Nathan Brooks (USA) defeats Edgar Basel (GER) in the 1952 flyweight final at Helsinki.
The sweet science. Pugilism. Pygmachia. Fist-fighting. Whatever you call it, it's still two guys trying to beat the crap out of each other with padded gloves on.
Unlike, for instance, synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, boxing has roots that stretch all the way back to the ancient Olympics. The Greeks held organized fights in which participants wore leather hand-straps and other protective gear, and were forbidden to hold, grab or claw their opponents. After Greece's fall to Rome, Christian emperor Theodoric the Great banned the Olympics in 393 A.D. in his assault against paganism.
But asking men to stop fighting is like asking them to stop having sex. Organized fights continued for centuries, and the English published two sets of key rules -- the London Prize Ring book for bare-knuckle fighting in 1743 and the gloved update signed off by the Marquess of Queensberry in 1867.
A famous 1882 ruling in England declared that all bare-knuckle fights were criminal assaults, whether fighters were willing participants or not, so gloves became the norm. Queensberry-rules boxing was added to the Olympic menu in 1904 at St. Louis.
Boxing and figure skating do have one key thing in common: subjectivity. The sport has struggled mightily with its desire to stay contained and civilized, to judge winners based on methods that do not match the untimed and unbridled violence of a real-world fistfight. In four two-minute rounds (changed from 3x3 at Sydney 2000), fighters' punches are tallied, and if the fight does not end with a knockout, an outside entity is asked to render a decision.
And while the Olympics have given us great champions like Cassius Clay, George Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya, scoring has been the main source of boxing's problems over the years. After 1960, a panel of five ringside judges was used to score rounds and determine final decisions, after years of single-referee rule. When bizarre judgements turned up repeated instances of corruption, a computerized and automated touchpad scoring system was introduced. This, too, was a disaster, as the numbers varied wildly from one judge to another.
Nowadays, a point is awarded only if three of the five judges register a hit on their touchpads within a second of each other, and it's registered instantly on the scoreboard and on television screens. But you'll still see plenty of instances when a fine blow is landed but no points are awarded. I've long been a proponent of electric sensors, like in fencing -- as long as they can be made sweatproof. (Maybe next century.)
Olympic boxers must be at least 17 but no older than 34, and no competitor may fight with a beard or mustache. As in most other fighting sports at the Games, two bronze medals are rewarded to semifinal losers. That practice began at Helsinki in 1952.
Boxing Fun Facts:
- Boxing remains the only Olympic sport in which no professionals compete. Many think that matters of professionalism are decided by the IOC, but that's not the case. Each sporting federation sets its own rules.
- There was no Olympic boxing at Stockholm, because of a Swedish law that banned the sport.
- The most infamous judging foul-up occurred in Seoul 1988, when American light middleweight Roy Jones Jr. lost the gold medal bout to a South Korean named Park Si-Hun. By any reasonable measurement, Jones landed at least three times as many punches as his opponent (the TV tally was 86-32). But the judges awarded Park a 3-2 decision. Park told Jones that the decision was wrong, and even raised his arm during the victory ceremony.
No evidence of coercion was ever uncovered, but the prevailing theory is that non-Americans felt the Los Angeles 1984 tournaments were tilted in favor of the U.S., and used the Seoul Games to even things out.
- Women's boxing will be added in 2012.
In 2008:
Boxing will be held every day at the Beijing Olympics at the Workers' Indoor Arena. There will be 28 fighters each in nine of the weight classes, and 16 each in the heavyweight and super heavyweight classes. A total of 284 pugilists will fight over 11 gold medals.
* Light flyweight (under 106 lbs.)
* Flyweight (112.5 lbs.)
* Bantamweight (119.5 lbs.)
* Featherweight (126 lbs.)
* Lightweight (132 lbs.)
* Light welterweight (141 lbs.)
* Welterweight (152 lbs.)
* Middleweight (165.5 lbs.)
* Light heavyweight (179 lbs.)
* Heavyweight (200 lbs.)
* Super heavyweight (over 200 lbs.)
Weight classes are unseeded, and are arranged by random draw. Each nation can enter one qualified boxer per class. To win a gold medal, fighters must win five bouts, with recovery times of at least three days between preliminaries. For instance, middleweights will begin action on August 9; survivors will have a second bout on August 16, with quarterfinals on August 20. The semifinals occur on August 22, and if the boxer has made it that far, the gold medal match is the next day.
All-Time Medal Standings:
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 52 | 24 | 35 | 111 |
 | 32 | 15 | 8 | 55 |
 | 14 | 19 | 19 | 52 |
 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 42 |
 | 13 | 12 | 20 | 45 |
 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 20 |
 | 8 | 9 | 26 | 43 |
 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 24 |
 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 19 |
 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 17 |
 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 13 |
 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 19 |
 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 17 |
 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 16 |
 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 17 |
 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 18 |
 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 |
 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 14 |
 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 25 |
 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 |
 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
(Photo via 1952 Official Report)
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