The sport of boxing has been about since as early as 3000BC, but official boxing was first first began in the latter part of the 18th century. The ancient Greeks believed that pugilism or fist fighting was a sport in which the Gods of Greece played; this was then implemented into the Olympic Games in 688BC. However back then there were no padded gloves, they simply used leather bound hand wraps sometimes fixed in with metal, which you can imagine led to some brutal and bloody duels some even resulting in battles to the death. Unfortunately fist fighting started to fade away after the fall of The Romans on September 4th, 476AD, when the last Ruler 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 game when it became a working man’s game during the Industrial Revolution which completely changed the look of Britain’s agriculture. The bouts and fights in the 18th and 19th century weren’t well controlled and came across more like violent street fights rather than the current day materpeices that we observe now.

The past-time was ultimately acknowledged as bare-knuckle boxing and the first victor was a man named James Figg back in 1719, the only hitch surrounding this was there were no regulations set out, so contenders were able to hit below the belt and sometimes bouts ended with death.

This all changed when in the year 1743 Jack Broughton a heavy weight champion decided to draw up seven rules for how boxing should be carried out, these rules in due course adapted and became part of the London Prize Rules and in time the Marquess of Queensbury’s Rules which are today’s set values. These rules helped protect 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 man who is down for the count could not be repeatedly punched. Jack Broughton also invented the first form of padded gloves which were called mufflers; these brilliantly cut the total of blood and injury received from a strike.

Advancing towards present times, one of the most notorious and popular boxers of all time, and arguably 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 the entire history of boxing.

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 triumph. Ali came away from this bout brimming with confidence 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 world of boxing and left behind a legacy of distinction in the golden age of boxing.
Chloe is a keen novelist writing about the progression of boxing on behalf of Setanta Online