Boxing as a competitive sport can be traced back to the time of the Romans but truly became a sport in the pubs, fairs and carnivals of Georgian Britain. This is a guide to British Boxing from the earliest documented bare knuckle fights to the Queensberry rules. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This four-volume reference work covers the history, records and lore of boxers and boxing. Part I, the longest section, presents alphabetical entries of bare knuckle boxers, and the transitional and Queensberry Rules eras (with more than 2,600 fighters from the latter). Each entry includes dates of birth and death, place of birth, nicknames, a list of fights, and career statistics. Part II covers non-boxers, including referees, promoters, publicists, managers, trainers, cut men, announcers and others. Part III contains records of world title bouts from 1878 through 2010. Part IV lists various records and champions, both amateur and professional, including the all-time leaders in many statistical categories. Part V describes the organization of the sport, tracing the history of weight divisions, world titles and halls of fame. Part VI is an overview of boxing in history and culture (champions of ancient Greece, equipment, gymnasiums, radio and television, literature, drama, the arts, etc.). An appendix offers a timeline of boxing and a bibliography concludes the work.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The stellar moments of boxing seem to take place in public, under blinding spotlights and thousands of eyes fixed on tense muscles. But it is not like that... everything begins to take shape much earlier. In loneliness. Sweating to exhaustion in gyms with the smell of "basement armpit", jogging in fields and parks, between shadows and silences of cold dawns. Weight, diet, rest, no nights out. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. That is where success begins to germinate. The staging is nothing more than the accumulation of effort and sacrifice almost always worked in solitude, almost always in the midst of incomprehension. Can a more similar metaphor to life be constructed than those offered by boxing?