Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: What the Fist did for the Glove

By Ted Spoon, UK Historian

Without the fist, the glove would be nothing. The past and present gloved scene you know and love is a result of what came before in the form of bare fisted fighting. You may not consider the latter relevant, but quite the opposite is true. 

Bare Knuckle boxing died a slow death. It was gradually banned throughout the English and American lands while a cleaner, and safer version of the manly art, that allowed for longer careers, uprooted the old way of fighting. While the use of gloves and Queensbury rules were a common practise from the 1860’s onwards, for the championship bouts, it was customary to wage a fight to the finish under the London Prize Rules using the naked fist. These brutal endurance battles were set up against the wishes of the law and consequently staged in secluded areas where fight fans would travel treacherous journeys; on trains, boats, and even tackle a few mountains on foot just to witness the carnage.

A little different from ordering your pay per view on TV, eh?

When John L. Sullivan made his sad yet gracious exit after losing to a marvellously slick pugilist named James J Corbett, the last link to bare fisted fighting was broken. As the curtain was pulled on a legendary career, the older methods were erased off the boxing manual and new techniques were magically created…or so the story goes. Was everything really so black & white?

History has gone onto tell this vague story of a cut off point. Centuries worth of pugilism that built the foundations of what you see today is simply black listed; considered void, pointless. Silly men in bizarre outfits who didn’t know diddly squat.

Find yourself a book, an overview of the sport, and you’ll note most authors leap frog from one another and sing in unison about the infamous ‘transition’. Along came Corbett, invented the left hook, invented ring general ship, lateral movement, and just about anything else that mirrors a semblance of today’s way of fighting with which he used to handily whipped this primitive caveman of a fighter called John L. Sullivan.

In reality, just 3 of Sullivan’s fights were fought using Bare Knuckles. Virtually all of his fights were staged under the MQR, widely used at the time, with three minute rounds and 2-5oz gloves. The main problem he faced against Corbett was not down to an unfamiliar rule set, but rather because he was a good 20lbs overweight.

As John L. put it himself “The Whiskey got me”.

The younger, trim 180-90lbs Sullivan was noted not just for his strength, but for his cat-like speed. He could cut off the ring and quickly overwhelm the opponent with his two fisted assaults.  The large majority of his Queensbury fights were quickly settled in 1-3 rounds, contradictory to the common theory, he actually displayed efficiency under the rule set.

Sullivan got in trouble with the Police countless times, once threw up on his way to the ring and crashed a chariot coming back from Cincinnati after his victory over Dominick McCaffery -- virtually all can be attributed to his heavy drinking, but that whole drunk, American badass image just disguised a well spoken gentleman. Sullivan would be the first man to congratulate you after a battle and he famously had dinner with the Prince of Wales where they exchanged mutual pleasantries.

John L. Sullivan, the fighter, the man, is just one in hundreds who have been poorly deciphered.

Today’s fighting is finely documented by full colour cameras with dynamic zooms, digital sound pick-up and recorded punch stats. Today has zero in common with yesteryear when old school poems were often used to romanticize bloody battles. With no form of media to document boxers exploits other than writing on paper, flowery language was used to bring you closer to the fighting.

Unfortunately, this riddled language has just further disjointed the eras. No film and a real lack of fight reports has gone onto to secure the doubts fans have about the older greats - they’re just names written on paper with nothing to show other than fancy caricatures that better display the cloths they wore than their fighting ability.

However, implemented ring craft can be traced back centuries ago. Jack Broughton, who wrote up the very first rules for bare fisted fighting, was also a fine student of his new found art.  

Here are a few of the comments writer, William Oxberry made in his book, "A history of Pugilism," published in 1812 about Broughton‘s ability:

“His sagacity in discovering the weakness of an adversary and astonishing ability in covering himself from the most dangerous blows enabled him to overcome many to whom he was inferior in bodily force”

“His most favourite blow was the ‘projectile’, and when directly planted in the pit of the stomach, generally proved decisive. He sometimes used the round blow, particularly when wishing to strike his antagonist under the left ear. When a blow was directed at his body he beat it down; when the head was the object of his antagonists aim, he caught his fist in the open hand.”

Broughton clearly recognized what you were able to achieve with movement, correct punch placement, and defensive postures. The ‘round blow’ Oxberry spoke of sounds very much like a right cross or roundhouse punch; risky, but rewarding when landed ‘just under the left ear’ as he said. Catching punches and knocking fists out of the way is what we now call parrying, or glove blocking -- still demonstrated by most fighters with a decent defense.   

Daniel Mendoza, who was champion some 220 years ago, has gone onto be credited as the first fighter of a comprehensive technical nature who based their style around defensive techniques and speed to counter the much believed in strength aspect of bare fisted fighting. 

Only a Middleweight by today’s standards, Mendoza’s unique talent proved successful vs. the big boys.

In Mendoza’s book, The Art of Boxing, he explains his techniques in an instructive manner for those who wished to learn. He talks about ‘retreating’ with head and body movement, ‘distancing’ yourself from the opponent, using ‘feints’ to confuse, and ‘barring’ your arms around your body for protection.

Interestingly, he expressed not to have both arms protecting the same area, but rather have one wrapped around your belly, and the other around your head for a cross armed defense, much like the one Archie Moore put to use.

With this being the Bare Knuckle era, wrestling was a big part of the fighting, head locks and even eye gouging went on, but as rough as times were, Mendoza’s concept of ring general ship clearly shows that there was much more to Bare Knuckle fighting than common opinion would suggest, even without film.

Both Mendoza and his conqueror, ‘Gentleman’ John Jackson were renown for their effective left hand work in bouts. They used their straight jolts, or jabs to keep the brawling opponents at bay, and not give them a chance to counter.

Just how closely related Bare Knuckle fighting is to today’s boxing is hard to pin down, but the gradient of evolution is not as extreme as you’d think. The main differences between the two forms of combat was wrestling, punch variation, and the pace of bouts. Bare Knuckle bouts were just rougher, more gruelling, and measured epics of endurance. Without any gloves it was harder to concuss your opponent and you had to take care of your hands if you wanted them to last -- no big swings to the head.

Training wise, because these were fights to the finish your stamina was taken to the limit; long jaunts and runs for miles everyday where in order, but the basic craft remains unchanged.  In terms of timing and accuracy, the Bare Knuckle fighters had to be the best, for the consequences of a misplaced blow could prove disastrous.

As wrestling became less tolerated (eventually banned), and inside fighting was gradually diluted under the MQR, boxers had to rely more on lateral movement, work rate and athletic ability. You could say the need for intangibles -- heart, the will to win, is generally not in as great a need due to the strict, safer rules and short distances.

When you look at the last line of film available you’d be forgiven for thinking these two fighting systems were worlds apart, but everything that was used then still makes up 90% of the recipe, just a different flavor for a more civilized generation. Observe how Ali moved and clinched to force a referee separation -- Corbett was doing the same thing 60 years prior, and then you have Peter Jackson whose style was very similar to Corbett’s.

As did Ali, these men relied on their speed & movement to befuddle and then punish. Their punch placement was pin point and considerate, just as it had been in the past. The only real difference emerging was a willingness to throw more leather and become more creative with your combinations, which bigger gloves allowed for.

These men learnt off Jem Mace, who learnt off Tom Sayers, who learnt off Tom Spring, who learnt off the teachings of Daniel Mendoza, who probably drew off Broughton, who must of got his ideas from somewhere like sword fighting. Genuine ring revolutions are unlikely, but history has to book mark developments, so certain individuals get all the credit for injecting new teachings. There’s been steady alterations to the way of fighting in the wake of the ever changing rules, but it‘ll always be just a different breed of the same old game.

The techniques developed from nearly 300 years ago still apply to boxing. In fact, in terms of punch placement, feinting, and glove blocking, there is much a modern fighter could gain and add to their repertoire if they were to gander over a few manuals. The importance of the London Prize Rules and the fighters it produced is woefully understated. It is far more akin to being Boxing’s lost brother than the distant cousin books still treat it as.