The Boxer Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pugilism

Boxing is also known as prize fighting or the sweet science. Though, to be sure, there's nothing sweet about standing in a ring with an opponent who wants to knock you out to win the match! This is very old sport that has been played by combatants for thousands of years.

Answer: Boxing gloves

The sport of boxing was played without gloves for a very long time. It is only fairly recently in time that boxers began to wear gloves on their hands. These are thickly padded and made from leather. The purpose is both to protect the fists - it actually hurts a lot to hit someone with a bare fist - and also to protect the face of the opponent a little as well. All blows to the head are considered dangerous, however, so wearing gloves doesn't necessarily protect a boxer from developing brain damage, or even, in extreme cases, being killed.

Early boxers sometimes wore strips of leather around their fists to protect their hands, but proper boxing gloves, as we know them today, have been around since 1867.

Answer: England

The first recorded match in England was reported in the newspaper in 1681. It was still played without gloves at that time. Around this time it began to be referred to as boxing as well. Before then it had usually been called prizefighting, or fisticuffs, or simply referred to as bare knuckle fighting.

Answer: James Figg

James Figg is considered to be the father of modern boxing. He was born in 1695. He retained the championship title from 1719 when he first won it, until his death in 1734. It is believed he fought 270 fights in all, and won an amazing 269 of these. That's one impressive record.

Answer: Fencing

Amazingly so, this is the case. Early boxers had to not only box around a ring with bare fists, they also had to wrestle one another, and fight each other with swords as well. Those sword fights were known as fencing. The swords weren't the nice safe ones we know today that have protection on the tip of the blades. They were very sharp indeed and could inflict a lot of damage. Some matches also required that boxers fight against each other with cudgels or quarterstaffs. These were thick pieces of wood about nine feet long, and the combatants had to try to knock each other out or disarm each other. This was known as cudgelling.

What a horrible violent sport, don't you think? The men had to either bash each other up with their fists, dislocate each other's limbs by wrestling, knock each other's block off with a piece of wood, or impale one another with a sword. James Figg set up a training school to teach hopeful young men how to achieve all these skills.

Answer: Marquess of Queensberry Rules

Because of the dreadful damage done to the fighters in those early days, a champion known as Jack Broughton introduced some very early rough rules in 1743. These were known as the London Prize Ring Rules, and included not hitting a man if he was on the ground (before that, it was common to do so), not grabbing a man below the waist (very painful), and counting to thirty if a man had been knocked down and couldn't get up again. This usually took place if the man on the ground was out cold. These early regulations also discussed rules applying to headbutting, eye gouging and choking. However, all the guidelines were considered to be unmanly by both the fighters and the audiences, and so were generally ignored. Oh my goodness!

The Marquess of Queensberry boxing rules, which boxers follow today, were not invented by the Marquess of Queensberry. However, he publicly endorsed them. Because he was a powerful figure of the times, his opinion carried a lot of weight. The rules were actually written by a man called John Graham Chambers, one of the very top sportsmen in England at the time. He helped establish championships and rules in many other sports in England as well.

Answer: Rounds

A one minute rest period between each round had to be also followed. There are twelve of these rules in all. They include the size of the ring in which the combatants fight, the length of the rounds, the time permitted to allow a fallen man to get back onto his feet, the referee's authority, and rules about gloves, shoes, and acceptable punches. One of these rules states that, if a man is dangling on the ropes of the ring, with his toes off the ground, he is considered to be down. One would jolly well hope so, don't you think? The poor fellow is probably seeing stars to be in that condition.

Answer: No

Sizes of some boxing rings vary, but they are all definitely square shaped. The standard shape is 24 feet square, with a post in each corner from which ropes are strung to the parallel corners. The reason it is still referred to as a boxing ring today is because of its historical connections. Way back through the centuries when boxing became popular again, and no rules had been established, the two men faced each other in a large circle that was drawn on the ground. Because of this, the boxing ring today is often referred to as the square circle.

Answer: Ten

If the referee counts to ten, and the fallen boxer has not risen to his feet again, then the match is over and the boxer left standing is declared the winner. This is known as a knockout. The man on the ground is not necessarily unconscious. He's just too exhausted to go on.

A technical knockout can also be declared by referees, match doctors, or a fighter's team in his corner if any of these three groups think it would be detrimental to a boxer's health if he continues to try to fight.

Answer: They're not allowed to be hit below the belt

Boxers are not allowed to hit an opponent below the belt. This is against the rules if they do so, and, if they break this particular rule, they can either be warned, have points deducted from their score, or be disqualified. They're also not allowed to rabbit punch each other on the back of the neck, hold an opponent's arms down, bite or spit. Many boxers try to circumvent these rules, hoping the referee doesn't pick up on their doing so. Referees, as you can see, have to be very skilled and alert to monitor any boxing match.

All these safety rules are very wise and sensible, but truly, with regard to those high shorts, some players wear them up so high now that they might as well tie them around their necks.