Boxers

“ If it be objected that the destruction of so vast a number of Boxers is impracticable, I venture to reply that the present situation has been entirely brought about by a few ringleaders, and that the majority of the Boxers are simply ignorant peasantry. ”

“ Some of our amateur fencers, single-stick players, and boxers, we have no reason to be ashamed of. Boxing is rough play, but not too rough for a hearty young fellow. Anything is better than this white-blooded degeneration to which we all tend. ”

“ He was an ex-amateur champion of England, and one of the best judges of boxing in the world.
The gong sounded as a signal to clear the ring, and the cluster of seconds each side made a leisurely exit through the ropes. For a moment the two boxers were left sitting on their respective stools facing each other across the brilliantly lighted arena. Then came another clang, and with a simultaneous movement they leaped lightly to their feet, and advanced swiftly but cautiously towards the centre.
To any one sufficiently pagan to admire the human form they made a pleasing and effective picture. ”

“ I hope the Reader will thank me if I inform him that this advantageous capability to receive blows without minding them, is technically called by Boxers, a Bottom: at least as it seems from certain publications of those days when the art of boxing was encouraged by the Public in a higher degree than it is at present. ”

“ At last preliminaries are arranged, and the boxers face each other in the ring. They may kick, and they may slap with open hand, but not with closed fist. As soon as a drop of blood is drawn from the slightest scratch, the fight is at an end. ”

“ In a famous Greek painting of boxers, one of the men stands with his left foot and hand advanced, his left arm slightly bent, and his right arm held across his lower chest, in fact, just as Fitzsimmons or Corbett would stand when expecting a blow. In the beginning of the contest, the boxer was sparing of his strength and preferred to assume the defensive position, and so wear out his opponent. It was, of course, considered a merit for a boxer to conquer without receiving wounds. ”

“ The boxers advance side-ways, changing the side at every pace, with one arm stretched fully out before, the other behind; and holding a piece of cord in one hand, which they wrap firmly about it, when they find an antagonist, or else have done so before they enter. ”

“ Photo: “Sport and General.”
Georges Carpentier and Jack Dempsey.
193
CHAPTER XIII
LITTLE MEN
From the spectator’s point of view much of the interest of boxing (and almost all of it in amateur boxing) , is purely dramatic. You can thoroughly enjoy—at least I can, and there are others—a really good fight apart from any science that may be displayed. For enjoyment of skill alone is in another dimension. Of course, there must always be enough science to enable the boxers to fight cleanly and tidily and without the appearance of two angry windmills. ”

“ Imperial edicts have favoured the Boxers, ‘those loyal subjects who cultivate athletics for the protection of their families, and who bind together different villages for the purpose of mutual protection.’ In this association, affiliated with other secret societies, it was sought to discover a prop for the dynasty both at home and abroad. ”

“ It is not to be doubted that the Greek boxers attained to a high degree of skill in countering and parrying. No awkward or unskilled athletes were allowed to appear at the Olympian or other national games, where boxing was one of the five principal exercises. At the Olympian games, the order was leaping, running, throwing, boxing, wrestling. ”

“ It is very amusing, when you think of it, how the lovers of boxing have always made implicit apologies for the sport by drawing attention to the extrinsic merits of its exponents. It is perfectly true that far more professional boxers have been blacksmiths or porters or dockers—“working-men,” in fact—than bank clerks 128 or actors, but at this time of day such comparisons are surely irrelevant.
What matters most to us now is that Corbett was a first-rate boxer. ”

“ The appellants argue that the 'physical identity of the products here would seem necessarily to put them in one and the same market.' They say that any boxing contest, whether championship or not, always includes one ring, two boxers and one referee, fighting under the same rules before a greater or lesser number of spectators either present at ringside or through the facilities of television, radio, or moving pictures. ”

“ The strength of the nation may be said to depend upon its horses, rifle shots, swimmers, tennis champions, boxers, and, of course, cricket players. I have tried to make these people constantly better—and, in my small way, I have succeeded.”
“I like boxing,” admitted the sculptor.
“I had believed you would,” said Gavin. “At the moment boxing is my own principal interest. That is one of the reasons why I have come to talk with you. Unfortunately few people in New York have ever seen a boxing match. ”

“ The modern Englishman claims for his country the invention of the art of boxing, at least with skill and bare hands.
"James Figg was the father of boxing," says "The History of British Boxing," and "Broughton was the first man who taught countering and parrying and bending to escape a Blow." This RAW-HIDE CESTUS FROM
HERCULANEUM. claims quite too much. Two thousand five hundred years ago Greek boxers used only their bare hands. They did nothing rudely, or incompletely, in Greece; and their exercise must have been much the same as ours. ”

“ Many vases, especially the R.F. kylikes, represent groups of athletes in the palaestra engaged in various exercises, such as boxing, wrestling, running, and leaping [1625] ; in other cases we have single groups of boxers [1626] or wrestlers, [1627] or of the παγκράτιον, a somewhat brutal combination of the two. [1628] A boxer is sometimes seen putting on his caestus. ”

“ They fight to amuse themselves. Even nowadays boxers give each other a friendly grip before setting to; they knock one another about in this country honorably, without malice, fury, or shame. Broken teeth, black eyes, smashed ribs, do not call for murderous vengeance: it would seem that the bones are more solid and the nerves less sensitive in England than elsewhere. ”

“ But I suppose there is magnificence in sheer bigness, and we like to see the big men fight. And that is 194 why, for the most part, I have chosen heavy-weight encounters to represent the various periods in the history of the Ring.
It is impossible, or at any rate quite impracticable, to mention every boxer; it is not even practicable to mention more than a few. I should like to have described the fights of many of the lesser men in point of size—far better boxers, most of them, than almost any heavy-weight that ever lived. ”

“ Boxers, it is true, in the excited state in which they enter the ring, receive, unmoved, from their opponents blows which would prostrate a man not prepared, by hard training, for the trial. But even such blows, in the end, sometimes prove mortal; and what should we say of substituting for the human fist a sharp-pointed rapier, and expecting that the tension of the nervous system would render impenetrable the skin of the combatant? ”

“ He will encourage his men to single combats, and will carefully train them to gymnastics. Many of the wrestlers and boxers will be so strong that they will often beat all the extremities of the antagonist into his body, or break his back, or rend him into two pieces. ”

“ The Greeks were the first boxers. Pugilism appears to have been one of the earliest distinctions in play and exercise that appeared between the Hellenes and their Asiatic fathers. The unarmed personal encounter was indicative of a sturdier manhood. ”

“ For money, not recreation or personal improvement, each boxer tries to hurt the opponent more than he is hurt himself, and aims to end the contest prematurely by inflicting a brain injury serious enough to make the opponent unconscious, or temporarily by impairing his central nervous system through a blow to the midriff, or cutting his skin to a degree which would ordinarily be well within the scope of s 20 of the 1861 Act. The boxers display skill, strength and courage, but nobody pretends that they do good to themselves or others. ”

“ But you know the missionaries and other foreigners are having a lot of trouble with the Boxers, as they are called; and I reckon our government wants some soldiers on hand in case matters get worse."
"Yes, I've heard about the Boxers, although I don't exactly know what they are."
"They call themselves a band of Patriots, but in reality they are a secret society having for its object the extermination of all foreigners in the Celestial Kingdom. They are the worst cut-throats in China, so I have been told."
"Well, this is certainly news," mused Gilbert Pennington. ”

“ The Greeks and Romans kept boxing in its proper relation to every-day life; not as a brutal exhibition of skill or strength, but as a healthy exercise to invigorate the body, expand the chest, strengthen and quicken the muscles, and render mind and body free, supple, strong, and confident.
"There is nothing that interests me like good boxing," said Sir Robert Peel. "It asks more steadiness, self-control, ay, and manly courage, than any other exercise. ”

“ Despite, however, the proclivity of antiquaries, historians, and scholars to find a Roman or Greek origin for every manner, custom, and tradition—as if we had none originally of our own,—we may safely say that Boxing, in the noble manly forbearing and humane practice of the art, is the indigenous offspring of British hardihood, steady courage, and love of gymnic exercise and feats of bodily strength and skill, not unaccompanied with that amount of risk and severe exertion which lend a zest to sports unappreciated and unknown to more effeminate, more cruel, and more cowardly peoples. ”

“ An instant he clutched at the air; then, like a cat, he was on his feet, launching forward to meet Jack’s assault.
In England boxing was in tremendous favor, and even in America, prone to more violent methods, it was in high esteem. Rich and poor, peer and peasant, alike prided themselves on their strength and quickness in feint and blow. Prize fighters were honored, not merely by the rabble but by those who held themselves to be the salt of the earth. Brito had fought many a time, both for anger and for pleasure. ”

“ I honour you, and provided your education had been a little less limited, I should have been glad to see you here in company with Parr and Whiter; both can box. Boxing is, as you say, a noble art—a truly English art; may I never see the day when Englishmen shall feel ashamed of it, or blacklegs and blackguards bring it into disgrace. I am a magistrate, and, of course, cannot patronise the thing very openly, yet I sometimes see a prize fight: I saw the Game Chicken beat Gulley. ”

“ I have always been keen upon the noble old English sport of boxing, and, though of no particular class myself, I suppose I might describe my form as that of a fair average amateur. I should have been a better man had I taught less and learned more, but after my first tuition I had few chances of professional teaching. However, I have done a good deal of mixed boxing among many different types of men, and had as much pleasure from it as from any form of sport. ”

“ He was a boxer of first-rate science, as then practised, with unquestionable courage, extreme hardihood, and remarkable activity. Though barely five feet five inches, and weighing but nine stone, he often fought and defeated men of large stature, and vastly his superiors in weight. “Being constantly overmatched, he had more difficulties to encounter than any other boxer on the list, and of the few instances of ‘shifting’ which occurred in his time, he is the most singular, for he conquered the stoutest men by his admirable art. ”

“ Harry Cleveland, the well-known referee, said about the boxing: "The material is there, also the keenness and the thorough spirit of sportsmanship, which prevails among the lads must influence in the best possible way amateur boxing. Intense rivalry is associated with the desire to win honourably, and, up to now. ”

“ Not as a preparation for the hardships of warfare, not necessarily as a means of self-defence, but in view of a fine ideal of physical fitness, the strain and pain of violent athletics should be perpetuated. 202 And this, apart from the fun of the thing (which after all matters most) is the excuse and reason for amateur boxing. So let boxing be regarded as a sport, and let us leave it at that.
Old prejudices live with extraordinary vigour: and boxing—the very fact of it—the peaceful and positively harmless encounter of two men with well-padded gloves stirs the deepest rancour still. ”

“ Boxing is an ideal pastime for a large, virile, and closely packed community, for several reasons. In the first place, it requires very little space. A twelve-foot ring will do: indeed, towards the end of an exciting bout the combatants can—or must—make shift with mere elbow-room. ”

“ He can "duck" lower than any featherweight boxer in America; he can strike more heavy blows in ten seconds than any other man in a minute, and he watches his opponent with a self-possession and calculation that do not flurry with excitement, but only flame into a ravening intensity to beat him down, to spring on him from a new direction, and strike him a new blow every tenth of a second, to rush, hammer, contemn, overmaster, overwhelm, and appall him.
Look at "The Boxer" as he leaps on the stage and stands gazing at his opponent, waiting for the referee to call "time." ”

“ For good or for ill, boxing has become more and more a matter of exact science in which the quick use of brains has, to some extent, superseded purely physical qualities. And a new type of professional boxer has therefore been evolved. Nevertheless, it is worth observing here that the most important quality of all for success in the ring remains unchanged from the very dawn of fist-fighting, a quality possessed by Tom Johnson, by Jem Belcher, by Tom Spring, Sayers, Fitzsimmons, Carpentier—what we call “character.” ”