The History Of Boxing

It is known that in order to deeply appreciate the present and to imagine the future with approximate accuracy it is also necessary to know the past. It is natural, that even the brief information about the history of boxing is considered one of the integral fields of the theory of boxing. Boxing is considered to be a sport of all time. It was originated 5000 years ago in Egypt, which is the homeland of the world oldest civilization. People began to use boxing as a competitive exercise 2000 years ago, and as a sport – in 688 before our times. The international Boxing Federation was created in 1920. During the specified periods boxing penetrated to Greece through Crete Island and spread all over the world. 

Boxing has its own honorable place in the program of the ancient Greek Olympic Games. According to the first data a Greek boxer Onomastus was the winner of the 23rd Olympic Games held in 688 BC. 

For participation in Olympic Games fight competition a boxer must receive the right from the special committee. For this purpose he should have some triumphs as a result of fighting with known boxers and at least a 12-month experience before competitions. After receiving that right and before the beginning of the fighting a boxer must be trained in special gyms by proficient coaches. In those days there was no weight classification. Boxers used to wrap their hands with soft leather gloves instead of sports gloves. 

Leather bags -filled with kernel, flour and sand- were used as sports instruments. 

In Art as well as in Boxing Greeks paid much attention to the beauty of the fighting, and it is natural, that they were first to use “skiamakhia”, which is a Greek word and means a match with shadow. 

Greek boxers used to be trained with so much pleasure and beauty that for the best ones, for example for Slavdia Katistiani, a statue was erected. 

The main feature of the rules for conducting battles of early periods was that boxers had a freedom to maintain the fighting, which used to lead to the cruelty of emulous boxers, and because of which women were not allowed to watch the fighting according to the Olymic Games program. The history mentions a case: Kalpiatra - the daughter of Diagor, who was the winner of the 79th Olympic Games, decided to wear a man`s clothes and be present at the fighting of her son; she was his coach. After her son`s victory she was so animated that jumped over the fence and it was soon turned out that she was a woman. 

The audience demanded to subject her to death but soon they forgave her, taking into account the fact, that her father, husband, 3 brothers and two sons had been the winners of Olympic Games for different periods. Diagor`s family won 8 gold medals in Olympic games. After that incident it was decided that boxers, their coaches and referees must come to a fighting place in a naked condition. The fact of being so dedicated to boxing has not been forgotten and it is natural, that in 1996 in honor of Greek and 100th anniversary of Olympic Games among the stamps published by AIBA there was one, depicting two grandsons of Feruk Diagor, carrying his body on their shoulders. His heart punctured from joy, after his second grandson`s victory and right after he was granted the title of Olympic games champion. Such stamp was first published in 1937. 

Greek people were of opinion that champions had the right to erect their statues but not image ones. Only in case of being a winner for 3 times a boxer got right to erect his image statue. This law was violated by the supporters of the Olympic Games Champion from Artashat, Varazdat Arshakuni/later - the Armenian King: they were going to erect his statue in the Olypmic stadium at the bottom of the mountain Olympia, but soon it was sent back from Greece to Artashat, and, unfortunately, until now it is still missing. 

Greek boxers have always been famous for longevity of sporting activities. Thus, a greek boxer Tisandro Naso was the winner of 4 Olympic games in 572-564 BC, and a popular Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras participated in boxing matches during Olympic Games of the 1st century BC. He organized a school of Mathematics in Kreton, where along with algebra and philosophy he taught boxing, wrestle and pankriation/sports, where they were allowed to use boxing and wrestle tricks. Pyutagoras`s pupil Milon managed to win the title of the Olympic Games Boxing Champion for 6 times. There is also another long-lived boxer – Teagenas from the town Tagos of Greece, who during 20 years of being engaged in boxing won 1400 fighting. 

The Olympic Games continue to take place even after Greece being occupied by Rome. As a result of Greco-Romanic competition in sports field many sports, including boxing, lost their real appearance and content, not yielding to gladiators by the cruelty of fighting. Besides the above-mentioned circumstances the main reason of the decline in Olympic Games was the genesis of Christianity, the ideology of which did not pay attention to human body and earthly life. In 394 according to the order of the Emperor of Rome Teodos, set in Milan, Olympic Games, as well as Boxing matches were terminated. Although the obstacles for Olympic Games have a negative influence on their further development, it is still maintained by many people.

The English did their best for Boxing revival, particularly a boxer James Fig, who in 1719 founded the Boxing Academy. James Fig was a popular master of mono-struggle sports: a good wrestler, an excellent sop-warrior, he also knew all the tricks with sop and sticks, and his pupil John Brownton, a professional boxer, the first champion of England, who was considered to be the father of modern boxing, created the project of modern boxing gloves on the basis of tough gloves/ with leather ribbons. 

On August 10, 1743, the rules of competitions, formulated by him, were published, and in honor of him they were called “Brownton Code”. 

The history of modern boxing begins from the second half of the last century, when in 1865 so called “Marquis Quinsber`s rules” came into effect in England. This name is not quite right, as Marquis only made them mass, and the real author of the above-mentioned rules was John-Graham Chambers. Ring sizes, round duration, weight of gloves, and definition of knockout – all of them are mentioned in those rules. The items, listed in the Rules have been preserved to our days. 

In 1896 after a long break by the initiative of a French Pier de Coubertin modern Olympic Games were again established. Boxing was included in the program of Olympic Games in 1904 only, during the 3rd games held in Saint Luis in America. Because of the bad job of the organizers of the contest, boxers from the other countries could not participate in it, and Americans were the winners in all the weight categories. 

The same story was repeated in the next Olympic Games, which took place in 1908, of course only in English version. 

The representatives of 3 countries also participated in those competitions – one of them was from Australia, two of them were from Denmark, and seven - from France. 

It was only an Australian L. Beyker among all the foreigners, who managed to win a silver medal. 

Boxing competitions were not foreseen in the program of the 5th Olympic Games, which took place in 1912 in Stockholm/ Sweden/, as in those years boxing was under a ban. 

The first amateur Boxing Association was founded in 1881 in England, in 1888 in America, in 1903 in France. 

In 1920 International Boxing Federation /IBF/ was created, which was reorganized in 1946 as the Amateur International Boxing Association/AIBA/, the first president of which was Emil Gremo/French Boxing Federation president. 

The Amateur Boxing Euro Association was organized in 1969 /ABEA/; Armenian Boxing Federation was included in ABEA and AIBA in 1993. 

First the winners of Olympic Games were determined by 7 weight classes, then by 8 ones, from 1952 by 10, in 1968 48kg was added, and in 1984 ultra heavy weight was included in Olympic Games – more than 91 kg. At present there are 12 weight classes. 

In 1936 a Cup after Val Barker /a figure of International Boxing Federation/ was determined, which is awarded to the best boxer- participant.