Boxing
Boxing, also called prizefighting (when referring to professional boxing), the sweet science (a common nickname among fans) or the gentleman's sport (used mainly in England), is a sport and martial art in which two participants of similar weight classification fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called "rounds". In both Olympic and professional divisions, the combatants (called boxers or fighters) avoid their opponent's punches while trying to land punches of their own. Points are awarded for clean, solid blows to the legal area on the front of the opponent's body above the waistline, with hits to the head and torso being especially valuable. The fighter with the most points after the scheduled number of rounds is declared the winner. Victory may also be achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed too injured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). For record-keeping purposes, a TKO is usually counted as a knockout when calculating the total knockouts. A TKO can occur at any time.
Origins
Boxing most likely was invented in various cultures independently and had their origins in prehistorical periods.Archaeological evidence suggests boxing existed in Africa as early as 4000 BC with the earliest visual evidence for boxing appearing in Sumerian relief carvings from the 3rd millennium BC. The earliest evidence for it in the Mediterranean was around 1500 BC.
A mythical Greek ruler named Theseus, said to have lived around the 9th century BC, allegedly invented a form of boxing in which two men sat face to face and beat each other with their fists until one of them was killed. In time, the boxers began to fight while standing and wearing gloves (with spikes) and wrappings on their arms below the elbows, although otherwise they competed naked.
First accepted as an Olympic sport (the ancient Greeks called it Pygme/ Pygmachia) in 688 BC, participants trained on punching bags (called a korykos). Fighters wore leather straps (called himantes) over their hands, wrists, and sometimes breast, to protect them from injury. The straps left their fingers free.
In China in the Zhou Dynasty 12th Century B.C., Shuai jiao, a form of wrestling that included boxing, was recorded in the Classic of Rites.This combat system included techniques such as strikes, throws, joint manipulation, and pressure point attacks.
Forms of boxing are mentioned in early Buddhist sources. In the Lotus Sutra (Chapter 14), Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC) refers to boxing while speaking to Manjusri. Another early Buddhist sutra Hongyo-kyo describes a boxing contest between Gautama Buddha's half-brother Prince Nanda and his cousin Devadatta. The boxing martial art of Vajra Mushti was described in the Buddharata Sutra, written in the 5th century,though it was used by the Hindu Kshatriya caste centuries earlier.
In ancient Rome, fighters were usually criminals and slaves who hoped to become champions and gain their freedom; however, free men also fought. Eventually, fist fighting became so popular that even aristocrats started fighting, but the practice was eventually banned by the caesar Augustus. In 500 A.D., the sport was banned altogether by christian Theodoric the Great.
Olympic boxing
A mythical Greek ruler named Theseus, said to have lived around the 9th century BC, allegedly invented a form of boxing in which two men sat face to face and beat each other with their fists until one of them was killed. In time, the boxers began to fight while standing and wearing gloves (with spikes) and wrappings on their arms below the elbows, although otherwise they competed naked.
First accepted as an Olympic sport (the ancient Greeks called it Pygme/ Pygmachia) in 688 BC, participants trained on punching bags (called a korykos). Fighters wore leather straps (called himantes) over their hands, wrists, and sometimes breast, to protect them from injury. The straps left their fingers free.
In China in the Zhou Dynasty 12th Century B.C., Shuai jiao, a form of wrestling that included boxing, was recorded in the Classic of Rites.This combat system included techniques such as strikes, throws, joint manipulation, and pressure point attacks.
Forms of boxing are mentioned in early Buddhist sources. In the Lotus Sutra (Chapter 14), Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC) refers to boxing while speaking to Manjusri. Another early Buddhist sutra Hongyo-kyo describes a boxing contest between Gautama Buddha's half-brother Prince Nanda and his cousin Devadatta. The boxing martial art of Vajra Mushti was described in the Buddharata Sutra, written in the 5th century,though it was used by the Hindu Kshatriya caste centuries earlier.
In ancient Rome, fighters were usually criminals and slaves who hoped to become champions and gain their freedom; however, free men also fought. Eventually, fist fighting became so popular that even aristocrats started fighting, but the practice was eventually banned by the caesar Augustus. In 500 A.D., the sport was banned altogether by christian Theodoric the Great.
Olympic boxing
Olympic (or Amateur) boxing is found at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. Olympic boxing has point scoring system rather than physical damage or knockouts. Bouts comprise of four rounds of two minutes in Olympic and Commonwealth, and three rounds of two minutes in a national ABA (Amateur Boxing association) bout, each with a one-minute interval between rounds, but more recently the rounds are decided by the coaches and the timing is dependent on the age group.Competitors wear protective headgear and gloves with a white strip across the knuckle. A punch is considered a scoring punch only when the boxers connect with the white portion of the gloves. Each punch that lands on the head or torso is awarded a point. A referee monitors the fight to ensure that competitors use only legal blows (a belt worn over the torso represents the lower limit of punches - any boxer repeatedly landing "low blows" (below the belt) is disqualified). Referees also ensure that the boxers don't use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging (if this occurs, the referee separates the opponents and orders them to continue boxing. Repeated holding can result in a boxer being penalized, or ultimately, disqualified). Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced.
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