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Boxing (or pugilism) is a combat sport of English origin in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. Victory is achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed too injured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). If there is no stoppage of the fight before an agreed number of rounds, a winner is determined either by the referee's decision or by judges' scorecards.

In some countries with their own fighting sports, the sport is referred to as "English Boxing" (e.g. in France to contrast with French Boxing).

Origins:

Fist-fighting for sport probably arose independently in various prehistoric cultures. [13] Archaeological evidence indicates that Berbers and Egyptians may have practiced the sport as early as 3000 BC, and boxing is depicted in Sumerian relief carvings from the third millennium BC. The earliest evidence for boxing in the Mediterranean can be found in the Minoan civilization (c. 1500 BC).

The ancient Greeks, and later the ancient Romans, had a sport called 'pugilism' (a term now often used for boxing) which resembled boxing. It contrasted with ancient Greek wrestling in that it was based on the use of fists.

Unlike modern boxing, there were no weight classes, fights were not separated into rounds, and the fight had no time limit, ending at a knockout, or at a fighter abandoning the fight, or sometimes (though rarely) at the death of one of the fighters. Instead of gloves, fighters wrapped their hands in strips of hardened leather which protected the fist and caused unpleasant injuries for the opponent. Long fights were decided by an alternation of free punches, with the first to strike a free punch being decided by tossing a coin.

According to the Iliad, Mycenaean warriors included boxing among their competitions honoring the fallen, though it is possible that the Homeric epics reflect later Greek culture. Another Greek legend holds that the heroic ruler Theseus, said to have lived around the 9th century BC, invented a form of boxing in which two men sat face to face and beat each other with their fists until one of them was killed. In time, the boxers began to fight while standing and wearing gloves (with spikes) and wrappings on their arms below the elbows, although otherwise they competed naked.

Boxing was first accepted as an Olympic sport (the ancient Greeks called it Pygme/ Pygmachia) in 688 BC. Participants trained on punching bags (called a korykos). Fighters wore leather straps (called himantes) over their hands, wrists, and sometimes breast, to protect them from injury. The straps left their fingers free. Legend had it that the Spartans were the first to box as a way to prepare for sword and shield fighting.

Weight Classes