Fun Fact: Boxing Safer Without Gloves?

The Ultimate Man's Sport

So we are all quite familiar with the sport. One in each corner, something about chairs smashing across backs, at the end one boxer pins the other for roughly three seconds and he wins. Oh wait no that is the less manly version called wrestling. Boxing has always been something of a test of manhood, and womanhood. Think about it, you get into a fight with some collar popped, cologne dipped, sunglass wearing guy at a bar and what is the first thing he says? Most likely something along the lines of, "Yo let's take this outside. Hit me I dare you." His caveman mentality over the years morphed into a pretty popular sport. So what were people thinking when they decided bash each other's faces in and make it into a sport? Well it may not be quite what you thought. Bare knuckle boxing can either bring images of what I described above, the bar fight, or something more similar to the picture above. However the way that they were boxing is a lot different than what you or I are used to seeing.

Boxing History

I will start with a bit of history as I always like to get you guys on the same page. I'm not necessarily going to focus on the history of boxing, but rather the boxing gloves. Using hand protection during boxing bouts dates as far back as the 2nd century in Ancient Greece. The boxers would strap or tie leather around their hands to protect themselves and prevent injuries. This eventually became known as a Cestus and metal was also added. Thankfully the cestus was banned in 50 BC and later boxing itself was also banned.

Around the 17th century in England, boxing became popular again. No they did not bring the cestus back to life, that stayed banned. They were often fought with bare knuckles and didn't quite have a stable set of rules to go off of. I suppose back then, boxing was some what of a gentleman's game despite how brutal and barbaric it can be. Gloves were some times worn but not mandated until 1867 under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Naturally with the rules changing to a more glove-friendly state, bare knuckle boxing's popularity dwindled. We can all thank Jack Broughton for the modern boxing glove. Without him who knows what boxers would be using today. I think we should all be thankful he came along before someone decided to bring up the cestus again

The Danger in Gloves

All caught up now? Great, moving on now to why the addition of the boxing glove could be more dangerous than bare knuckle boxing. This topic is some what controversial as we are dealing with two different types of boxing styles. Bare knuckle boxing isn't really what you're imagining. The tactics used were a lot different than today's boxing styles and focused mainly on body punches or anything avoiding he head. This is because punches to the head would cause substantial injuries to both parties. While Gloves do reduce cuts, they do not brain injuries and may in fact even increase the risk. One is more likely to hit harder and faster if they are fully protected. Their opponent's head is protected just the same as if it were a bare knuckle boxing match, which is no protection at all.

There was a study done (Boxing Fatalities, ejmas.com) where they estimated the risk of death for both bare knuckle boxing and modern day gloved boxing. The results came back, quite interesting in fact, about 14,000 deaths per one million participants in bare knuckle boxing. That ended up being 184 times more deaths than modern day gloved boxing which resulted in a mere 76 deaths per one million participants. It should be mentioned that within this study, obviously medical care has advanced over the years and again we are talking about two different styles of boxing. Also some deaths from bare knuckle boxing probably resulted in some level of fatigue. The boxers went on fighting until one couldn't continue and throws and grappling was also permitted resulting in boxers dying from landing on rocks or railways.

All in all bare knuckle boxing was indeed the more dangerous of the two styles, but one should not think that gloves are necessarily safer. Keep this mentality for a lot of things, modern advances aren't always perfect.

That's your daily brain gain!