An excerpt on Renaissance boxing

I found this from someone quoting a link that is unavailable in Canada:

"The guerre di canne was banned by the end of the 16th century (although it still continued in underground brawls), only to be replaced with the guerre di pugni, mass boxing matches.

The guerre di pugni actually had more in common with Pietro Monte and other Italian Masters of Defence than it did with its weaponized cousin, the guerre di canne. The pugni fighters, while unarmed, were faster and more precise. In some battagliolie, pugni and canne fighters would end up facing each other, whether by design or by disarmament. The pugni were reportedly able to overcome the canne fighters most of the time because they were not encumbered with heavy weapons or body armor. The Venetian pugilists in particular were said to be skilled in throwing straight jabs and crosses, which apparently baffled fighters untrained in empty hand fighting. Swinging roundly, the untrained boxers were quickly put down by the Venetian pugni. Even soldiers who joined in the battagliole and were adroit in the handling of swords and spears, though not at empty-hand combat, were at a loss when faced with the accuracy of a well-practiced Italian boxer. The best of the guerre di pugni were, in their own way, a poor man’s version of a Master of Defence.

Fighting in Medieval and Renaissance Italy was as striated, it seems, as social class in general. The middle and upper echelons sought the chic, perhaps foppish approach to combat taught by the Masters of Defence, while the lower classes fought, pell-mell and in mass, in battagliole, with sticks and fists. Both groups were, perhaps, training for the version of fighting that they would most likely encounter in their lifetime. The middle and upper classes prepared for single-opponent combat and the exactitude required of fighting a gentleman’s duel. Working-class men, meanwhile, lived in congested areas, and were exposed to riots and brawls, as well as the likelihood, if conscripted, to serve as part of the infantry in Italy’s frequent wars. It was only in the sports of boxing and wrestling that class, strength, and size became secondary to the skill of the pugilist.

The Italian Renaissance not only brought about a rebirth of art, music, and culture, but also a renewed interest in the science of fighting. The Masters of Defence are remembered today as the scholars of the period, sharing their knowledge with students with the time and money to pay for their combat education. But even the poorer men of Italy experimented with combat methods, testing their fighting techniques in the laboratory of the street fight rather than the controlled sparring of a fencing school. And they all seemed to have come, in their own way, to the same conclusion. That skill can triumph strength and brains can beat brawn. And that boxing may be the great equalizer."