in Edmund Price's
The Science of Defence: A Treatise on Sparring and Wrestling, 1867
Records of Classical boxing activity disappeared after the fall of the Western
Roman Empire when the wearing of weapons became common once again and interest in fighting with the fists 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. There was also a sport in
ancient Rus called
Kulachniy Boy or "Fist Fighting".
As the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport would later resurface in England during the early 16th century in the form of
bare-knuckle boxing sometimes referred to 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.
[7] This is also the time when the word "boxing" first came to be used. This earliest form of modern boxing was very different. Contests in Mr. Figg's time, in addition to fist fighting, also contained fencing and cudgeling. On 6 January 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain when
Christopher Monck, 2nd
Duke of Albemarle (and later
Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica) engineered a bout between his butler and his butcher with the latter winning the prize.
Early fighting had no written rules. There were no weight divisions or round limits, and no referee. In general, it was extremely chaotic. An early article on boxing was published in Nottingham, 1713, by
Sir Thomas Parkyns, a successful Wrestler 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.
[8]
The first boxing rules, called the Broughton's rules, were introduced by champion
Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring where deaths sometimes occurred.
[9] 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 did allow the fighters an advantage not enjoyed by today's boxers; they permitted the 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"
[10] and was frequently disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the Seconds of the Boxers.
[11] 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 cause the recovering fighter to lose points in the scoring system. Furthermore, as the contestants did not have heavy leather gloves and wristwraps to protect their hands, they used different punching technique to preserve their hands because the head was a common target to hit full out.
[dubious – discuss][citation needed] Almost all period manuals have powerful straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face (including forehead) as the basic blows.
[12][13][unreliable source?]
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.
[14]