Ancient times. Boxing is one of the oldest known sports. Stone carvings indicate that the Sumerians, who lived in what is now Iraq, boxed at least 5,000 years ago. The sport probably spread from the Sumerians to peoples throughout the ancient world.
Boxing was a brutal spectacle in ancient Greece. Two young men would sit on flat stones, face to face, with their fists wrapped in thongs (strips of leather). At a signal, they began to hit each other until one of them fell to the ground unconscious. The other man then continued to beat his opponent until he died. According to legend, the thongs were later fitted with metal spikes so that the fights ended more quickly.
The Romans also staged brutal boxing matches. On their hands and forearms, the fighters wore cestuses, which consisted of leather straps plated with metal. In time, the sport became so savage that the Romans forbade the use of cestuses. In the last hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Romans prohibited boxing.
The beginning of modern boxing. Boxing almost disappeared as a sport until the late 1600's, when it reappeared in England. However, it remained a cruel sport, and many fighters were crippled, blinded, or even killed while fighting.
In the early 1700's, James Figg, one of England's most famous athletes, introduced modern boxing. In Figg's day, boxing involved much wrestling. Figg became successful by punching instead of wrestling. In 1719, he opened a boxing school in London and began to teach his style of bare-knuckle (gloveless) fighting.
Figg's boxing rules were still brutal, however. For example, one rule required that boxers continue to fight without rest periods until one man could not go on. In 1743, Jack Broughton, a well-known British boxer, introduced new rules. Under Broughton's rules, a fight ended when one man was knocked down and could not get up within 30 seconds. However, bouts were still continuous. Broughton's rules, with some additions, became standard for all bouts. They were known as the London Prize Ring Rules, and they helped make boxing less savage.
