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Showing posts from March, 2015

FIFTY ROUNDS FOR A HUNDRED POUNDS

The Seven Rules of Pugilism John 'Jack' Broughton (The father of boxing) 1704-1789     Long ago in Georgian England, prize-fighting, or 'pugilism' as it was known, was a very popular form of entertainment which attracted all social classes of followers, rich and poor. As with Cock-fighting which was to be made illegal around the 1830's, the spectre of two Herculean combatants fighting almost to the death in an ever-increasing effusion of blood and gore was always guaranteed to draw great crowds. Today's more enlightened society generally tends to regard such sport as little less than barbaric and indeed, early efforts were made to present it as more of a humane spectacle. When, i n 1743, John 'Jack' Broughton, a bar e-knuckle fighter of some repute and popularity was to witness at close hand the rather ugly death at his feet of one of his beaten opponents in the ring, a trauma was triggered which was to encourage him to write down a list