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Boxing

The sweet science.

Boxing is only fists — and that makes it deep. Jab, cross, hook and uppercut, footwork and head movement decide everything.

Fact file

Country
United Kingdom
Type
Striking
Main federation
International Boxing Association — IBA
Sources: World Boxing · International Olympic Committee · Encyclopaedia Britannica

History

Boxing is one of the oldest sports: it was in the ancient Olympic Games from 688 BC. The modern sport was born in 18th-century England as bare-knuckle prize-fighting. Jack Broughton wrote the first rules in 1743, and the London Prize Ring Rules followed in 1838.

In 1867 the Queensberry Rules, written by John Graham Chambers and backed by the Marquess of Queensberry, brought gloves, three-minute rounds and the ten-second count. Boxing has been in the modern Olympics since 1904 — except Stockholm 1912, as Sweden banned it — and women's boxing joined at London 2012.