Where was boxing first played?

Answer 1

Like pretty much most things that are part of the "civilized world," Boxing was invented in ancient Mesopotamia. Wall reliefs in Crete, depict contests which many believe was ancient Boxing. Boxing as we know it today originated in Great Britain, and it was invented by a Sephardic Jew named Daniel Mendoza. Now, although the London Prize rules were bare knuckle, Mendoza pretty much, more or less, single handedly invented modern Boxing.

Nevertheless critics of Mendoza have pointed out, that much of what Mendoza allegedly invented was not his original creation. Recent archaeological digs have discovered some speculative though compelling evidence, that Boxing technique has not really changed that much since it was invanted. There is a huge possibility, that ancient Greek Boxers for example used jabs, straights, hooks, uppercuts, and even had the concept of head movement. The legendary Melankomas of Caria, who never struck an opponent in his entire career, nor was he struck himself, was legendary for his ability to Dodge and parry any oncomming blow. Obviously a big part of Boxing is dodging, its the name of the game, and what gets people addicted.

Nonetheless, for all intents and purposes according to official history, the inventor of modern Boxing technique and training methods is Daniel Mendoza. He is the one who introduced concepts such as road work, the need to skip rope, and even the use of various bags to develop different aspects of the game, not to mention medicine ball work. Virtually every "traditional" Boxing training method, was invented by that Jew. If you are wondering why during the early 20th century in America, Jews were dominant in the lower weight classes, is because a little known fact of the sport is that they invented it. Consequently if you are a Jew, boxing is literally in your blood. Of course, Jews were never known for hitting power, that is where that crap comes from that you "can't develop it."

Mendoza is not given credit, owing to the prejudice British society had towards Jews. As to why Jews lived in Britain to begin with its, well, complicated. The man given credit for inventing modern Boxing, was the hulking Brit who ended Mendoza's reign of terror by grabbing him by the hair and then proceeding to pummel him. Owing to that episode, the tradition of wearing your hair short has stuck with Boxers since.

The strategy in bare knuckle Boxing, is not like with gloved fighting; because bare fists do more damage, you have to do the opposite of what gloved fighting common sense tells you. There are a few things in common such as the importance of head movement and leading with the jab, nevertheless, where combinations are the life blood of a good modern Boxer, in bare knuckle fighting they had to be used sparingly. Basically, modern boxing strategy boils down to this; use the little hits to set up the big hits, while avoiding getting hit. A good boxer has to be aware of what he's feeling, the power behind each strike, because, the drumming on his body, will inform him if a big hit is comming. A good boxer pays attention to how each punch thrown by an opponent feels; not all punches are designed to hurt, they can be used to throw off timing, or even play mind games.

What sort of mind games? Guy hits another guy, guy getting hit thinks "man, this pansy hits like a girl....." round 7, the guy "hitting like a girl" drops a bomb on him and its over, because the guy who did not respect his opponent got overconfident. Boxing isn't as easy as it looks, when you do it for real; the champs just make it look easy.

Answer 2

Ancient Greece is where it was first recorded as a sport.