Our History

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The History

To speak of the history of the United Kingdom Boxing Union (UKBU) it is necessary to go back in time, back to the origins of the Boxing that has brought glory to the people of United Kingdom.

Fighting with the fists as a competition, is one of the oldest sports of all time. Such skills have been practiced since ancient times on almost every continent except America.
Although very few people know the facts, boxing was born in Africa and dates back to 6000 BC, in what is now known as Ethiopia, it first spread to the ancient Egyptian civilization and from there to Mesopotamia.
In the beginning, the Egyptian boxers used a type of glove that was worn up to the elbow, however, this custom was also found in Crete and ancient Greece, where references were made to boxing in Homer’s Iliad.
By the year 688 B. C. boxing was included in the XXIII Olympic Games of ancient times by the name of pygmea or pygmachia, Greek for fistfight. Boxing was also practiced in the early days of ancient Rome, but was virtually eliminated as a business throughout Europe with the rise of Christianity. Contrary to what happened in Europe, boxing was widespread throughout Asia. It is estimated that in the early Christian era, Muay Boran or ancient boxing appeared in Southeast Asia.
China has attributed the appearance of this sport to Bodhidharma, an Indian monk and Buddhist patriarch who lived in the V century, in the shao lin chuan, who claimed that the practice of boxing is intimately connected to the control of qi or chi, an internal energy that is attributed to living beings:
“Without the Chi, there is no force. A boxer who screams and throws his punches fiercely has no real power in his fists. A true boxer is not really a show, but is one whose blows are as hard as a rock. This is because he possesses what is called the Chi.”

In the eighteenth century, boxing became a widespread sport in United Kingdom and its colonies, from it got to the American continent.
Boxer Jack Broughton introduced a technical and methodical approach to the practicing of this sport, optimizing punches and movements. In 1741, he defeated George Stevenson in a battle that lasted 35 minutes, unfortunately Stevenson died a few days later. Because of this, Broughton abandoned the sport, but later came back and created rules to prevent boxers from suffering irreversible damage.
Years later Jack Broughton came up with and began to spread in his amphitheater of Tottenham Court Road what would become the first rules of modern boxing, which became known by his name and eventually gave him the acknowledgement as the “father of English boxing.