The complete boxer

Front matter

THE STRAKiHT LKP^T AT THP: HKAD IS THK BEST OF ALL BLOWS"

{see page 6i)

BY

Contents

CHAP.

I. The Origin of Boxing

II. The Purposes of Boxing

Chapter I The Origin Of Boxing

" Sweet Science of Bruising ! how often has man, Twice as strong as his fellow, presumed just to lark it ; But deceived in his brutal and hectoring plan, Has lain, "wanting wind," in Fleet Ditch or Fleet Market."

IT is perfectly impossible to treat Boxing merely as the Noble Art of Self-Defence. That is what it is habitually called ; and before proceeding to describe the various lights in which it may be regarded nowadays, the reader should be reminded that in the first instance — in its genesis — boxing was a sport and a sport only.

If people wanted to hurt each other they resorted to weapons ; and if there were no weapons handy we may be very sure that they tried to strangle each other, and learned the best and quickest way of doing that before ever they considered the advantages of temporary disablement from a hard blow with the clenched fist. For personal warfare, with bad blood in it, natural methods were resorted to : and boxing is not in the least natural. It is sheer artifice. Natural methods are animal methods — scratching and clawing and kicking. Mr. E. B.

2 • • • • THE COMiPLETE BOXER

Michell, writing in the Badminton Library, points out that children learn the means for strife from cats, dogs and horses ; that even the closing of the hand for purposes of inflicting injury is itself unnatural.

The argument may be carried further than this, for it is safe to say that in human beings, in common with other animals, there is an instinct to use natural weapons : teeth and nails because they are sharp ; feet, because the legs are strong ; the head — for butting— because it is (or certainly was in the days of our remote ancestors) hard. Then, in the process of civilization, men learned the damage to be wrought with knuckles. But human life was little accounted of ; and if a man attacked you or aggravated you in some way, a weapon — anything from a heavy bone to a fine steel blade — was what you took to him.

On occasions of lesser gravity, a slap with the open palm would be sufficient, as it is to-day : and it is certainly probable that two quarrelsome young Greeks, emulating some Olympic hero, may have battered each other with their bare knuckles. But there would be no system about the fight, and doubtless after a while it would have degenerated into a first-class scratching match. But the athletes of this early world — those who for honour and glory and display (and later on, it must be confessed, for material reward)^ — prodigiously exerted their rhuscles, called into account their utmost staying power — these learned fist-fighting as a recreation.

The earliest record wb have of any strife, whether

^ Solon decreed that five hundred drachmae should be paid to each Olympic victor.

in self-defence, or for a wager, or for pure sport, which in the smallest degree resembles what we conceive by the word boxing, comes from the Greeks. ** The literary accounts are either very early or very late," writes Mr. K. T. Frost in the Journal of Hellenic Studies^ *'and most of the latter seem to be echoes of Homer." It is Homer indeed who tells us of IfidvTe^ — leather thongs wound round the knuckles and the fore-arm, not so much to increase the deadliness of the blow as to protect the wearer. These were subsequently called fieCkix'^L, lest they should be confounded with the more ferocious type of hand-covering ^ used in later days : which amounted to a weapon, and may be said to have culminated in the Roman cestus. In many cases these were considerably more barbarous than the modern knuckle-duster. They were not used in the Olympic games,

" Even the fieCkixaiy' writes Mr. Frost, ** make comparison with English boxing difficult, so we must be particularly thankful that Homer has described the fight with bare fists between Irus and Odysseus with a clearness and moderation very rare in the annals of the ring. The two competitors presented a very different appearance. Irus was much the taller and heavier and had also the advantage in age. Odysseus, on the other hand, was of medium height, but broad-shouldered, deep-chested and muscular : evidently a typical middle-weight : ten years earlier he had been one of the best runners and wrestlers in the Greek army, so that he had possessed that quick-

^ Journal of Hellenic Studies^ vol. xxvi. ^ (T(f)aipaij and fiTipiir}K€S.

ness on which a middle-weight must rely when pitted against a man heavier than himself.

** The tactics he adopted were exactly those which a modern professor would employ against a heavier but unskilled opponent, namely, drawing and countering. His success was complete. Irus was much dismayed when he saw how big his opponent stripped, and was probably more so when he met the eyes of the king. Anyhow he seems to have made a halfhearted lead off, more as a feeler than a blow, as beginners often do when starting a round with an opponent with whom they are afraid to close at once. This blow, contrary to the usual custom, must have been delivered with the left, for it hit the right shoulder of Odysseus. It may have merely fallen short, but when we remember the advantage in height and reach possessed by Irus, it is more likely that Odysseus saw the blow coming, ducked his head and raised his shoulder to guard the chin and then cross-countered heavily with a hook-hit: otherwise it is difficult to understand the tremendous effect of this knock-out, especially as Odysseus purposely refrained from putting forth his full strength."

Theocritus ^ gives a fine account of a combat between Amycus and Polydeuces — **him that binding the ox-fell thongs on his knuckles fights with terrible fists." He comes to the land of Bebrycia and with Castor leaves his ship and wanders off away from his companions. Amongst the pine trees and tufted cypress they come upon Amycus —

"... . gigantic and awful to look on.

Torn were his ears by the boxer's blows, and orbed were his monstrous Bosom and back with flesh as of iron ; like an enormous Wrought-metal statue he showed. On his arms, right up to the

shoulder, Firm stood his muscles like those stones that a mountain-torrent Rolls in the winter time and rounds in the might of the eddies."

Amycus resents the trespass upon his land, and will not give the strangers so much as a draught from the spring.

" With silver or what guerdon can we move thee ? " "Only by putting hands up, man to man." "Fists only, or with feet, and face to face?" "Strive with thy fists. . . ." Amycus replies.

So he summons his friends, trumpeting with a hollow sea shell ; and Castor, who seems to have acted as Polydeuces' second, goes to fetch the rest of the Argonauts.

"So, when their fists were weighted with thongs of force-giving

leather.

Coiling the laces around each arm, they met in the mid-ring, Breathing slaughter against each other, and fiercely they struggled Whose back lay to the sun. By skill won'st thou, Polydeuces, This from the giant, and all his face was smitten with sun-rays. Sore was his wrath, and forward he lunged with blows at his rival. Him Tyndarides hit on the chin as he charged, and his anger Thereby fiercer was roused, and volleying random buffets Onward he came, head down. The Bebrycians uttered a clamour; Yea, and in answer the heroes cheered on stout Polydeuces, Fearing lest in so narrow a place that Tityan giant Bore him down with his weight. But shifting hither and thither, Yet close ever, the son of the Highest bruised him with both fists. Thwarting the onset wild of the monstrous child of Poseidon. Dizzy with blows stood he spitting forth red blood, and the heroes All roared loudly for joy when they saw weals grievous arising Over his mouth and jowl. Half-closed were the eyes on the swollen Face : Now with feints all round him the hero baffled and vexed him ;

Then, when he marked him a-weary and mazed, with a clenched

fist smote him Just 'twixt forehead and nose, and cut him right to the skull-bone. Stricken, he backward fell full length in the midst of the herbage. Grimly the fight was renewed when he rose ; each battered his rival, Smiting with stubborn thongs. The Bebrycian leader assaulted Breast and thigh and neck. Polydeuces, peerless in combat, Mauled his foeman's face all over with horrible buffets. Quickly the giant waned, his flesh quite melted with sweating, Waxed still larger that other's limbs as he tackled his labour, Haler his hue.

.... Amycus, wishing to work some wondrous deed, from position Swerving aside, Polydeuces' left hand gripped with his left hand ; Then lunged forward sweeping his arm from his right thigh upward. Had he but reached, he had maimed his foeman, the King of Amyclae ; But with a neck-jerk he escaped that blow, with his right hand Driving at Amycus' head on the left straight out from the shoulder. Swiftly the life-blood gushed from a gaping wound on the temple. Smiting his mouth with the other, he rattled his ranges of tushes, Bruising his rival's face with strokes ever swifter, and pounded Both his cheeks, till a-swoon fell he at last on the meadow All his length, and with outstretched hands sought truce from the

combat.

Being anigh unto death. Yet so, no vengeance upon him Did'st thou conquering wreak, Polydeuces, peerless of boxers ; Natheless he solemnly sware by Poseidon, his ocean-father, Never, never again to be churlish unto a stranger."

But for a certain sumptuousness of expression, this account might stand for a bare-knuckle fight of the early part of the nineteenth century : or even for a combat between two men with a quarrel to-day. To manoeuvre your man so that the light falls in his eyes would be one of the first considerations in an out of doors encounter. And the latter might well for this reason deal buffets at random. The followers of Polydeuces are afraid lest the ponderous weight of Amycus should tell in — '*so narrow a place." It is indeed likely that the smaller man would get the worst of it in a corner. Then Polydeuces feints agai^\ and again — a procedure if well carried out calculated to baffle and vex any boxer. He puzzles his antagonist, and then when he sees that he has grown slow from weariness, and mazed — not knowing from which mighty fist to expect the next blow — Polydeuces gives him a terrific hit in the middle of the face. Amycus is probably standing square and is thus knocked down.

Of course, to make your man's eyes swell so that he could not see properly was one of the principal objects in English prize-fighting. The bare fist does this effectually enough after a time (unless, as in the case of Tom Cribb, the famous champion, he has a protruding bar of frontal bone with the eyes deep set beneath it) — so the effect of hard strips of ox-hide can well be imagined.

Amycus, it is to be noticed, attacked breast and thigh and neck. The last of these would be a most vulnerable spot for a naked fist or one closely protected by ** stubborn thongs." The modern boxing glove is too bulky to do much damage as a rule to the throat, unless a man throws his head right back ; or to the neck, unless he exposes it by ducking his head to either side and not recovering with sufficient quickness. In the ordinary position the blow would be stopped between the shoulder and the ear in the latter case, and the chin and the top of the breast-bone in the former.

As to "assaulting the thigh," Amycus either committed what would of course be a foul nowadays in English fist-fighting, by striking below the belt ;

or else he seized his opponent's thigh in order to throw him. If the former is intended little purpose would be served, as it would require an heroic blow indeed to hurt a man much by punching his thigh : but perhaps Amycus was too blinded to know where he was hitting. On the other hand, wrestling was not allowed in genuine Greek boxing ; at all events it was prohibited, together with clinching, at Olympia. Considered in every respect, the redoubtable Bebrycian was a bad loser. Believing that his only chance lies in a free blow, he seizes Polydeuces' left hand — with which he would guard — and attempts a mighty upper-cut. This holding transgressed the Olympic, just as surely as the Queensberry, rules. Lunging forward and sweeping his arm — or palm, as an earlier edition gives it — upward from his right thigh can only mean an upper-cut ; or to be strict, something between an upper-cut and a swing : for you do not "lunge forward" to deliver a true upper-cut The knuckles of his fist would have been twenty times more effective than the palm : but we must remember the fact that he probably intended to take his adversary under the chin with the butt of the hand ; the thongs being tied so as to make such a blow extremely severe (see Illustration). Then Polydeuces ducks his head to one side, in quite the approved fashion of to-day, and hits "straight out from the shoulder." The blow cuts a gaping wound in the temple — that would, of course, be the hard thongs again.

Mr. Frost, criticising another translation which gives this sense, prefers the literal meaning, which is

— " with the weight of the shoulder," but in any case the result is the same ; and the fact that Amycus swore not to be churlish to strangers any more is scarcely to be wondered at.

Greek boxers, then, made a practice of standing still with their feet almost level ; and hitting mainly

From a Panathenaic Vase (Stephani, C. R. 1876, 109). — From the Journal of Hellenic Studies , with the right, which was well drawn back ; and guarding with the left hand outstretched. They never learned the advantages of straight hitting, but were content with swinging and chopping blows — these latter coming down from above. This is the style commonly used even to-day by people utterly unacquainted with boxing, and which would thus appear to be the natural style. It has, however, nothing at all to recommend it. The Greeks, moreover, never realized the importance of foot-work, swinging the weight of their bodies behind their blows from the hips only.

It is from the vases that we learn most about the methods of Hellenic boxing. At first sight, the distance between the legs in most of the drawings appears to show that the men stood more or less in the orthodox modern fashion, as in the accompanying illustration : but the authorities on the subject consider this to be a mere convention indicating that the feet are widely separated, but on the same level. This was the position assumed by the early English pugilists ; and the reader may call to mind how Champion Harrison, in Rodney Stone, stood with knees slightly bent, squarely to his man : so that he might lead off with either hand. This, Sir A. Conan Doyle tells us, was the style introduced by Humphries and Mendoza ; but by Jem Belcher's day it was quite obsolete and was superseded by a position, so far as feet are concerned, almost identical with that of the modern boxer.

Before lighting at Olympia, writes Mr. Frost, the competitors trained for nine months, a preparation fully needed in view of the fact (amongst other things) that they must battle in the glare of the noonday sun. The pairs and byes were decided by lot, just as they are to-day. There is nothing to tell us that the size of the ring was defined, and since there were certainly no ropes, all the fighting would be in the open, with no opportunity for cornering a man. There were, moreover, only two championships, one for boys and one for men ; so that boxers of all weights had to compete together. From this it is to be inferred that the men were for the most part heavy-weights.

There was no evidence of good-will between the combatants, such as shaking hands : rather they glowered ferociously at each other. Each had his second who tied the thongs round his knuckles and fore-arms, but left the thumb free. And these seconds were allowed to shout advice or encouragement to their principals during the progress of the encounter — a practice which is strictly prohibited to-day.

Mr. Frost illustrates this point by a story of Glaucus the Carystian. It appears that when Glaucus was a boy, he re-set a loose ploughshare, using his fist as a hammer. And his father was so struck by the feat that he entered him at Olympia for the boys' boxing match. During a fight with a more skilful opponent, the father, who no doubt acted as Glaucus' second, saw that he was hard pressed and shouted to him, *' Give him one like you did the plough, my lad," whereupon the boy made a prodigious effort and knocked his adversary down.

From the evidence at our disposal, we can only assume that Greek boxing was almost entirely devoid of science ; and that quickness, hard hitting and stoic endurance were the three qualities to be inculcated with a view to success. And it may as well be added here that these are, in modern boxing, the primary qualities still most carefully to be considered.

Between the annals of classical boxing and those of the English prize ring, which was established in the early part of the eighteenth century, there is a gulf of darkness. Boxing of some kind may have been practised in mediaeval England, but we have no record of it. Wrestling, of course, was always a popular sport — showing that the natural methods of clutching and clawing already referred to were tempered down to become a pastime. Jehoshaphat Aspin, writing in 1825 of the Manners, Customs, Sports and Pastimes of the Inhabitants of England, tells of a wrestling tournament (The City of London versus the City and Suburbs of Westminster) held at St. Giles* in the Fields in 12 19. The work appears to be an exhaustive one, and the fact that no mention whatever is made of boxing is accounted for by the fact that whilst the period he treats of begins with the arrival of the Saxons, it comes down only to the eighteenth century.

In spite of its having been a sport, pure and simple and rather blood-thirsty, we may disregard classical boxing for any visible effect it has had upon the fighting of our own day, which, it is quite sufficient to know, is the outcome of the prize-ring.

Chapter II The Purposes Of Boxing

" Sports which can produce thoroughbred actions will outlive all the sneers of the fastidious, and cant of the hyper-critics."

—Pierce Egan to Captain Barclay.

MODERN Boxing may be partly an Art of Self-Defence. Roughly, the man who cannot box is at the mercy of one who can. Other things being equal this is certainly the case : and it is a commonplace that small boxers have frequently thrashed big ruffians. And boxing is a sport : first and foremost as an amusement — good fun ; then as a means of exercise and physical development. It is also a treatment to be prescribed for toughening the sensibilities, for teaching a mental and bodily agility, and the quickness and vigilance of eye and brain.

Boxing as a means of defence is admirable, and of offence. If somebody deserves hitting, it is better that he should be hit in the right way ; on his account that the blow may hurt more, on the attacker's that he may justify his quarrel and not unduly expose himself to retaliation. True, that in these well-ordered days opportunities for this sort of thing are comparatively rare, but it is always well to rise to their occasion. Boxing in this way has its direct practical use.

Of all violent forms of exercise, boxing probably brings the greatest number of muscles into play. It is, or should be, a most vehement kind of exertion ; and should not be attempted by people who are physically unfit, weak in the heart, or those rare and hyper-sensitive folk who are genuinely unable to endure a certain amount of ordinary and wholesome pain. But a steady course of boxing, beginning lightly and gradually increasing in severity, will give wide and deep chests to those who started with narrow ones. It will add enormously to the muscular power of the back and shoulders. It is the constant movement of the shoulders and arms backwards and forwards which expands the chest : and constant turning of the body from the hips develops the abdominal muscles.

Then, frequent boxing really hardens a man or boy to bear pain. He grows so accustomed to hard knocks that after a time he will scarcely be aware of a blow which would have sorely hurt him when he began to learn. And, of course, this happy result applies not only to sparring itself: the toughened boxer can, in any relation of life, endure more than one who has never been taught to take a certain amount of knocking about for granted.

A good boxer is nimble on his feet and does not slouch about with relaxed muscles : he is always mentally alert, because in boxing thought and its consequent action must be well-nigh simultaneous. It trains quickness of eye to an extent which will be found uncommonly valuable in other sports of all descriptions. It unquestionably develops the faculty of decision ; for there is never any time for making up your mind once you are facing an opponent. You have to decide what to do on the spur of many moments, to do it instantly.

And — from the temperamental point of view — boxing certainly teaches self-control. It is nonsense, of course, to say that an angry man cannot fight well. He can, and often does. But the anger must be kept in hand. Once a man loses his temper and his head, it is generally all up with him. He becomes wild and reckless, and an antagonist who has kept his wits about him can do what he chooses. For certain dispositions a hard blow on the nose is very trying. A run of bad luck, a sharp rally during which you have been unable to land a single hit, is, if you are inexperienced, a severe test. But, unlike all other points in boxing, it is only a question of time. If you endure the first test, the next will be less severe : until you can take the worst possible hiding with a grin.

These are true and noble excuses for boxing, but the best excuse of all (where none is needed) remains ; namely, that it is such a grand sport. It is exciting and sometimes sensational, and it has a whole wealth of tradition to make it romantic. There is a man to beat and you have only yourself to rely on, and there are only three rounds, — if this is a competition — or if in an ordinary spar you keep to the amateur rules. A short time, you will say, in which to test your prowess.

But wait. Those three rounds are packed with incident, or should be. It is a desperate battle while it lasts. And if you are fairly matched — howsoever fine your condition — the minutes will be hours. You have to try and hit your antagonist so that he cannot hit you ; but you will fail over and over again. Most likely you will get at least as good as you give. You will be driven round the ring by a hurricane of blows, straight lefts and rights and hook-hits and swings and paralyzing half-arm blows which pen you in a corner. You may be knocked down from a blow on the jaw, and rise shaking and feeble to your feet again : reeling forward in a supreme effort of retaliation. You are for the moment utterly worn. To be knocked out, so that the fight be over, would seem to be the most desirable occurrence you can imagine.

It is this moment in a fight that really finds you out. It is a great effort to keep struggling on, to stand up ; not only defending your battered self, but defending it more certainly by making your adversary believe there is a reserve of strength in you yet to be overcome. And maybe you cannot land a blow : and your man's gloves are ever about you still, beating the wind from you, bruising your face. And yet you must go on so long as your legs will carry you. "It is spirit which keeps the boxer on his legs," writes Pierce Egan, and spirit you must have. But at last your opportunity comes. It always does if you are brisk enough to see it. Your man grows careless or tired, and you land a light straight left. And that gives you courage for another, and the next is hard. And then he gives a pace and you are after him, sore spent, but eager to recover lost ground. And you try two hits quickly succeeding, and they drive back j^k

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your adversary just as his drove you but a moment or two before.

And then by chance you land the perfect blow : that which coming straight from your shoulder with all your weight behind it takes him upon the head and sends it back. And you have a delightful sensation at the moment of impact. It is only comparable to the " give " of a good cricket bat as you drive the ball from precisely the right place in the wood.

The amateur who has little time at his disposal will find boxing one of the most convenient forms of sport possible. It is, so to say, very portable. You can box almost anywhere, and a room cleared of furniture or a small patch of grass is within the reach of most people. The latter is infinitely preferable for those who are forced by their daily occupation to spend much time indoors.

One of the objections most frequently raised against the pastime is that it can only be practised in a room. This is quite wrong. Of course, if you want to go in for competitions, you must learn to box on a boarded floor. But a vast number of men like to box just for the sake of exercise, and never mean to enter for any regular match. For them, the grass and the fresh air are perfectly suited. Of course, also, the two can be combined, by means of a square stage raised six inches or more from the ground with posts and ropes. But it is a somewhat ungainly fixture for anyone who is proud of his garden and has no secluded corner for thepurpose: and a much too considerable time would be taken up by fixing the ring and stage for each encounter.

For the busy man, then, boxing is an ideal pursuit, because ten minutes of hard sparring will, in point of exercise, be equivalent to an hour or so of most out of door games. You cannot box properly unless you are in good condition ; and if you box regularly, you will keep in good condition. It is better to practise in the evening, as one of the disadvantages of the sport is the fact that it tends to make you sleepy. The constant buffeting in the face with the heavily padded gloves is most wearing, and has often ensured for an ordinarily bad sleeper a good night's rest. So what would give a bad beginning to a day may be highly beneficial at its close.

The noble art has done an immense amount of good, both for weak people and for indecisive people ; it is not, however, to be claimed as a cure for all ills. That seems to have been the idea of one of George

Borrow's friends. '' wishes me to give his son

lessons in boxing," says a character in Tke Romany Rye^ ** which he considers a fine, manly, English art, and a great defence against Popery."

Of course, boxing is essentially a young man's sport : and in a match between two men very unequal in age, the old adage ** Youth will be served " is usually justified. The experience of a veteran who has grown stiff, and whose wind is not what it once was, is unlikely to avail ultimately against the lustihood, agility, and spring of a youngster — even one who has yet to learn much of the ring-craft that his antagonist has forgotten.

Youth should be a succession of joyous moments when the desire to shout and run and do something which requires prodigious muscular effort is paramount and necessary in order to work off high animal spirits. These moments come without any particular reason, willy-nilly, and the brimming vitality must have its outlet. A hard encounter is then the very height of physical pleasure. Your entire body is set vigorously to work. A smashing blow received brushes away the cobwebs of the mind, and there are few athletic triumphs to compare with a fine hit given.