Pugilism

see also: Etymology of Pugilism

The pugilism is a sport of combat to the body with body, ancestor of the English Boxe, with its exclusive use of the fists. A contrario of the sports of fight, it is a remote confrontation.

One found naked representations of combat with hand going back to civilization sumérienne OJ Iliade of Homère mentions a combat of pugilism which would have proceeded towards -1100 during the head office of Troy. It was with the Pancrace and the Lutte, one of the three martial arts practiced during the Olympic Games ancient starting from the 23e edition of -688.

It was extremely violent since to be able to strike the pugilists more extremely their fists protected from cestes : leather belts of that the Roman will cover with metal plates as from the 3rd century. In still the Pugiliste testifies to the Thermal baths, a statue bronzes some which represents a pugilist after his combat, the cut ears, the face and the hands covered with wounds. In its Roman form, pugilism will be one of the oldest disciplines of the plays of the Cirque, before the appearance of the combat of Gladiateur S.

Contrary to modern boxing, there were no categories of weight and the combat was not separate in rounds and it could be completed only on abandonment or KB, the death of one of the participants being a very rare event. If the meeting were too long, one used a particular procedure called the climax to decide between the adversaries: in turn, each of the two combatants struck a blow to his adversary which did not have the right to avoid it, nor to even move; a jet of part determined the first combatant to strike, who was seen like the favorite of the gods.

Pugilism is interdict in 392 by the emperor Théodose I {{er}}, at the same time as the Olympic Games themselves. It reappears in England at the 17th century, the nobility being diverted while betting on clandestine “meetings of pugilism”. The last champion of these combat with naked hands was American John Lawrence Sullivan, the July 8th 1889; the confrontation lasted 2:16 mn.

The modern Boxe was born in the middle of the 19th century, when the marquis de Queensberry founds a whole of rules which impose the port of the Gant S, defines its categories of weight, limits the rounds to three minutes, prohibit the blows on an adversary with ground and the fight to the finish. The combat then become faster and less brutal, which enables them to leave clandestinity.

Random links: