Twenty Amazing Facts About Boxing

1. There are two forms of boxing – amateur and professional.

2. It is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds

3. Boxing as a sport dates back to ancient Greeks who made it part of Olympic games as early as 688 BC.

4. Onomastos Smyrnaios is the first winner in Olympic boxing of ancient Greek.

5. Boxing is also called pugilism.

6. Amateur boxing is an Olympic sport since its introduction in the 1904 Summer Olympic Games.

7. In Ancient Greek culture, the god, Apollo, was regarded as the inventor and guardian of the sport of boxing.

8. Archie Moore holds the record for most knockouts during a career — a staggering 141.

9. The result is decided when an opponent is deemed incapable to continue match by a referee or if an opponent is disqualified for breaking a rule, resigning by throwing in a towel, or by judges’ scorecards at the end of the bout.

10.  The most prolific boxer in history was Great Britain’s Len Wickwar who, between 1928 and 1947, fought 463 bouts. He also holds the records for the most wins (336) and most losses (127) of any boxer.

11. George Foreman has made more money selling his grills than for his boxing career in which he was a 2-time heavyweight champion.

12. The record for most first round KO’s is held by Wilfred Benitez.

13. The most heavyweight title defenses is 25 by Joe Louis.

14. The youngest boxer to win a title is Wilfred Benitez at 17.

15. Boxing gloves are actually more dangerous and result in more deaths than bareknuckle boxing. In fact, gloves were introduced into boxing not for safety reasons, but to increase hits to the head and dramatic knockouts.

16. In 1949, an official boxing match between a bear and a man was held. The bear won.

17. Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Robinson backed out of a fight because he had a dream that he was going to kill his opponent in the ring. After a priest and minister convinced Robinson to fight, Robinson went into the ring and killed his opponent, Jimmy Doyle.

18. Ronda Rousey, UFC Women’s bantamweight champion, claims that having a lot of sex before a match is good for female fighters because it boosts testosterone levels.

19. Boxer John Heenan got his ass handed to him so badly in an 1860 bare knuckle boxing match that they hired an artist to capture his rearranged face in oil.

20. Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali reportedly went two months without sex before a big fight, claiming it made him unbeatable in the ring.

Some good ones in there. But number 1 and 2 blew my mind!!

Fact 21: Colin Hart picked Ali to beat Foreman

Welcome habishek

21. Vitali and wladimir klitschko are brothers

Damn you Pedro, make mine 22.

Don't think number 12 is correct. Number 18 isn't a boxing fact, but clearly Rhonda needs to get laid more often.

Number 20- If true, then it appears that married men have an advantage.
Where have the Greeks gone hiding in the modern boxing landscape?

The problem with the married man theory aja is that for Ali it was  just two months. For the married man, By month 6 your footwork is hampered by your swollen nads which also make you a weight class heavier.

Greeks were the great philosophers. After much soul searching and existential angst they concluded it was better to drink Ouzo and smash plates rather than fight.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Pedant here. The last part of number 10 suggests that nobody has lost more fights than Len Wickwar. A quick google confirmed my suspicion. Look up Reggie Strickland who lost 276 times

Ronda Rousey must have been celibate for a while then..

Something I can relate to..

Great thread a lot of those were very interesting!

Fact 15 is not correct.

I think the OP is just trying to fit in....Labelling things as fact when they're not. With a bit more experience he'd have titled it 'twenty amazing FACTS about boxing.

Is 15 really not correct? I mean it serves to reason that if the reason MMA gets less Life threatening injuries than boxing in part because the gloves are lighter, rendering one knockout, concussive blow instead of 12 rounds of near concussive blows, it serves to reason then that bare knuckle would lead to even more knockouts, and thus less life threatening injuries. This of course then counteracts the second argument of 15, asbare knuckle boxing would then have more knockouts... but Whatevs

Rowley wrote:Fact 15 is not correct.

What part of it do you have issue with?

I always thought gloves were there to protect hands not heads. Bare knuckle fighters went to the body more to protect from hand injuries. That was always my understanding but I recall reading an article that claimed the guy credited with introducing them in the uk, did so for training purposes and to reduce head injuries... which counters the hand protection argument. The upshot though is, protected hands tends to mean more headshots. But was that the intent?

Back in the 1700's 'boxing' was pretty barbaric, people were maimed and killed on a regular basis... hence the introduction of London prize ring rules (whatever happened to LRR and his Larry big pants coolade diatribes) to give order to bare knuckle contests and later the marquess of Queensbury rules which introduced gloves, 3 minute rounds etc. My understanding is that these rules, of which gloves were a part were simply to try to bring some order and structure to prize fighting - a gentleman's sport - less barbaric than bare knuckles  (and seen as less manly by many of the fighters at the time).

I recall reading the reason the op gave somewhere, but was it cause or effect? And could it have been different in other countries adapting later? Who knows, I'm certainly no authority on the subject.

Whichever, Benitez is definitely not king of the 1 round ko  

kingraf wrote:Is 15 really not correct? I mean it serves to reason that if the reason MMA gets less Life threatening injuries than boxing in part because the gloves are lighter, rendering one knockout, concussive blow instead of 12 rounds of near concussive blows, it serves to reason then that bare knuckle would lead to even more knockouts, and thus less life threatening injuries. This of course then counteracts the second argument of 15, asbare knuckle boxing would then have more knockouts... but Whatevs  

MMA doesn't see as many punches though and no standing 10 count, if you are knocked out in MMA generally your done rather than taking more punishment which is dangerous when you have a concussed and swelling brain

FAKE NEWS!!!

MMA has less serious head injuries than boxing due to the fact that boxing is based around punching someone in the head...where MMA is based around grabbing someones leg and getting them in a Sharpshooter finishing move

You'd have to be a maniac to punch someone bareknuckle in the head for 12 rounds. Your hands would be a broken, bloody mess.

Less knockouts and less deaths because less punches thrown at the head.

superflyweight wrote:You'd have to be a maniac to punch someone bareknuckle in the head for 12 rounds.  Your hands would be a broken, bloody mess.    

Less knockouts and less deaths because less punches thrown at the head.  

The face has some pretty soft bones. Not as soft as muscle or fat tissue of course, but it doesn't take much pressure to break a cheek bone, or temporal bone.

I believe I've seen it discussed, and can't verify, that there are no stats to show gloves helped reduce injuries, as there is little to no evidence that the reduction from 15 to 12 rounds helped.

Whilst bare knuckle fights were poorly regulated and led to injuries, three fact they frequently went scores of rounds suggest they weren't beating each other into a pulp all the time.

My understanding was, bare knuckle fighting was more attritional and they targeted the soft tissue most, to wear the opponent down. That head punches were risky as they could lead to hand damage.

I also believed the shortening of fights simply lead to more KOs, as fighters became more muscle bound.

But I might be wrong. I can't even remember where I got this from, let alone if it's true.

I saw a documentary once with Michael Buffer, the ring announcer. He said that title fights were reduced from 15 to 12 rounds not due to safety concerns for the fighters, but because 12 round title fights were better for the TV companies as they could then fit a 12 rounder into an hour time slot. However, safety concerns were used as the reasoning behind the shortening of title fights as Kim Duk-koo had just died after fighting Ray Mancini.  

Think about it. The WBC shortened its fights in 1982, Mike Tyson was still taking part in a scheduled 15 round fight 5 years later in 1987. Clearly not everyone agreed with the shortened distance.

Kim had struggled to make........Wonderful fight though if anyone hasn't watched it...

Dehydration issues were given for the change but I remember there being a lobby at the time to keep the Heavy title 15 rounds......

Heavyweights don't need to make weight..

Scottrf wrote:

Rowley wrote:Fact 15 is not correct.

What part of it do you have issue with?

The idea gloves were introduced to increase dramatic knockouts. At the time boxing was struggling for legality, the prevailing view was it was brutal and barbaric. The idea that in such an environment those in the sport wanted to increase the number of guys getting knocked cold is at best fanciful. Gloves were introduced mainly because it was considered it would make the sport less brutal and thus more acceptable to law makers and religious groups who protested against it.