John L. Sullivan bare knuckling it out (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress).
We have been making our way through boxing history dating, beginning with the BCs and ADs all the way to the mid-1800s. Look how far we’ve come!
In our most recent segment, Part 4 of the Punch Drunk and Boxing Free segment, we discussed the important development of rules and the spread of boxing to America from Europe.
The early to mid-1800s were the peak of English boxing. In Part 5, we will discuss how it became better known elsewhere.
Boxing Styles Change
With the advent of all the new boxing rules mentioned in Part 4, the nature of the game changed a bit.
Bare knuckles out, gloved hands in.
The game became more sophisticated in a way. It was no longer two grown men swinging fists at each other. Now they had the gloves.
Defense techniques became more important. Maneuvers like bobbing, countering, and angling were the new thing.
Interestingly, the entire physical stance of the boxer changed with the introduction of gloves. Instead of the forearms out, body leaning backwards thing, the “modern” boxer had his body leaning more forward, with his hands more so around his face.
Fight The Power
Gloves weren’t every boxer’s best friend. American boxer John L. Sullivan was cranky about the padded hand coverings, actively lobbying against them. His battle was extinguished when he was stripped of his title in 1889 for not donning the phalanges mitts.
Sullivan didn’t go without a fight. There were many legal battles, to be specific. He did eventually succumb to the Queensbury Rules, like everyone else.
He didn’t really have a choice… every American state had made bare-knuckle fighting illegal, along with everywhere else he would be boxing.
Utter Melee
The tumultuous history of boxing is often linked to its ties to factors that have nothing to do with the actual sport.
This has been a constant theme throughout our exploration of boxing history. Why would the history of boxing be any less chaotic now?
The England Rich Says “Nah Fam”
The fancy English people getting into the sport of boxing were a thing of the past. It even became unpopular in the middle class.
A sort of religious revival in the 1800s had the English people thinking twice about some of their naughty past times, and boxing got roped into that category once again.
It’s not so much men beating the pulp out of each other in the ring that was the issue. It was the drinking and gambling that went down at the boxing events that angered the uptights.
The whole rioting thing was also not appreciated. Fighting didn’t stay in the ring often. The crowd was a little rowdy, with very little hesitation to throw hands themselves.
Americans Embrace The Sport (Kinda)
Remember that guy, John L. Sullivan? He put the nail in the coffin of the English. Who had the last laugh at the Queensbury debate anyway?
Ever since John L. Sullivan took the world championship in 1882, had the title stripped in 1889 because of the whole glove thing, and then took it again in 1892 following the rules. Sullivan helped Americans get on the map, and they never left.
But wait… there’s more.
Boxing was mostly illegal in America too, so it became an underground activity in mostly big cities in America. Gambling, violence, and police intervention followed.
And because we can’t have anything nice, America used boxing to “resolve” tension between European immigrants and the good ol’ United States.
People of different ethnicities and nationalities would fight (i.e., Irish and Americans) out America’s xenophobia. Gangs based on country of origin would also duke it out with each other in the ring. How unproductive.
Boxing fuels the American Dream for many around the turn of the century. How did that happen? Find out next time.
