In ancient Greece, boxer performed at Olympic Games and other public games. Some of their rules matched with our present rules, but they wore the ‘cestus’ instead of gloves. Cestus was a wrapping of leather studded with lead of bronze plates, and a blow from it could be quite damaging.
After the fall of Roman Empire, boxing disappeared. It was revived in England at the beginning of 18th Century. It remained quite a fashionable sport for more than 100 years. The fights were decided with bare fists. Wrestling and throwing were allowed. A round ended only when a man was knocked down, and the interval between rounds varied. The fight continued till one of the fighters was unable to walk up to a chalk mark at the centre of the ring when a round began!
The kind of brutal boxing turned public opinion against prize fighting. To save the sport, old rules were made more and more humane and padded gloves began to be used. In 1867, the Marquis of Queensberry introduced an improved set of rules, which brought boxing back into favour. For example, the rounds were limited to three minutes each with one minute interval between them. These rules were adopted throughout the world and the rules governing boxing today are based on them. The boxing has spreaded, from England and the United States, all over the world.
