What impact did the Marquess of Queensberry rules have on violence in boxing?

Answer 1

For one, boxing matches weren't slippery affairs from all the blood in the ring. In the bare knuckle era, boxing was extremely brutal, sometimes men fell on their rears from slipping and sliding on the blood, if they happened to be boxing on a relatively smooth surface. The prefered surface was either porous wood, or just outright soil, anything that would sponge up blood to prevent people slipping and falling. Additionally there were no referees, meaning, you could get elbowed, head butted, groin shotted, kneed or kicked even, often in the shins. Where boxing was especially brutal was in France; in France, they practice a style of boxing known as "Savate," so named after the shoes French sailors wore. Like the English, early Savateurs fought with no gloves. The French simply refer to Savate as "boxing," and the boxing that is known in the west, the one you watch on ESPN? They call it "English Boxing." A lot of the techniques are identical, except that Savate uses kicks too. So, how come Savate never made it onto the world stage until recently? The sport was considered too brutal, and because kicks are involved fatalities were more common. Even by the more brutal standards of the bare knuckle era people found ring deaths distateful. The introduction of the Queensbury rules lessened the amount of fatalities, as well as injuries, pretty soon so many safety measures were introduced, that boxing became a sport. Another word of note, because there were no gloves, the punching speed was much greater, even among the heavies. Jack Johnson for example, was a big man, I believe he weighed 230 lbs and although apparently fat, most of that was muscle. Despite his size, his fists were allegedly almost as fast as Sugar Ray Robinson's, Johnson's punching speed, was in fact greater than Ali's. How the hell is that possible? When a fight goes for 40 rounds or more you better train hard; even a big guy will develop lightning hands if he trains hard enough. Although personally I think the man was a coward, John L. Sullivan had pretty quick hands too. The reason Sullivan fell out of favor with the boxing crowd, was that even racists thought he was a coward for ducking black fighters. For avoiding fights with black dudes, Sullivan became unpopular really fast, and he was no longer a money making fight card. Ultimately though be thankful boxing isn't as serious as it used to be; in "olden times" it was grotesquely brutal, the only real value of the sport, is that it reached its peack during the reigns of Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake Lamotta. "Golden age" boxing, was "somewhere in the middle" in between the bare knuckle era, and boxing as we know it today. Not quite modern, not quite bare knuckle, but drawing on the best elements of both. Golden age boxing had the speed, craftiness, cunning, and seriousness of the bare knuckle era, with the sports conditioning and scientific approach of the modern era. The skill level was so much higher, that, in Louis' and other old timer's time at least, THAT form of boxing, the style of boxing where the stance is held sideways, can be considered a martial art. However no one uses that style of boxing anymore. The reason I am good at the Fight Night franchise (a boxing video game series), is because I don't think like a modern fighter when I play; I do my best to try to think the way the old timers used to think. I don't use ANY modern approaches with my tactics, they just don't work. When I create boxers in the more recent fight night game, I keep everything standard and textbook; I'm a very "by the book" player. One more thing; I HATE showboaters. When Muhamad Ali did it, that was fine, there was tactics involved and he never show boated to the point of making gross miscalculations. Guys like Zab Judah and Jones Jr. though I think are an insult to the sport. Were I a pro boxer myself, I would go head hunting after those guys they tick me off so much. No respect at all for their opponents, zero. I mean, there is a very fine line between entertaining the crowd the way Muhamad Ali did, and being a comedian, and having the uncommon skills and hand speed to back it up, but TRYING to be Muhamad Ali, that's something else. Just my humble opinion; I'd love to seriously learn boxing if I can find a 90 year old coach who teaches the sideways stance version.