Oct 5th, 2014: Boxing

[xoxoxoBruce]

Boxing has always been sort of brutal. The Romans/Greeks boxed with bare knuckles or leather straps, then the Gladiators, or should I say their handlers... you know, the ones not actually in the ring, added metal pieces to the leather. Gotta have blood to please an increasingly demanding crowd. Then Flavius Arcadius Augustus, who was a wus, banned boxing completely around 400, but of course in Italy it was still done in the back room with the girly shows and cock fights.

In the 17th Century the Brits revived it as bareknuckle prizefighting. Talk about brutal, no real rules, last man standing, would sometimes go on for hours. Then in 1867, the Marquess of Queensberry rules were drafted by John Chambers. Now why did a Welshman put a Scots' name on them? Supposedly because they were published under the patronage of the Marquess. I don't believe that because I heard the Marquess, who's name was Willie, had to take a job as groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School.

Anyway, these rules and the continuing development of the glove were supposed to make boxing more civilized, so when I saw this colorized picture, which has been floating around the net lately, I assumed it was an early, dozens of rounds, knock down brawl.


When men were men and blood was brownish.

But the size of the gloves confused me so I went digging and discovered it was 1913, they are Lightweights, and it was a 15 round decision. Also, the bigger gloves protected the hands so they could hit harder and more often... as well as hiding bigger horseshoes.



Hmm, Campbell and Hyland... damn Scots ruin it for everyone.