Rules written in 1867
For centuries prize fighting was done with bare fists, with no fixed number of ROUND sections and a round lasting until someone went down. In 1867 a set of rules was published in London that changed the sport. They became known as the Queensberry Rules, after the Marquess of Queensberry who backed them, though they were written by a sportsman called John Graham Chambers.
The rules brought in padded GLOVES, rounds of three minutes with a minute's rest between them, and the ten-second count: a boxer knocked down had ten seconds to get up or lose by KNOCKOUT. Wrestling holds were banned. Those basics still shape the sport, from amateur clubs to world TITLE fights.
Boxers are also divided into weight classes, so that each fights someone of about the same size. Some of the names are old and odd: bantamweight comes from the bantam, a small breed of chicken, and flyweight and featherweight explain themselves. Boxing has been an Olympic sport since 1904, apart from the 1912 Games in Stockholm, because Swedish law banned it.
The punches in the grid
Boxing has only a few punches, and the skill is in combining them. The JAB is a quick, straight punch with the front hand, used to measure distance and set up others. The CROSS is a straight punch with the back hand, thrown across the body. A HOOK swings round from the side, and an UPPERCUT comes up from below the chin. Putting several together is a COMBO.
A SOUTHPAW is a boxer who leads with the right hand and right foot, usually because they are left-handed. The word is thought to come from American baseball, where some ballparks were laid out so that a left-handed pitcher's throwing arm faced south. Good FOOTWORK, moving in and out of range, matters as much as punching.
A dentist and a mouthguard
A MOUTHGUARD protects the teeth and helps cushion blows to the jaw. The first ones are usually credited to a London dentist, Woolf Krause, in the 1890s, who made them from gutta-percha, a rubbery tree sap. For years they were optional; now every boxer must wear one.
HEADGEAR tells a similar story of changing ideas. Amateur boxers wore padded headguards for decades, but elite men's Olympic boxing dropped them in 2016 after studies suggested they did not prevent concussion and might encourage heavier blows. Women's boxing first appeared at the Olympics in London in 2012.
In the ring
The RING is not round at all: it is a square, roped platform with a padded floor called the CANVAS. Each boxer has a CORNER, where the TRAINER gives advice and first aid between rounds. The BELL starts and ends each round (professional title fights run to twelve rounds, amateur bouts to three), and the REFEREE separates boxers who CLINCH, holding on to each other to stop punches.
Boxers train for years with SPARRING partners before a real BOUT. Our Rocky page covers the most famous boxing film of all, based on a real underdog.
Sparring gloves are usually heavier and softer than the ones used in a fight, and amateur boxers score points for clean punches landed with the knuckle part of the glove, not for knockdowns alone.