Wrestling Observer Awards History
Wrestling Observer Awards History
Boxing: an ancient tradition, a necessary skill
Obviously, no one knows when the fight took place the first, nor have much of a clue when the art of smacking people in the face began to be codified, written rules, judges and evaluators brought in but we do know that boxing seems to be an inalienable of human culture, celebrated through the hardest and refining alike.
In fact, the art of boxing challenges these words: "raw" and "refined." On one hand, is a display of naked physical aggression, the kind of thing that often (and rightly), hoping to avoid, contain or sublimated through things like law, ethics, community norms, and diplomacy. On the other hand, reflects a real boxer set of rules that are themselves highly refined, a code of honor, both written and unwritten. Boxing is not a moral free for all in which two predators of Darwin trying to kill each other. For example, if a bit well-known boxer off the ear of an opponent in a fight to the late 90s, was widely perceived betrayed (not shown) sport.
The ritualization of the basis of the fight seems to have started quite early in history. Archaeologist EA Speiser (which became part of the work done definitive research on the book of Genesis) found, in 1927, an Iraqi Tablet showing two men about to Duke It Out - a table attests to a sport that involves as expected and observed Trompón ritualized, and probably up to seven thousand years ago. Literary works in India and ancient Greece, including the Hindu epic the Ramayana and the Iliad and the Greek Mahabhrata - attest to the presence Boxing in those cultures.
The Greeks and Romans brought boxing to a science level, the institutionalization of rules and awarding prizes, but not yet were fighting what might be considered civilized: contests sometimes ended in death. In later Roman culture, boxing in gladiatorial combat was one of the only ways to free some slaves and criminals: if you have won, they were free. (This social agreement can remind some readers of how boxing in United States has, at times, is one of relatively few economic opportunities of poor people of certain ethnic groups - a situation that the large black writer Ralph Ellison attacks, with all the energy of a boxer, in the first chapter of the novel Invisible Man, 1952).
The violence of the Greco-Roman Boxing tendency to end one of the two fighters dead - were to be banned in 500 CE, with Theodoric the Great, arguing that a sport that literally mutilate its participants is an insult to God (whose image, according to which Rome had adopted Christianity, reflects on the human face).
Boxing survived in a database underground, enjoying a major resurgence in eighteenth century England. This time, the various authorities tried to regulate the sport to prevent permanent injury or death. Heavyweight champion Jack Broughton introduced the practice of having thirty after a coup de grace in 1743, and also forbidden to beat a person who is down.
The Marquis of Queensbury rules, established in 1867, basically define modern boxing: it introduces the idea of three minute rounds, the gloves and mandate of ten second counts, and prohibits wrestling moves (think of the combined control-and-boxing contest between Hulk Hogan and Rocky Rocky III starts).
These changes have not only kept alive boxers, boxers forced to think strategically boxing could no longer be simply a competition to blows, but a subtle psychological warfare that largely could outthink the opponent.
For the first time, you could win by a decision point rather than a straight to round. Boxing became more of a thinking person's sport, and great ring strategists and head warriors of modern boxing followed: Muhammed Ali, Lennox Lewis, etc. (This intellectualization of the sport may also led to the love story of twentieth century writers and boxing: Hemingway, Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates has written his love for a good fight. FX Toole built a body of work on it, including the history of Million Dollar Baby is based. To cite a more recent example, the writer Emily Votruba brilliantly considers women's boxing in his essay "The violent season.")
Boxing is not for everyone. For violence, and for the dynamics sociological some consider questionable (see above), remains controversial. However, there are some indications that everyone should probably consider:
1) Keep your dukes. Elbows should cover its chest, and fingers, if not beat his opponent, must be supported in their cheeks (not close, but against them), where can block a blow.
2) to throw a punch, keep your elbow in. Let your elbow swing outward dilutes the strength of the punch. You want his arm flung as straightforwardly as possible. As your blow out, turn the knuckle.
3) When you strike with the left, dropping his head behind his shoulder to keep your face protected.
4) Do not extend your arm all the way - stop the blow when the arm is below full extension.
All that is, in practice, very difficult to do - and we have not said anything about feet! (The feet should be shoulder width apart and perpendicular, and only his head and shoulders, not its trunk, should be facing your opponent in the head at every step, keep your weight on the back foot, and the reverse goes backwards, keeping a distance constant opponent, etc.) We have not said anything about double-or triple combos. So the last rule is: practice!
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