The gloves were actually originally developed to protect the hands, not the opponent's face/body. From what I've heard and read, anyway.
Yes and it appears that encouraged more extended combination punching and flurries because you didn't need to exercise as much caution to land at the vital points, for example you could hit a harder body surface with less fear of injury. Perhaps that impelled the shift away from focusing on the mark and toward striking upstairs? There are a number of ways that gloved boxing is not ideal for bareknuckle boxing.
In the long run its actually safer- KOs will be quicker which means less overall brain damage. More fighters will acquire wrist and hand injuries however as a result... who knows...
****ing idiots need emergency personnel on the scene. That first guy did a face plant and laid there, then got up wobbling all over. He could be seriously ****ed up like that. Greg Page (October 25, 1958 April 27, 2009)[1] was a boxer from Louisville, Kentucky. He was the World Boxing Association Heavyweight Champion from 1984 to 1985. His professional record was 58-17-1 with 48 knockouts, defeating many fighteres including James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Tim Witherspoon. Page was a regular sparring partner for Mike Tyson, famously knocking the champ down in a 1990 session. On March 9, 2001, Page fought Dale Crowe and in the tenth round Crowe hit Page with a flush left to the chin and then pushed him back. Page fell against the ropes, slid down, and was counted out by the referee. What followed was chaos. There wasn't an ambulance, a team of paramedics, or oxygen. Twenty-two minutes passed before an ambulance arrived. Page was taken to the emergency room where a CT scan revealed a huge mass being formed by the bleeding inside his head. During post-fight brain surgery, he suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed on the left side of his body. Page was in a coma for nearly a week. For the rest of his life, Page suffered many complications from his injury and was hospitalized numerous times. In the early morning hours of April 27, 2009, Page died.
I think bare-knuckle boxing would produce more facial damage, but less knockouts. I think gloves cause more knockouts. More blunt force, right?
Could grab some fans back from MMA. UFC might have to stop promoting it's brand as, "as real as it gets". Bare-knuckle fighting is the realist form of fightng
Bare knuckle boxing would be cool but I think small gloves would be better. Just so the boxers don't get poked in the eyes with fingers.
No that same skill is not on display, the boxing glove adds greatly to boxing, it allows parrys blocking and a whole raft of other things that is not possible with bare fist. Also forget any good level of combo punching at all.
agreed that the skills are very different. Bareknuckle defense seems to have alot of pinning or trapping the arm against the body, jamming the arm, sweeping it away or cutting it with the forearm, etc. which is why you have to extend your arms out to intercept instead of keeping a tight guard. Lack of combo punching, and far more focus on body punching. Alot more wrestling and throwing-down from the clinch too. I hope to see what modern developments in punch defense and in-chancery might evolve in comparison to the techniques known historically.