Boxing

===Early London prize ring rules===
[[File:Blow2.jpg|thumb|left|A straight right demonstrated in Edmund Price's ''The Science of Defence: A Treatise on Sparring and Wrestling'', 1867]]

Records of boxing activity disappeared in the west 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 ''[[Russian fist fighting|kulachniy boy]]'' or 'fist fighting'.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History Boxing : CISM Europe |url=https://www.cismeurope.org/history-boxing/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=www.cismeurope.org}}</ref>

As the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport later resurfaced 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.<ref name="Roberts-1999">{{cite web |title=James Figg |url=http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/pioneer/figg.html |date=1999 |publisher=[[IBHOF]] |access-date=2018-03-22}} excerpting {{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=James B. |last2=Skutt |first2=Alexander G. |title=The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aA2LO_DGdu4C |access-date=22 March 2018 |edition=4th |year=2006 |publisher=McBooks Press |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |isbn=978-1-59013-121-3|oclc=819715339}}</ref> 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 in 1713, by [[Sir Thomas Parkyns, 2nd Baronet]], a wrestling patron 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx13m7QVfb1qa5yan.jpg |title=tumblr_lx13m7QVfb1qa5yan.jpg |publisher=Tumblr |access-date=16 January 2014}}</ref>

The first boxing rules, called the [[Broughton Rules]], were introduced by champion [[Jack Broughton]] in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring where deaths sometimes occurred.<ref>[http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/broughton%20jack.htm John Rennie (2006) ''East London Prize Ring Rules 1743''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218094646/http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/broughton%20jack.htm |date=18 February 2008 }}</ref> 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.

[[File:Cribb vs Molineaux 1811.jpg|thumb|[[Tom Molineaux]] (left) vs [[Tom Cribb]] in a re-match for the heavyweight championship of England, 1811]]
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"<ref>Anonymous ("A Celebrated Pugilist"), The Art and Practice of Boxing, 1825</ref> and was frequently disallowed by additional rules negotiated by the seconds of the boxers.<ref>Daniel Mendoza, The Modern Art of Boxing, 1790</ref> 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|date=August 2018}}{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} Almost all period manuals have powerful straight punches with the whole body behind them to the face (including forehead) as the basic blows.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/8388742/sn/1178659240/name/blow-1.jpg |title=blow-1.jpg |publisher=Yahoo! |access-date=16 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024213415/http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/8388742/sn/1178659240/name/blow-1.jpg |archive-date=24 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/classicpugilism/photos/album/1501552404/pic/1874370929/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc |title=Yahoo! Groups |publisher=Groups.yahoo.com |access-date=5 September 2013}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=August 2018}}

The British sportswriter [[Pierce Egan]] coined the term "the sweet science" as an epithet for prizefighting – or more fully "the sweet science of bruising" as a description of England's bare-knuckle fight scene in the early nineteenth century.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside |date=2017 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=3}}</ref>

Boxing could also be used to settle disputes even by females. In 1790 in Waddington, Lincolnshire Mary Farmery and Susanna Locker both laid claim to the affections of a young man; this produced a challenge from the former to fight for the prize, which was accepted by the latter. Proper sidesmen were chosen, and every matter conducted in form. After several knock-down blows on both sides, the battle ended in favour of Mary Farmery.<ref>{{cite news|title= Lincoln|newspaper= Stamford Mercury |date= 29 January 1790|page= 3}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Regulation of Boxing: A History and Comparative Analysis of Policies Among American States|last=Rodriguez|first=Robert G.|publisher=McFarland|year=2009|isbn=9780786438624}}</ref>