Beautiful Burnout Contextual Research for Boxing 16/11/2014

Boxing, the combat sport.

Boxing is a full on combat sport, where two people fight to see who has the most strength, speed and stamina.  The aim of the game is to throw punches until the opponent is either down for 3 or more seconds or unconscious, usually from a hit to the head pr exhaustion. Boxers would traditionally have gloves to protect their hand and soften the punches, yet have also been known to just have supporting wraps around hands and forearm.

In one game of boxing it is split up into rounds lasting 1 – 3 minutes, this is decided by the referee who over sees the match and says when a new round should begin and can declare someone a winner or a loser. A boxer can also decide when to stop; this is called throwing in the towel.  This comes from where boxers would physically throw in their towel into the ring, to show defeat or failure.

Boxing as a qualified sport has been around since ancient Greek times, where it was entered into the Olympics in 688 BC. Boxing was a popular spectator sport in ancient Rome, where competitors were known to wrap their bare hands in leather to soften the blow. This then went on to us hard, worn out leather, to make for a harder blow, and act as a weapon.

Image found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing#mediaviewer/File:Young_boxers_fresco,_Akrotiri,_Greece.jpg

Boxing then came to England in 1838, where the rules of the game were re-viewed and made it harder to win a game. Fights were held in a ring of 24 feet by 24 feet. Fighters had to be standing again within 30 seconds to be allowed to fight back. And biting, head butting and hitting below the belt were seen as rule breakers.

Image found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing#mediaviewer/File:Blow2.jpg

The game of boxing in England was known as the gentleman’s sport, and to this day can still be known as this, this relates to the play of ‘Beautiful Burnout’ where the character of Dena doesn't want to fight with the girls any more and feels like she is ready to fight in the same matches as the boys, this is seen as wrong and is not allowed within the rules.

In the nineteenth century boxing is know a more common sport throughout England and some of the United States. And were often held in secret locations and performed as a gambling sport, Now days amateur boxing can be seen at the Olympics and Commonwealth games and other venues sanctioned by amateur boxing associations. And women’s boxing is seen a lot more commonly in these events yet it is still not allowed to have cross over gender fights.