Here are the basic rules:

• The two opponents are to wear padded gloves and they must fight in a ring;
• The boxers fight in following sessions, called ‘rounds’, which continuance is up to three minutes;
• The number of rounds depends on the competition level – the Olympic matches have only three rounds, while the professional heavyweight fights can continue up to much higher number. The number of rounds is decided before the beginning of the fight;
• For the duration of each round, the boxers punch and strike one another. Holding is not allowed;
• A fighter is considered a winner of the boxing match when the opponent is knocked out and does not get up before the referee counts out loud to ten;
• If there is no knock out, the scores of a panel of judges, awarded for each boxer’s performance, are to be used in order to determine the winner;
• There is a short break between the rounds for the period of which the fighters as a rule go to the corner of the ring assigned to them, where they get advices from their trainers and they can have some water as well as some help in they need it.

In 1743 Jack Broughton wrote the first rules to govern boxing as a response to the dangerous and from time to time even deadly progressing of this sport. Some of the most important rules used also nowadays were created from Broughton. For instance, the rule that the fight is over once a boxer is not able to get on his feet for certain amount of time. Another one of Broughton’s rules also says that hitting or grabbing below the waist is forbidden.

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The first detailed description of a boxing fight one can find in Homer’s Iliad (ca. 675 BC). According to this book, the Mycenaean warriors incorporated boxing among their competitions and they were honoring the fallen with great ceremonies (ca. 1200 BC). Another legend holds that the heroic ruler Theseus (around the 9th century BC) invented a form of boxing in which two men were facing each other and fought with their fists till death. After some time, the boxers began to fight while wearing gloves with spikes and some wrappings on their arms below the elbows, but otherwise they were completely naked.

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Fist fighting drawings were observed in the 3rd millennium BC in Sumerian relief while both fist-fighters and spectators were depicted in the 2nd millennium BC in an ancient Egyptian relief. Both drawings show contests which were bare-fisted. The archaeologist Dr. E. A. Speiser discovered in 1927 in Baghdad, Iraq a Mesopotamian stone tablet which illustrates two men in a combat for a trophy. It is believed to be 7,000 years old. The first evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves originates from Minoan Crete (c. 1500–900 BC), and if we consider the boxing statues of Prama mountains (c. 2000–1000 BC) also from Sardinia.

Next articles will cover:

• Ancient Greek and ancient Roman boxing
• History of boxing rules

Boxing is a sport in which two people are fighting in a single combat using their fists. The boxing match is supervised by a referee who calls the rounds in a three minute intervals with 1-minute rest periods between the rounds. The two opponents are usually of comparable weight. There are different ways to win the boxing match:

1. A knockout where the opponent is not able to get up before the referee counts 10 seconds
2. A technical knockout where the opponent is too injured to continue the fight
3. The winner is determined by the referee’s decision or by the scorecards of the judges. This can happen if both fighters are still standing after the last as agreed number of rounds.