During this point of time, boxing had already become a well viewed and well known public event. Boxing was more brutal in the 18th century, and had risen to being popular in the culture, but it still was not close to the brutality of the fighting seen in gladiator arenas. Nevertheless at this time, boxing was still seen as bloody and less of as a game. In spite of this, at this time, boxing was now being formally recognized in the first boxing championships and titles were being given out as a boxing hall of fame was established.

Back at this time, where formal boxing fights were started, gloves had not been introduced and competitors would fight with bare knuckles. During these early days of boxing, fighters would participate without any confinements or restrictions and would fight in a ring that was created by the spectators themselves without a boxing ring. Fighters would fight as long as they were possibly able to keep going, at this time referees and gloves were about to be introduced into matches. Sometimes fights would go so long they would continue on into the next day and would last for hours.

Back in these days, rules as we know now weren’t set up, there were no violations for hitting below the belt or using a small cudgel. As the rules were not established the fights would basically be steered by the boxers sportsmanship attitudes. Injuries were pretty standard, as was blood, but as now, the goal of the match was to beat your opponent. This was pretty much how boxing was back in the old days, till modern boxing rules and regulations started to appear. For decades there were not the regulations we see today, there were no referees, no rules, boxers were not trained collectedly. The boxers weights were not taken into account either, so a heavy weight would be fighting a lightweight, a bantam weight would be set up to fight a super heavy weight and so on.

Boxing first originated in the working class, but in time royalty and the title class were alerted to boxing fights as a point of interest. People with money became excited about the sport and began investing there own money to sponsor fights. During this time the square platform ring came into effect on a permanent basis, and the days of the spectators circling the boxers ended. Jack Brougton was the first to start instigating formal boxing rules at this time, he was actually a retired boxing champion himself. Up until 1838, Broughton’s rules as basically outlined, were followed, but a more thought out, complex and established set of rules were then enforced by the London prize rings rules. Immediately Daniel Mendoza appeared on the scene and brought about a more scientific system to boxing.

Boxing was among the most popular sports practiced in ancient Greece and was one of the former disciplines inside the Olympic Games. Romans adopted this sport as they did with almost all the Greek culture, but in Rome, the contenders wore metal protectors for fighting in order to protect their hands.The sport of boxing has been about since as early as 3000BC, but formal boxing was first recognised in the latter part of the 18th century. The ancient Greeks assumed that pugilism or fist fighting was a game that the Greek Gods took part in; this was then implemented into the Olympic Games in 688BC. The only drawback in these early times were that competitors didn’t have any padded gloves, they simply used leather bound hand coverings sometimes filled with metal, which you can imagine led to some fierce and bloody duels some even leading in battles to the death. Unfortunately fist fighting began to die away after the fall of The Romans on September 4th, 476AD, when the last Ruler of the Western Roman Empire was deposed.

In England, in the 18th century, it began to gain fans and sportsmen back to the game when it was transformed into a working man’s game during the Industrial Revolution which completely transformed the look of Britain’s agriculture. The bouts and fights in the 18th and 19th century weren’t well organised and looked a lot like savage street fights rather than the modern day performances that we witness now. The game was ultimately known as bare-knuckle boxing and the first champion was a man named James Figg back in 1719, the only trouble surrounding this was there were no rules set out, so contenders could punch their opponents below the waist and sometimes fights resulted in death.

Luckily this wouldn’t last forever and in the year 1743 Jack Broughton a heavy weight champion decided to set seven rules for how boxing should be carried out, these rules ultimately adapted and became part of the London Prize Rules and eventually the Marquess of Queensbury’s Rules which are today’s set principles. These regulations helped defend all contenders by enforcing the 30 second rule which meant if a man was down for 30 seconds or longer the fight was finished, so ultimately a downed man could not be repeatedly hit. Jack Broughton also invented the first form of padded gloves which were called mufflers; these seriously cut the total of blood and injury taken from a hit.

Progressing towards current times, one of the most significant and admired boxers of all time, and questionably the best of all time is Muhammad Ali who won the World Heavyweight Title on three occasions which makes him the only man to have done so in boxing history. There were a number of fights that can be claimed as the best of all time, but two main ones stand out. The first being in 1974 which was promoted by Don King and branded as The Rumble In The Jungle which saw one of the prime upsets in boxing history as the underdog Ali faced defending champion George Foreman, in which Ali “danced” his way to triumph. After this fight Ali was on top of his game and kept his form going as he went into the Thrilla In Manila bout against Joe Frazier and defeated him in a boxing match that Ali described as the closest he has felt to death.