Page 106 - Doug Werner Boxer's Start-Up

Chapter Eleven:
History

Love & Hate in America,
Amateurs vs. Pros
& the Champs

Ancient Stuff
Art from ancient Egypt and Crete shows athletic looking
fellows throwing what appear to be punches at each
other. The Greeks refined the pursuit and included
boxing in their Olympic Games. Art on vases and sculp-
ture as well as extensive tournament records reveal a
highly sophisticated sport that included great cham-
pions and epic fights, organized and refereed matches,
hand wraps (maybe even gloves) and perhaps the begin-
ning of modern punching technique.

Rome took up the sport with a nasty twist. The hand
wraps were studded to inflict immediate and lethal
harm.One clean punch and it was over.Boxing in Rome
was a gladiator event pursued by slaves for the blood
lust of those in the stadium seats. Needless to say, these
events didn’t encourage technique,refinement or sports-
manship.What little science gained was lost.And like a
lot of things that first appeared in ancient Greece and
Rome, boxing disappeared for a very, very long time.

From Swords to Knuckles
The sport finally reappeared in England in the early
1700s. Curiously, boxing was cultivated in the fencing
establishments which were very big then (all gentlemen
learned how to fence). Boxing was considered the
“gentle”art of self defense (fists being gentler than steel)
and often taught by the same master.The influence of

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