FROM THE BEGINNING

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1935, Page 18

FROM THE BEGINNING

HISTORY OF BOXING RULES

The present enthusiasm for boxing in Australia where, in marked contrast to New Zealand, the sport is enjoying something of a boom, has prompted Jim Mathers in the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" to trace the history of the rules governing ioxing contests. 'Like most other things (he writes), boxing has changed through the ages. In ancient times it was thei custom to wear gloves with spiked knuckles, and later on slabs of lead and iron were attached. This, no doubt provoked the I legend that boxing is "the most ■ brutal i form of .sport." ." J. : We are told in the Bible that Cain and Abel had a regular set-to, but we have to come to 900 iB.C. before we find any reference to the first fight promoter, who was none . other than Theseus, son of Aegus,' King of Athens. Theseus armed gladiators, who sat nose to nose and punched "away until one or both of them was sent to the morgue. Theagenee, of* Thasos, killed no fewer than 1425 gladiatorial opponents. '■ ..':■';■ .". ' ","■ ■•■■■" '.;.;. , SPORT BECOMES REFINED. After the' conquest of Greece by Rome, the sport seems to have taken on a little refinement, and it became a star item, not only on fete days; but also at all funeral ceremonies. * Patroclus was given a; gr^nd; burial, in which two "naked-fighters,: Epeus 'and Eurydlusi; whacked away at ,eaqh other with thick leather gloves tied at the upper arm with thongs. ■'... , . ■ . Cestus warfare was waged for/ hundreds of years in Greece and Rome, and we have now to approach the thirteenth century before we find any record of bare-fisted fighting. It, was in 1201 A.D. that a famous monk, St. Bernadine, taught the ■ hot-headed youths to settle their differences riot in brutal encounter, but "in the art of boxing up an opponent." To this revered saint lies the honour of being the first match-maker. Apart from these classical allusions to the sport of boxing, we find that the game"in its modern sense really began in the seventeenth century. BUTLER v. BUTCHER. The "London Protestant Mercury" of 1681 has the following paragraph: