Professor Chuck Marbry
DON’T NEED TO HOLD HANDS TO FOLLOW PROFESSOR
Liberty, NC– The rules that govern boxing today have a long and storied history. First put together in Britain in 1866 by a patron of pugilism, the 9th Marquis of Queensberry, John Douglass, along with Lord Lonsdale and lightweight boxer Arthur Chambers, these rules were intentionally designed to reform the prize ring. This set of rules intentionally borrowed heavily from the standard understood rules that sparring followed in that day; no wrestling or holds, no kicking, biting, or gouging, no backhands, only straight forward punching, hooks, and uppercuts, above the waist were allowed.
MUFFLERS WERE WHAT THE GLOVES WERE CALLED
The fighters were to wear “mufflers” or gloves, three minute rounds with a one minute rest in between rounds along with a ten second count-out were instituted. Under the old London Prize Ring rules prior to the Queensberry rules, rounds averaged only around 90 seconds, and of course sometimes much less, and a fallen fighter had 30 seconds to recover. No limits was set on the number of rounds. The new rules did, however, allow for the ring to be constructed indoors, which all previous rules forbade, as the ring had to be set upon “turf.”
PROFESSOR SAYS WORLD HAS GOT IT WRONG FOR 145 YEARS!
What these new rules also did was to dramatically change boxing’s tempo as well as style. The popular notion today that these new rules were implemented to make the sport more safe is just as wrong now as it was in 1866, as nothing could be further from the truth. Gloves protect hands more than heads. Gloves add weight to each punch. Gloves allow a fighter to throw countless blows to very hard but dangerous places to punch such as the head, jaw, and temple. In bare knuckle boxing the punches tend to be fewer altogether, but especially to the head, but the punches tend to be more accurate. Also without gloves or wraps, a fighter who punches too hard or too often or too carelessly to the head or jaw runs the risk of breaking his hands. However, with wraps and gloves, a fighter can throw punches in bunches to the head with relative impunity to the hand, but not to the receivers brain.
AND ABOUT THE GOOD OLE’ TEN COUNT
The Queensberry rules also encourages more viciously and dangerous punches because the 10 second count-out made it easier to punch one’s opponent into a 10 second state of inability than a 30 second state of inability. And, “unfortunately, gloved fists and an emphasis on knockouts increases the likelihood that fighters would become brain-damaged over a long career, for the trauma of repeated concussions had a cumulative effect, producing lesions that resulted in the ‘punch drunk’ (I hate that term) syndrome. In a word, boxing might look a bit less brutal (with the adoption of wraps and gloves over bare knuckle boxing. but in fact became more dangerous.”*
REFEREES IMPLEMENTED IN BOXING GAME
Something else happened with the adoption of the Queensberry rules; the control of the pace of the fight was now firmly out of the hands of the fighters. With the referee now in the ring and in charge of the action, instead of enforcing “fair play” from outside the ring as before, the fighters could no longer control the pace, rest or fight as by “mutual [tacit] consent” as Teddy Atlas likes to say, as now the referee is in the ring urging, insisting on constant action, as the new rules emphasized dramatic and often dangerous blows. And as a result, the fighters were becoming less independent and free agent and more and more dependent to and on the whims of the managers and promoters.
AGAIN, DON’T BE FOOLED BY MEDIA SHUNNING BARE KNUCKLE CONCEPT
So while the Queensberry rules seem more “scientific” and more “safe” what they actually did was intensify the action and violence while putting a facade of safety over the violence, since the main damage was moved from the visual outside to the “invisible” inside. The most lasting impact of the modern rules has been that it has had the effect not of making the sport more safe, but making us feel better about it, and at the same time making it more acceptable for “polite society.” As has been said, “Nobody ever died in a bare knuckle bout.”
Professor Chuck Marbry