THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 9, 1988.
The EVOLUTION Of The
BOXING GLOVE
By- RUFUS HOFFMAN
to.
Д
fights were brutal to the extreme, the associations vicious and and criminal. In fact, it became notorious that it was outlawed.
Padded gloves were, of course, un- Boxing, as we know it to-day, f has lost a great deal of its known; and it was the practice brutality through the introduc- encase the hands of the gladiators in gloves of lead. I wonder how some tion of the modern boxing glove. of our present-day chins would fare vicious Although the padded glove as an coming into contact with a
"upper-cut" of the old Roman type. instrument of fistic destruction
Homer mentions a boxing contest is still able to inflict severe dam-held by the Greeks as part of the age, it is undoubtedly, to the cre- celebrations of the Fall of Troy; but dit of the sport that we are it would appear that boxing with bare fists was not tolerated, Something more potent and destructive was re- de- quired as a means of producing finite results, and an instrument re- sembling a knuckle duster, with series of pointed iron studs was tied to the fists, with every promise of the fulfilling the base delights of
spectators.
stitution served its term. For nearly For many centuries after the Fall a hundred years roughly from 1740 have to 1840-the ring became a genuine of Rome, boxing appeared to vanished from the schedule of sports, expression of English life. and hardly any record can be found In his preface to Cashel Byron's The first American champion was us an escaped convict by the name of of boxing in the orthodox manner of Profession, Bernard Shaw tells
have Yank Sullivan. But nowhere was fighting with fists, until the beginning that pugilism was supposed to of the 16th century, when it still re- died of it own blackguardism; where-the boxing glove introduced
the as "it lived by its blackguardism and (means of subduing the ferocity of the. spared such inhuman spectacles mained a form of sport outside
died of its intolerable tediousness." fights and men literally tore at each as confronted the spectators at pale of common decency.
It was not until the beginning of Towards the end of the bareknuckle other like wild animals." boxing matches in days gone by.
and from its the 18th century that boxing re-era the prize-ring died, It cannot be denied that the great, gained any of its former ancient dust arose the gradually improved popularity of present-day boxing is glory, and; even then, it was asso-sport of glove-fighting. due to the clever and well conducted ciated with the ignoble classes as
strange that methods adopted by the participants in displaying their skill, endurance and strength, without stooping to acts of inhuman savagery. Yet, it is still within living memory, when the idea with of covering the fists was met scorn and ridicule, as being an insult to the "noble-art" itself.
Many were the devices those days in fighting with the bare sport befitting their low and depraved America, the national sport of box-needless slaughter.
used
in
fists. It was not unknown for some ring low blackguards to enter the
of with knuckle-dusters, consisting straps held in the palm. furnished with spikes or weighted knobs which protruded between the fingers of the clenched fist.
The old bruiser type, whose chief asset was an insensitiveness to pain, acknowledged none of the finer points of the game; and such gentlemanly innovations as nails, and bits of glass were also hidden in the clenched fist devas- and brought into play with tating results.
the days when box- ing, as a sport, was considered fit only for the rough and ignorant; and was usually relegated to the underworld. dens of iniquity, to satisfy the de- praved tastes of thugs and courtesans.
Those were
tastes,
a
seems Yet, it
From Iron-Clad Fists To Padded Cushions
in
*
*
88
2
Much of the credit for establishing`. glove fighting belonged to John Law- rence Sullivan, who began as a bare knuckle contestant and ended up firm adherent of the Queensberry code.
1
a
With the introduction off gloves boxing in America was placed on
new
#
and more wholesome plane. Brutality was reduced to a minimum," and referees were instructed to stop C-The- result - was ing did not achieve a real place in the to attract better type of man.
Since then boxing, by reason of the The first definite appearance of pugilistic sun for more than a hundred
itself bare knuckle fighting was recorded in years after its beginning in England. padded glove, gained for
The first definite bid was made, in special niche in the world of sport. 1716 when one, John Figg, made it known that he taught, amongst other 1810 by Tom Molyneux, a negro and And to-day the thud of the leather there gloves as they land on perfectly train- sports, boxing and self-defence, and the first prize-fight on record
Ined bodies is a sight which thrills with- invited the nobility of Britain to his between white men was in 1816. demonstrations of the "noble art," at the bare knuckle days in America, the out exerting a brutalising influence.
the same time challenging all
and
sundry, to a bout. There was no at- tempt to organise the sport, and any- body with confidence in his own fistic capabilities claimed himself the cham pion.
as
Some years later, the first attempt. to regulate boxing was made by John Broughton, who was established champion: under a proper code of boxing rules, which were subsequently strengthened by the more definite and effective code of the British Pugilist's
Benevolent Association.
The evolution of the boxing glove About this time is found the first might be synonymous with the evolu- record of the use of gloves. Broughton, tion of boxing itself; but the glove who ran a sporting academy, adver- stands out clearly as the symbol of atised that pupils would be clean and manly sport.
*
*
who has
#
box-
era
watched Anyone ing for a number of years must admit that the boxers of the present are a cleaner-cut and more intelligent band of men than those of the past.
almost The bruiser type has been
game; entirely eliminated from the and, although the ring has been shorn of its once evil associations, it is at- tracting a more intellectual type of spectator who is willing to pay a high price to witness skill rather brutality.
▸
taught
boxing with soft pads tied to their fists, in order to minimise the risk of injury to eyes, noses and chins.
Broughton won the title of cham- pion of England in 1740 and held it for ten years. transformed by this time from a yokel sport of the country fairs to a cognised athletic amusement.
*
The art had been
*
re-
George Borrow, in "Lavengro" makes "Dosta, one of his characters say, we'll now go to the tents and put on the gloves than
to
"; and from the de- scription of the contest that followed it seems almost conclusive that gloves The Roman Gladiator, in order keep to the fore, was forced to were coming more into their own. It I was also discovered that bare knuck- add to his many athletic achieve- ments, the art of self-defence; and les, in hard, repeated contact with his prowess in this respect was often hard heads, were apt to be "knocked- challenged by worthier opponents, up" after a time.
With the introduction of gloves, irrespective of age, weight or physi-boxing took on a new soan of life; cal measurements; and the stake was, more often than not, the hand of some and in the beginning of the 18th cen- tury the prize-ring as a brutal- ́in- fair maiden.
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THE MASSACRE
OF SCHMELING
in
SLOW MOTION
MOTION PICTURES
1700 Thrilling
Feet of Detail
Film Revealing Every
Of
Heavyweight in History
The Fastest Championship Fight in
"LOUIS VS. SCHMELING"
SEE
HEAR
The knockdowns and
the pictorial answer to Schmeling's claim of a "foul;
Referee Arthur Donovaň
the whirlwind battle.
version of
THURSDAY, at the
QUEEN'S