Boxing

Despite the popular aphorism, ‘the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton,’ historians have been slow to appreciate the value Georgian elites vested in their public schools and public school sport. In fact, the stereotype of these schools as anarchic and pedagogically insignificant still endures. I argue that the schools of this period came to enjoy a growing popularity precisely because of their rough nature. Contemporaries praised the violence of both the dormitories and the playing fields as productive of vigorous, future leaders, capable of defending Britain in a world at war. Such rhetoric, I argue, anticipated the late Victorian cults of sport and manliness.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been recently recognized as a leading cause of pituitary dysfunction. Current data clearly demonstrated that sports related head trauma due to boxing, kickboxing, and soccer might results in pituitary hormone deficiencies, isolated growth hormone (GH) deficiency in particular. In the present report physiologic dose GH replacement therapy (GHRT) was performed in two GH deficient retired amateur boxers for the first time. The boxers received recombinant GH for 6 months. After 6 months of GHRT there were substantial improvements, but not complete normalization, in the body composition parameters, lipid profiles and quality of life scores in both boxers. These preliminary results suggest that GHRT may have beneficial effects in retired boxers with severe isolated GH deficiency due to sports related head trauma. But more data with higher number of boxers and longer GHRT duration are warranted.

A chronic, and at times, progressive neurologic syndrome associated with boxing has been recognized for some time by boxing fans and people involved with the sport. Since Martland's first description of the syndrome in 1929, there has been only one randomly selected study of ex-boxers, that of Roberts, which showed a 17 per cent prevalence of this syndrome among boxers who fought between 1929 and 1955. This syndrome can be progressive but often is not. Furthermore, the extent of occupational exposure is probably a significant risk factor. Because of this, it would be expected that the prevalance of the syndrome in the modern boxer, as well as the amateur, would be significantly less than during the first half of the century, and, indeed, several studies appear to support this. Recent studies provide evidence that brain damage does exist in modern boxers and suggests that "subclinical" brain damage is likely to be more prevalent than obvious clinical dysfunction. There is clearly a discrepancy between subclinical evidence of neurologic involvement (for example, an abnormal CT scan) and signs of clinical neurologic dysfunction (for example, clinical exam and neuropsychological testing). The latter tend to show less frequent and consistent evidence of brain damage in boxers than does the CT scan. Although it is tempting to assume that an abnormal CT scan presages the development of neurologic dysfunction, it is not clear that this is the case. The prevalence of the syndrome, risk for progression to functional deficit, warning signs, and the natural history cannot be defined at this time. The only way to better define these parameters would be a controlled prospective study, which has yet to be undertaken.

Enzo Fiermonte is a forgotten star of Italian cinema who acted in over 100 films between 1941 and 1979. His screen career started with "L’ultimo combattimento" (The Last Fight), in which he played the role of the main character: a boxer who was on his way to stardom – until he met a wealthy American woman: he felt in love with her, and she gradually persuaded him to get rid of the gloves and live as a gentleman. It was quite an ordinary story for film-goers to see, but actually that was Fiermonte’s real story.

Prior to join the film world, Enzo was a boxer himself – and a very talented one. He won Italy’s middleweight crown at just 23 years old, and after a series of brilliant bouts in the U.S. he entered the list of the main contenders for the world championship title. Success in the boxing ring, however, was not Enzo’s only success. Women literally felt at his feet: his was tall and muscular like a Michelangelo’s statue, with olive skin and black curly hair. For press reporters, he was “the Rudolph Valentino of boxing”.

In 1932, his beauty was noticed by one of the richest women in the world – Madeleine Astor Dick. She was mother to the heir of America’s most influential family – the Astors – and was known in her country for having survived his husband in 1912, as they were honeymooning aboard the most disgraceful ocean liner of human history – the Titanic. Very soon, Madeleine became infatuated with that gorgeous and kind Italian; Enzo, too, could not stop thinking of her. After a few months, the two got married amid sensational headlines: not only Fiermonte was a boxer with peasant origins, but he also was much younger than her: 25 years as opposed to Madeleine’s 39.

For Madeleine and for the privileges of being married with a millionaire, Fiermonte announced his retirement from boxing, but then he changed his mind; he left his wife, returned into the ring, and the whole world talked about him. Such a story, however, was just one of the many incredible stories he happened to be involved with. Enzo Fiermonte’s life was rich with hazards and hard-to-believe situations in every respect, to the point that Hollywood producers have occasionally thought of making a film about him. ***MORE INFO AT g.memola@yahoo.com***

On the 5 of February 2016, the Martial Arts Studies Research Network held its first one-day seminar, on the theme of gender issues in theory and practice. Hosted by the University of Brighton, the day drew around 30 delegates, including academics from various fields of study and martial arts practitioners from a range of styles. The day featured discussion on a number of themes on the topic of gender; while a short summary of these can be found here, this report focuses on the key points raised by delegates during the first of two plenary sessions, addressing the ways in which clubs and gyms might best improve women’s and girls’ involvement in martial arts and combat sports (MACS).

Humans commonly ascertain physical dominance through non-lethal fighting by participating in combat sports. However, the behaviours that achieve fight dominance are not fully understood. Amateur boxing competition, which is judged using the subjective "Ten Point Must-System", provides insight into fight dominance behaviours. Notational analysis was performed on 26 elite male competitors in a national boxing championship. Behavioural (guard-drop time; movement style [stepping/bouncing time]; clinch-time; interaction-time) and technical (total punches; punches landed [%Hit]; air punches [%Air]; defence) measures were recorded. Participants reported effort required (0-100%) and perceived effect of fatigue on their own performance (5-point Likert scale) following bouts. Differences between winners and losers, and changes across the duration of the bout were examined. Winners punched more accurately than losers (greater %Hit [33% vs. 23%] and lower %Air [17% vs. 27%]) but total...

Sport annually mobilizes millions of people across Europe: as practitioners in a wide variety of competitive, educational, or recreational contexts, and as spectators, who are physically present or following events through the mass media. This book presents original research into modern sport funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Its aim is to examine the distinctive contribution made by this complex phenomenon to the construction of European identities. Attention is focused on sport's social significance, as a set of mass-mediated practices and spectacles giving rise to a network of images, symbols, and discourses. The book seeks to explore, and ultimately to explain, the processes of representation and mediation involved in the sporting construction, and subsequent renegotiation, of local, national, and, increasingly, global identities. It offers a survey of key developments in sporting Europe - from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and from the Atlantic to the Urals - presenting findings by acknowledged international experts and emerging scholars at the level of individuals, communities, regions, nation-states, and Europe as a whole, in both its geographical and political incarnations. Its focus on representation offers a broadly conceived, and consciously inclusive, approach to issues of 'Europeanness' in modern and contemporary sport.

While humans have used their hands to engage in combat since the dawn of man, boxing originated in Ancient Greece as an Olympic event. It is one of the most popular, controversial and misunderstood sports in the world. For its advocates, it is a heroic expression of unfettered individualism. For its critics, it is a depraved and ruthless physical and commercial exploitation of mostly poor young men. This Companion offers engaging and informative essays about the social impact and historical importance of the sport of boxing. It includes a comprehensive chronology of the sport, listing all the important events and personalities. Essays examine topics such as women in boxing, boxing and the rise of television, boxing in Africa, boxing and literature, and boxing and Hollywood films. A unique book for scholars and fans alike, this Companion explores the sport from its inception in Ancient Greece to the death of its most celebrated figure, Muhammad Ali.

This paper forms part of a discussion with scholars working in the field of criminology and youth crime, in particular those who are interested in sport, gender, and desistance from violence. Furthermore, this paper challenges previous work into the sport of boxing and desistance from violence, and therefore argues for a more nuanced approach, by incorporating more feminist epistemologies, and inclusive masculinities into this complex phenomenon. Drawing upon contemporary research, this paper discusses prior literature on sport and desistance from violence, and further develops the concept of sport as a tool for reduction in violent youth crime.

This essay uses gender as a category of historical and sociological analysis to situate two populations-boxers and victims of domestic violence-in context and explain the temporal and ontological discrepancies between them as potential brain injury patients. In boxing, the question of brain injury and its sequelae were analyzed from 1928 on, often on profoundly somatic grounds. With domestic violence, in contrast, the question of brain injury and its sequelae appear to have been first examined only after 1990. Symptoms prior to that period were often cast as functional in specific psychiatric and psychological nomenclatures. We examine this chronological and epistemological disconnection between forms of violence that appear otherwise highly similar even if existing in profoundly different spaces.

Study was carried out to examine the effect of application of resistance band in the female boxers on the levels of the anaerobic power and Maximal Bench Press force (MBP). The study was carried out on 12 female subjects, in ages between 19 and 23yo, who are actively engaged in the boxing branch. The subjects were divided into two groups, each consisting of 6 people, as Constant Resistance (CR) and Wavy Resistance (WR). The average age of CR group was 21.33±0.81 years, the average height 169.67±2.06 cm, and the average body weight 65.28±8.95 kg. The average age of WR group was 21.16±0.75 years, the average height 173.50±3.27 cm, and the average body weight 65.56±3.19 kg. In the study, the exercise of resistance band was made by all subjects four days a week for 6 weeks between  the  hours 9.00-10.00,  boxing  training for competition period between the hours 18:00–20:00  in  evenings. In CR group, the bands in the same color and resistance were used by the method of the black band constant, resistance, in WR group, the bands in different color (red, blue, black) and resistance by the wavy method. Before training, the body weights, and the levels of anaerobic power and MBP levels of both groups were determined. The same measurements were repeated six weeks later. In the statistical analyses of the data obtained, in determining the differences between in-group test and the final test, Paired-sample t-test was used. In determining the difference between two groups, pre-test and final test, independent samples t-test was used. The significance between differences was determined at the level of P<0,05. As a result; as a matter of fact, it can be said that the constant resistance method of CR group is more effective than the wavy resistance method of WR group. Hence, conducting the studies of resistance band that will be conducted specific to branch, using the method of constant resistance, can be more effective.

Thousands of boys and girls younger than 19 years participate in boxing in North America. Although boxing provides benefits for participants, including exercise, self-discipline, and self-confidence, the sport of boxing encourages and rewards deliberate blows to the head and face. Participants in boxing are at risk of head, face, and neck injuries, including chronic and even fatal neurologic injuries. Concussions are one of the most common injuries that occur with boxing. Because of the risk of head and facial injuries, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Paediatric Society oppose boxing as a sport for children and adolescents. These organizations recommend that physicians vigorously oppose boxing in youth and encourage patients to participate in alternative sports in which intentional head blows are not central to the sport.

A női ökölvívás megkapta a lehetőséget a Nemzetközi Olimpiai Bizottságtól arra, hogy bemutatkozzon a2012-es  londoni  ötkarikás  játékokon.  A  tanulmánycélja  kettős:  egyrészt  a  sportág  nemzetközi  és  hazai helyzetét  elemezve  megpróbálja  megmagyarázni,  hogyan jutott el a női boksz e régen áhított sikerig. Más-részt  összefoglalja  azoknak  a  tanulmányoknak  az eredményeit, melyek a tradicionális férfisportok – köztük az ökölvívás – női képviselőinek sportágválasztásával, a médiában történő megjelenés által erősen befolyásolt társadalmi megítélésével és identitásvizsgálatával foglalkoznak. A női bokszolók, illetve az egyéb küzdősportokban szereplő társaik hasonló aspektusú empirikus  vizsgálatára  a  közeljövőben  Magyarországon is sor kerül.

Kulcsszavak::ökölvívás, társadalmi nem, nemi identitás, médiareprezentáció

Female  boxing  was  given  the  opportunity  by  theInternational  Olympic  Committee  to  appear  on  theagenda  of  the  2012  London  Olympic  Games.  Theobjectives of the article are twofold; on the one hand ,by analyzing the international and Hungarian situa-tion of the sport, an attempt is made to explain howfemale  boxing  could  achieve  this  long  awaited  success. On the other hand, it is intended to summarizethe results of studies dealing with the female representatives of traditionally masculine sports, such asboxing,  the  influences  of  the  media  on  their  socialperception, and the gender identity of women participating in these sports. According to the plans of theauthors,  empirical  research  on  female  boxers  andtheir counterparts in other combat sports is to be car-ried  out  in  the  near  future  from  similar  aspects  in Hungary.

Keywords: :boxing,  gender,  gender  identity,  mediarepresentation

Thirty-five years ago, at a time when few were undertaking academic studies of sport and society in Latin America, the historian Joseph L. Arbena argued that sport could provide a window into the regional experience in the Americas. He also argued that the subject of sport had only received “limited systematic analysis.” To a large extent, that is no longer the case. Ruminating on that change, Gregg Bocketti recently affirmed that “now it is a rare season that does not see the publication of at least one academic work on Latin American and Caribbean sport, as scholars have joined athletes, coaches, journalists, and fans in acknowledging the immense scale and broad scope of sports in the region.” Indeed, since Arbena’s gloomy diagnosis, in most social sciences and humanities disciplines, over the past fifteen years in particular, researchers with an interest in the historical analysis of society have opened Arbena’s metaphorical window and have emphasized five key sets of issues, among many. Their approach has often been inter-disciplinary and not necessarily inclusive of history as a discipline. We identify below these five problem sets and illustrate each with an example from the growing body of literature.

This paper investigates how boxers play mind games to affect their opponent's confidence during the three pre-bout periods of weigh-in, warm-up and ring entrance. Perspectives from four senior male amateur boxers at three boxing gyms in the Greater Manchester region were examined using semi-structured interviews; transcribed verbatim and data coded thematically. It was found that amateurs imitated professional boxers, with the more experienced amateurs adopting a broader range of mind games. This indicated that a form of behaviour modelling may evolve with growing experience in the sport.

El presente trabajo se nutre de una experiencia de observación participante desarrollada durante el año 2008 en la ciudad de Córdoba (Argentina) en la que el autor atraviesa por diferentes fases del entrenamiento de un boxeador y de entrevistas con diferentes agentes del mundo del boxeo. Desde la categoría de dimensión subjetiva se interrogan diferentes aspectos del lazo social que se produce en el espacio de un gimnasio de boxeo y la incidencia subjetiva de las diferentes prácticas de disciplinamiento del cuerpo que implica esta práctica.

This volume presents a wide-reaching overview of contemporary research and scholarship on women's engagement in a range of combat sports across the world. Including chapters on boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and various other fighting disciplines, the collection provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of the current significance of women's involvement in these sports, as well as charting many of the problems and opportunities they face in establishing and developing careers within them.

With contributions drawing from anthropology, phenomenology, philosophy, sociology, and sport psychology, this book will appeal to readers interested in the development of women's sport; the relationship between sport and gender; and the wider, contemporary social significance of combat sports around the world.

To view the table of contents and read a sample chapter online, please click here: http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9781137439352_sample.pdf

This volume presents a wide-reaching overview of contemporary research and scholarship on women&#39;s engagement in a range of combat sports across the world. Including chapters on boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and various other fighting disciplines, the collection provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of the current significance of women&#39;s involvement in these sports, as well as charting many of the problems and opportunities they face in establishing and developing careers within them. With contributions drawing from anthropology, phenomenology, philosophy, sociology, and sport psychology, this book will appeal to readers interested in the development of women&#39;s sport; the relationship between sport and gender; and the wider, contemporary social significance of combat sports around the world.

This paper documents how I fought for a place as a boxer in a regional Tasmanian boxing gym over a 30 month period. This work builds on existing ethnographic accounts that argue that, for women, becoming a boxer is more than just a matter of developing a fit body and physical skill – it is a continual project of negotiating gendered identity. Using an analytic autoethnographic methodology and drawing on contemporary theories of masculinity, I share my individual
experiences as a boxer and, in turn, reveal the complexities of bodywork and gendered identity within Tasmanian amateur boxing culture. My closing discussion analyses the way in which performances of masculinity were precarious, fragmented and anxious.

Los deportes de combate son actividades regidas mayormente por un pensamiento empírico, producto de su tradicionalidad que data de miles de años de historia. En la actualidad, los elevados estándares del Alto Rendimiento demandan nuevos abordajes que integren los conocimientos provistos por la ciencia, en busca de obtener mayores resultados con los entrenamientos sobre las habilidades de los atletas. En el presente artículo se llevó a cabo una revisión narrativa con el objetivo de aclarar cuáles son los temas que inciden sobre la potencia de golpeo en deportes de combate y el abordaje más apropiado para su mejora.

La concepción del deporte y de la educación corporal durante el régimen franquista mantiene y se mantiene a través los mecanismos ideológicos y de organización política propios de los regímenes fascistas, aunque con no poco importantes iniciativas democratizadoras al margen del estado, sobre todo, en ámbitos donde la práctica deportiva había estado presente antes de 1936.
Las escasas publicaciones técnicas existentes no fueron capaces de sustraerse al carácter propagandístico que la propia ideología deportiva parecía sostener y alentar. En este contexto no deja de resultar sorprendente la aparición, en 1959, de la revista de estudios deportivos Citius, Altius, Fortius (1959-1976); un proyecto amplio, ambicioso, concebido dentro del sistema de publicaciones de la época pero que expresa una cierta apertura –técnica e ideológica –, que supone un horizonte más amplio, si lo comparamos con las ideas establecidas en la sociedad española y, sobre todo, en la clase dirigente. La revista, con una fuerte vocación humanista (alentada por sus fundadores y directores, Miguel Piernavieja y José María Cagigal), supone un punto de referencia internacional en el campo de estudio de la cultura físico-deportiva.
Los más de doscientos artículos y ensayos se abordan desde perspectivas muy dispares, procedentes de campos temáticos muy variopintos, pero siempre con el deporte, el cuerpo y la educación corporal como núcleo central.
Habiendo realizado un análisis temático y un repertorio clasificado de los artículos publicados, nos encontramos con textos de índole histórica, filosófica, sociológica, antropológica, jurídica, médica, pedagógica, etc. que permiten, con la perspectiva de los más de 30 años de su cierre, la revisión de las representaciones y conceptualizaciones del deporte y del cuerpo en la España oficial de los años sesenta y setenta.
Entre otros aspectos que el análisis comparado permite descubrir, resulta interesante constatar cómo a lo largo de su periodo de vigencia se producen determinadas lealtades y disidencias en relación con las concepciones establecidas y naturalizadas en la sociedad española de la época, condicionadas, sin duda, por la acción política y propagandística de quienes ostentaban el poder (leyes, manuales, prácticas pedagógicas, prácticas deportivas, etc.).
La metodología del estudio se basa, además de en el análisis bibliométrico, en técnicas descriptivas y comparativas, así como el análisis e interpretación temática e ideológica de los textos.

In the gallery of popular icons of the United States imagery, the Mexican boxer stands out as a complex figure. In one hand, the common places associated with him embody the spirit of the hardworking prizefighter: all out, always forward, resilient, and with a capacity of changing the odds in a second. Fictional representations of Mexican boxers do not only put to work the imagination of what makes them box office attractions. It also presents the problem of the body of the Other: one of the foreign bodies par excellence. When represented in fiction, it becomes a territory of negotiation for the assimilation of his presence. The present work explores three salient representations of the Mexican boxer in US literature. Despite the relevance of Mexican and Mexican American boxers in prizefighting, they are seldom protagonists of boxing fictions. These fictions are hardly ever written by Mexican American authors. The starting point is the 1911 short story “The Mexican”, by Jack London, where the author momentarily suspends his racial biases in order to create a political tale. Second, The Square Trap, Irving Shulman’s novel about the social problem of Mexican communities in 1950s L.A. Finally, F.X. Toole’s posthumous novel Pound for Pound (2006), where Tejano boxer Eduardo Garza fights under an Irish public identity. The representation of the boxer in literary fiction by these authors present several strategies of negotiation of the unavoidable otherness of the Mexican boxer and the evolving question of his place in American society.