The aristocracy and boxing - how a marquis set out to invent the rules of the sport

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"Was it a good fight?"asks American professional boxer and world champion from 1935 to 1937 James Braddock, recovering from a knockdown.

The flurry of punches between two people fighting for dominance appears at first glance to be a sport with simple rules: the stronger wins, the weaker loses. Such a statement would apply to most contact sports, but not to one of the oldest, which is boxing. Fist fighting of a competitive nature is among the traditions of Ancient Hellas. Later, similar duels were also practiced by a number of Slavic nations. The modern idea of boxing, however, comes unsurprisingly from the Englishmen who love order, rules and discipline.

Who is the father of boxing?

If you ask this question to a random person, the possible answers are several: Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson or Anthony Joshua - an answer that will undoubtedly appear if the question is asked of someone born after 2010. Of course here the interpretation of asking is key and turns every one of the above assumptions wrong.

The answer that few and rarely read connoisseurs would give is-John Sholto Douglas, ninth Marquess of Queensbury. The competition-loving aristocrat, brought up in the traditions of monarchy, gentlemanliness and, no surprise, sportsmanship, feels the frantic need to "bring order" to the otherwise power-dominant duel. All this happened in 1867, although a century earlier boxing fights found a place even in the Royal Theater in London. Many with his lineage also organize such events for entertainment or betting purposes, but who and how determines the winner if the rules are not clear? It starts with the technical dimensions of the sport - ring size, fight length. It marks, though in other words, getting into a "knockout" or "knockdown" situation for one of the opponents. Befitting a man of similar values as the Marquess of Queensbury, equality is paramount. It clearly mentions the same conditions under which the two competitors fight and introduces the use of gloves - always new and strong. Thus, within 12 points, collects the rules, part of the official rules, to which modern boxing is subject to this day.

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