Of Boxing and the Boxing Ring
- A Crazy Little Bird Told Me
- Jan 17
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 18
We are all gathered here today as the result of a very innocent question asked on the way to a coffee shop: “why is it called a ring when it is square”. You, who opened this rabbit hole for me, you know who you are! :)
You got to admit though, this is a very good question, particularly when the first line of Wikipedia on the subject states: “A boxing ring, often referred to simply as a ring or the squared circle, is the space in which a boxing match occurs”. You read right, the squared circle. We didn’t learn that shape in school!
And as usual, it turned out I couldn’t write about boxing ring without writing about boxing (count yourself lucky I didn’t go into Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Lethwei, Savate, K1 and on and on we go! I can’t promise this won’t be the subject of another article though).
When did boxing start?
The exact origin of the sport is unknown, but some believe it started in present-day Ethiopia, as early as the 6th millennium BC. I suppose men have always liked competing and beating one another (yes, I am sure some women joined too!). It is said that when Egypt invaded Nubia, the Egyptians brought the sport back and it became popular in the country, before spreading to other countries.
The earliest evidence of boxing comes from Egypt and Sumer both from the 3rd millennium BC, while the earliest evidence of the use of gloves can be found in Minoan Crete (c. 1500–1400 BC).
In ancient Greece, boxing was so popular that it was introduced in the 23rd Olympiad of 688 BC, and it spread to Ancient Rome, even after the Roman emperor Theodosius the Great, at the insistence of the clergy, banned the Olympic Games (and therefore boxing!) in 393 CE, because they were considered a pagan celebration (yes the same Theodosius who is responsible for the bad rep of black cats!).
In 500 CE, king Theodoric the Great (yes, another roman) banned boxing as a sport that offends God: because the symbol of God, man, was subject to blows. I am holding my comments but shaking my head!
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the sport seems to disappear from public forums, but didn’t stop being practiced, as records detail various fist-fighting sports that were maintained in different cities and provinces of Italy for example between the 12th and 17th centuries.
Boxing regained popularity in England during the early 16th century as bare-knuckle boxing, also known as prizefighting. The first documented English bare-knuckle champion was James Figg in 1719.
I am going to go on a limb and assume that there were no concerns about head trauma and long-term impact on beating each other to a pulp with bare knuckles at that time. A little food for thoughts, if the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans all wore some form of wraps or protections on their knuckles (which they absolutely did), one could be led to assume it would have been important to keep on with that tradition. Obviously, our English men disagreed. I suppose you could argue that people tended to die younger and therefore the long-term consequences of getting your head pummelled on a regular basis didn’t matter as much.
Bare knuckle boxing still exists today even though not legal in all countries (you can practice in the UK and some US states for example), but there are many championships and competitions out there, if you feel like joining!
A little side note, if you may allow. We all know boxing today, but it wasn’t always the name it was known by. In Ancient Greece, it was called pygmachia, in the Roman Empire pugilatus, and it was known as pugilism until the late 17th century, when the term boxing appeared.
On 6 January 1681, the first recorded boxing match took place in Britain with Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (later the lieutenant governor of Jamaica) engineering a match between his butler and his butcher; the latter won the prize. I guess this wasn’t a sport for blue blood.
Just in case you wonder, boxing at that time didn’t follow any written rules, weight division, round limits or had referees. You fought until you couldn’t continue (death being an option obviously), which was probably fast and bloody when a 60kg guy fought a 100kg guy. Overall, it was all very chaotic and brutal.
Granted, it is still brutal today, but it is more controlled, more “Hulk, smash” rather than “Dalek, exterminate”; it might not look like it, but I assure you, it is better!
The first boxing rules, called the Broughton Rules, were introduced by champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring. It introduced the possibility, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, for the fight to be over. Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were also prohibited. Broughton encouraged the use of "mufflers", a form of padded bandage or mitten, to be used in "jousting" or sparring sessions, and in exhibition matches.
Believe it or not, there were some female boxers too! In 1790, in Waddington, Lincolnshire, Mary Farmery and Susanna Locker both laid claim to the affections of a young man (why would women fight over a man is beyond me, but this is a discussion for another day!). Farmery challenged Locker to a fight for the prize, and after several knock-down blows on both sides, the battle ended in favour of Farmery. Shaking my head!! If you find a good boxing partner, drop the man and go train girls!
The London Prize Ring Rules, published in 1838 and revised in 1853, were based on the Broughton Rules and introduced measures that remain in effect for professional boxing to this day, such as outlawing butting, gouging, scratching, kicking, hitting a man while down, holding the ropes, and using resin, stones, or hard objects in the hands, and biting.
Random question I have to ask: was Mike Tyson aware of that last rule when he took a little love bite off Evander Holyfield's ear in 1997?
The Marquess of Queensbury rules, drafted by John Graham Chambers under the patronage of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, were published in 1867, and eventually superseded the London Prize Ring Rules for both professional and amateur boxing matches. Among other things, those rules introduced the use of gloves, 3 minutes rounds with 1 minute rest, and the need for any fighter who went down to be able to get up unaided within 10 seconds or be declared knocked out.
Despite establishing rules around the sport, boxing was at the time considered dubious and linked to gambling venues and other illegal activities. Interestingly enough, the English case of R v. Coney in 1882 found that a bare-knuckle fight was an assault occasioning actual bodily harm, despite the consent of the participants. Thankfully, things have changed and boxing (and all other martial arts) can now all be enjoyed by anybody, no matter your gender, age or origin!
What about the ring will you ask, why calling it that when it is square?
I haven’t forgotten the question that started it all.
The short answer is that it is a result of the sport’s gradual evolution.
In ancient Greece, a circular area, called a skamma, was used as the boxing ring. The skamma was a raised platform that was surrounded by ropes, and it served as the arena for the boxers to compete. A roughly drawn circle on the ground was also used in ancient and modern times, and leaving that circle meant automatic defeat, so the name stuck. Lastly, viewers gathered around the two fighters in a roughly circular manner, forming a ‘ring’ of spectators
The first square ring was introduced by the Pugilistic Society in 1838 and was specified as 24 feet (7.3 m) square and bound by two ropes.
Finally, the term "ringside seat" dates as far back as the 1860s.
So, there you have it, it used to be a ring, the name stuck but the shape evolved to what we know today. It makes no sense if you’re a mathematician, but things don’t always have to make sense!
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