“We want a good, clean fight”: The History of Boxing
The development of the sport at the center of THE ROYALE
Marco Ramirez’s The Royale — onstage at Lantern Theater Company now through December 11, 2022 — is a play set to percussive rhythms of the sport at its center: boxing. Loosely based on the life of the legendary Jack Johnson — the first Black boxer to win the Heavyweight Champion of the World title — The Royale is set at the turn of the 20th century, and uses the improvisation, focus, and violence of the sport to tell a story about ambition, responsibility, and what one person can do in the face of systemic and interpersonal racism.
The Royale’s heavyweight boxer Jay Jackson calls boxing the “oldest sport in the world.” While it is hard to say for sure, that may well be true; Sumerian reliefs from around 3,000 BCE show barefisted boxers fighting, and the sport almost certainly predates that art. It was also present in ancient Middle Eastern, Egyptian, and Greek art and in the ancient poems of Homer and Virgil. By 688 BCE, it had become an Olympic sport in Greece, where it was largely performed by wealthy athletes.
Ancient Greece’s rules of boxing are the earliest discovered. There were no rounds as practiced today; boxers simply fought until one was unable or unwilling to continue. Clinching — the modern tactic of holding an opponent close with one or two arms to prevent them from punching — was not allowed, and matches were held outdoors under the sun. Another major difference: while padded gloves were used in practice, in competition boxers wore just a soft hide strap, which eventually morphed into a hard leather strap across their knuckles that could cut their opponents. When boxing came to ancient Rome, it grew more violent: boxers sometimes wore gloves with metal spikes sewn into them, turning the glove (and not just the hand inside it) into a weapon all on its own. And in Rome, gladiatorial boxing often ended not with a forfeit or a knockout, but with death.
After the Roman Empire fell, boxing too seems to have disappeared for a time — or at least the record of it does. But by the late 17th century, there were bare-knuckle fights being held regularly — and illegally — in London’s Royal Theatre for prize money and audience betting. While rounds were observed and breaks between them given, there were no limits to the number of rounds to be fought, very few rules, and no weight class distinctions. In 1743, the first set of rules in boxing’s modern era were introduced in England, called the London Rules, and England remained the premiere country for the sport until the later 19th century. Boxers could no longer hit an opponent while they were down, and rounds continued until an opponent was knocked flat; if they couldn’t stand and continue within 30 seconds, they lost the match. Padded gloves also appeared at this time. Another rule change in 1838 officially outlawed kicking, gouging, headbutting, biting, and low blows.
But the upper-class clientele that boxing promoters wanted to attract were still largely put off by the sport’s violence and the perception that it was only performed and enjoyed by lower-class brawlers, leading to yet another set of rule changes: in 1867, the aristocrat Marquess of Queensbury endorsed a new set of rules that mandated padded gloves, outlawed wrestling, set the round length at three minutes, and set the 10-second knockout rule. Many of the Queensbury rules are still in effect today.
By the end of the 19th century, Britain’s dominance in boxing had faded and the United States became the leading country for the sport, just as weight class divisions began to be enforced — and just as Jack Johnson was fighting his way to the top. But for all the shifting rules and increasing prize money, there was also a troubling underbelly to the sport. Grudge matches between different groups of immigrants were common, exploiting animosity between nationalities. And the Battle Royale, which lends its name to the play The Royale, was a particularly brutal tradition with roots in slavery. White audiences would laugh and cheer at a group of Black fighters, often blindfolded, battling it out for the change the audience would throw at them or for established (and small) purses. In the play, Jay’s trainer Wynton participated in these fights. In American history, future Heavyweight Champion of the World Jack Johnson did.
Before Jack Johnson, no Black boxer had won the Heavyweight Champion of the World title. While boxing’s loose organizational structure meant there was not a firm, written rule prohibiting Black boxers from fighting for the title, white champions would simply refuse to get in the ring with them. Johnson won the unofficial Colored Heavyweight Championship of the World title in 1903, then spent five years challenging the reigning white Heavyweight Champion. In 1908, Canadian Tommy Burns agreed, and Johnson won the belt in 14 rounds. In 1910, Jim Jeffries, a former Heavyweight Champion, came out of retirement to try and win it back for white boxers; Johnson defeated him in 15 rounds. After Johnson, the next Black titleholder was Joe Louis, who won it nearly 30 years later.
Since Jack Johnson’s — and the play’s Jay Jackson’s — time, boxing has undergone yet more changes. Professional matches are now limited to a maximum of 12 rounds, and there are more weight classes than ever before. But what remains the same is the essential core: two fighters battling it out in the ring. As Wynton says late in The Royale, “When you go into that ring, son, you do it alone.”
More reading: Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champion of the World — The inspiring figure who inspired Marco Ramirez’s The Royale
Lantern Theater Company’s Philadelphia premiere production of The Royale by Marco Ramirez is onstage November 10 through December 11, 2022, at St. Stephen’s Theater. Visit our website for tickets and information.
