When Did Boxing Begin?

In the history of boxing, many times people have felt boxing was too cruel or barbaric, and they wanted to stop it. But the first boxing sessions were very much non humanistic. Boxing was a very popular game in ancient Greece and the boxers performed at the Olympic Games and other public games. But in that time, instead of gloves, the fighters wore the cestus. The cestus was a wrapping of leather studded with lead or bronze plates. A blow from a cestus could be quite damaging. After the decline of Roman Empire boxing disappeared until it was revived in England at the beginning of 18th century. Boxing soon became a fashionable sport and remained for 100 years.

In that time the fights were decided with bare fists and many of them lasted for several hours. Wrestling and throwing were allowed in that time. It was so tough that a round ended only when a man was knocked down, and the time between rounds varied. The public protested against this kind of brutal boxing and to save the game padded gloves began to be used.

In 1867, came the big step that brought boxing back into favour. The Marquis of Queensberry brought in a set of rules that made many improvements like the time limitation of rounds, interval between rounds etc. Those rules were adopted all over the world and the rules governing boxing today are based on them. Until the 20th century, there was little boxing outside England and United States, but since it has spread all over the world.