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History of boxing
Boxing was accepted as an Olympic sport in the ancient Greece. At first, each bout between two contestants was brutal and usually resulted in death of one of them. Without any rules in place, this was not such a noble game, as it would become after 1719, when American James Figg established a boxing academy on Tottenham Court Road in London. Figg would become the first world boxing champion in history of the game. Fighters fought each other barefisted and with no specific rules. British Jack Broughton, who in 1730 replaced Figg, had held his championship title for 18 years and was the first to devise the rules in order to give fighters a certain amount of protection. Moved by the death of one of his opponents (George Stevenson), he proposed the bout to end the moment one of the fighter fell down and was unable to get up for 30 seconds. Boxing gloves, the basic tool of each fighter, were introduced in 1881. In 1916 a decision was made, which limited the fight to 15 three-minute rounds and introduced a one-minute break. As an amateur sport, boxing has a special place in the Olympic traditions. It appeared in the 1994 Olympic Games in St Louis and was absent from the Olympics only once due to the ban on this sport in Antwerp (1920). In 1946 the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) was founded, which at the present moment has 186 members and has been organizing the World Championships since 1974. Even if the sport is not among the most important Olympic games, it has there a very special place. Many world heavyweight champions have won their first significant fights during the Olympic Games - Muhammad Ali (known also as Cassius Clay) was one of them. The others include the Sprinks brothers (Michael and Leon), Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Even the current champion Lennox Lewis appeared in Seoul in 1988, where he won the Olympic Gold medal for Canada. Despite many changes (supervision, boxer preparation, medical care), accidents in this sport are not uncommon, which does not improve its image. For this reason, the IOC have planned several times to remove this game from the Olympics, especially after a series of scandals involving referees and judges. Frequently occurring injuries also don't contribute to the proper image of this game, and fatalities surely have a devastating effect. Muhammad Ali is the best example. He suffers from Parkinson disease induced by his fights. Despite many negative aspects, boxing invokes the oldest of all human instincts - self-preservation. It will always remain one of the most popular sports.
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- Boxing
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