Back To The Primitive: Boxing In Its Purest Form Is Two Gladiators Going To War.

:deal Exactly. People do what is effective. In most kinds of combat you are more likely to win if you actually use your brain and have good offence and good defence. Therefore I think it's likely that people in general always have tried to fight smart and always will.

 

But boxing wasn't boxing till the Marquis of Queensberry rules were codified. The new rules created a sport that was previously only vague fighting competition. Boxing was further embraced in the Age of Enlightenment because that was a) a time of peace, b) a time when the use of the mind was held in high esteem, and c) when the concept of personal improvement was widely embraced. So it was open soil for a departure from primitive fighting spectacle towards a more refined, civilised martial art. From here, defensive techniques were developed that wouldn't have been thought of at an earlier time or without the imposed limits of the Marquis of Queensberry rules.

As long as boxing involves punching someone you can embrace its brutal side if you want. But as long as the best boxers are those who use their mind rather than their insincts I think the mental aspect of avoiding being hit is what makes boxing boxing.

 

I was joking..

Edit: Would not mind 15 round world title fights though.

Maybe I will add emoticons like everyone else to show when I joke...

 

Wonderful! After that historical ****ysis of european martial arts I understand why so many white fighters are palookas, journeymen, and rock em sock em robots. The successful european fighters inevitably get a trainer versed in the "American" (Black) style of boxing to become skilled.

 

If you read the ancient epics of Homer, Virgil, or Statius the boxing technique sounds a lot like our own. Their verse describes large powerful men being overcome by other more agile men who use lateral movement, ducking, and straight punches. We also have records of famous undefeated fighters like Melankomas of Caria, victor of the 207th Olympiad, who is said to have never hit an opponent or been hit by them, preferring to rely on defensive tactics until his competitors tired and admitted defeat. Boxing was hardly invented by the Marquis of Queenberry.

The Enlightenment era must have a great publicist. I suppose you could call it "a time of peace" if it weren't for the Great Northern War, the War of the Spanish Succession, The Silesian Wars, The Seven Years War, American Revolutionary War, or the French Revolutionary War. You could call it a time when the mind was held in high esteem if maybe 90 percent of the continent weren't illiterate, or things like magic and the occult weren't studied as seriously as physics.

The best boxers are those who use their mind and body to deal the most damage to their opponent while minimizing the harm being done to them. Roberto Duran, Mike Tyson, James Toney, Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Joe Louis, Archie Moore, Roy Jones Jr, Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Ruben Olivares. Those are the best pure boxers.