The Growth Of Boxing - By: Chloe Ramsbottom, Posted on: 2008-10-03

Boxing has been about since as early as 3000BC, but official boxing was first recognised in the late 1700’s. The ancient Greeks assumed that pugilism or fist fighting was a sport that the Greek Gods took part in; this was then included into the Olympic Games in 688BC. However back then there were no padded gloves, they only 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 started to fade away after the fall of The Roman Empire on September 4th, 476AD, when the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire was removed from power.

In England, in the 18th century, it started to gain fans and sportsmen back to the sport when it was transformed into a working man’s sport during the Industrial Revolution which altered the look of Britain’s agriculture. The bouts and fights in the 18th and 19th century weren’t well thought through and came across more like rough street fights rather than the current day showcases that we see now.

The sport was ultimately referred to 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 ended with death.

Something had to be done about this and in 1743 Jack Broughton a heavy weight champion took it upon himself to set seven rules for how boxing should be conducted, these rules sooner or later adapted and became part of the London Prize Rules and in time the Marquess of Queensbury’s Rules which are today’s set standards. These regulations helped look after all contenders by implementing the 30 second rule which meant if a man was down for 30 seconds or more the fight was completed, so ultimately a downed man could not be persistently punched. Jack Broughton also produced the first form of padded gloves which were called mufflers; these seriously cut the amount of blood and injury taken from a strike.

Progressing towards current times, one of the most influential and popular boxers of all time, and perhaps the best of all time is Muhammad Ali who won the World Heavyweight Title three times during his career which makes him the only man to have done so in boxing history.

One of the most famous bouts of all time also included Muhammad Ali and was staged in 1974 which was promoted by Don King and labelled as The Rumble In The Jungle which saw one of the largest upsets in boxing history as the underdog Ali faced defending champion George Foreman, in which Ali "danced" his way to success. Following this massive win Ali 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.

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