Different eras of the sport have been recognized by the utilization or nonuse of clench fist covers. The Ancient Greeks believed fist fighting was a game played by the gods on Olympus; along these lines it turned out to be played in the Olympic Games around 688 BC. Homer has a reference to boxing in the Iliad. During Roman times the sport started to blossom with a wide scale (Katz). Boxers battled with cowhide groups around their clenched fists for insurance and once in awhile wore metal-filled, calfskin hand covers called cesti, resulting in bloody, often duel-to-death, battles. The game's fame declined after the fall of the Roman Empire (Leuven). In any case, it was brought back to England in the eighteenth century as an uncovered knuckle prize fight in which the competitors battled for cash and observers made wagers on who would win the battle. This turned out to be popular during the championship reign of James Figg, who held the heavyweight title from 1719 through 1730. Boxing turned into a workingman's sport during the Industrial Revolution as prizefights pulled in members and observers from the common laborers. Association was insignificant to start with and the bouts of those eras resembled street fights more than modern boxing. Boxers battled without rounds until one man was thumped out, or conceded he had been beaten. There were no rules against hitting an adversary when he was down. There were no weight classes inside the mens' and young men's divisions; rivals for a match were picked haphazardly. Rather than gloves, antiquated boxers wrapped cowhide thongs around their hands and wrists which left their fingers free ("Ancient Sports:
Different eras of the sport have been recognized by the utilization or nonuse of clench fist covers. The Ancient Greeks believed fist fighting was a game played by the gods on Olympus; along these lines it turned out to be played in the Olympic Games around 688 BC. Homer has a reference to boxing in the Iliad. During Roman times the sport started to blossom with a wide scale (Katz). Boxers battled with cowhide groups around their clenched fists for insurance and once in awhile wore metal-filled, calfskin hand covers called cesti, resulting in bloody, often duel-to-death, battles. The game's fame declined after the fall of the Roman Empire (Leuven). In any case, it was brought back to England in the eighteenth century as an uncovered knuckle prize fight in which the competitors battled for cash and observers made wagers on who would win the battle. This turned out to be popular during the championship reign of James Figg, who held the heavyweight title from 1719 through 1730. Boxing turned into a workingman's sport during the Industrial Revolution as prizefights pulled in members and observers from the common laborers. Association was insignificant to start with and the bouts of those eras resembled street fights more than modern boxing. Boxers battled without rounds until one man was thumped out, or conceded he had been beaten. There were no rules against hitting an adversary when he was down. There were no weight classes inside the mens' and young men's divisions; rivals for a match were picked haphazardly. Rather than gloves, antiquated boxers wrapped cowhide thongs around their hands and wrists which left their fingers free ("Ancient Sports: