Boxing Outsider

If you’re looking to get into a sport that doesn’t have a lot of equipment, boxing is one of your best options. Professional boxers don’t use anything other than headgear, a pair of gloves and a mouthpiece. Well-known brands like Everlast offer glove styles starting from 19.88. But what is the history of this piece of equipment, and just how well does it work?Hand-gear in fighting competitions was first used in Greek and Roman times, most notably in the form of the caestus. This glove originally consisted of simply leather thongs tied over the hand, but fighters soon added spikes and studs to further “enhance” the competition. As you can see, the caestus was a far cry from the modern padded boxing glove, which is designed to protect rather than to maim.The caestus went out of style when hand-to-hand fighting was banned by Emperor Arcadius in 393 A.D. It took more than a thousand years for the sport to come back to popularity, but come back it did in the 17^th century, when British fighters revitalized a bare-knuckles version of the sport. Gloves (and rules) were nonexistent until the Marquess of Queensberry rules, published in 1865. Bare-knuckles boxing still exists in an underground variety, such as can be seen in the Brad Pitt film Snatch.The modern boxing glove is generally acknowledged as being invented by Jack Broughton. Broughton was a bare-knuckles fighter in the 18^th century who developed the “mufflers” to protect his students in sparring. Broughton also helped devise the first set of rules for the sport after accidentally killing a competitor in the ring.Despite reducing the striking force by about 70, modern gloves also contribute to more brain damage, as fighters can last longer and also take more hits to the head when both competitors are wearing gloves. This results in a classic trade-off: safety vs. entertainment. For many boxers, however, the risk is worth it.