The "sport" of boxing has been around for a very long time.

There is evidence of fist fighting as a sport in Ethiopia about 6,000 years ago. It eventually spread to Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean region. Even ancient Crete had a boxing-like sport around 1,500 B.C.

In Greece, two Greek boxers sat on stones facing each other and pounded away until one of them was knocked out. Fighters did wear leather thongs to protect their hands and wrists, but as it progressed, these thongs turned into weapons as harder leather was used. There were no breaks in the fighting either.

The Greeks introduced the sport into the Olympic Games, complete with rules, back in 688 BC. However, the Olympics were also performed in the nude, so better to have rules than not.

The Roman Empire continued the boxing tradition - sort of - and invented the boxing ring, a circle drawn in the sand or platform. Now you know why today's square boxing platform is called the "ring."

The Roman form of the sport was more like their gladiator events -- often brutal in comparison to the Greeks. They created the Caestus, a leather wrapping with iron and brass studs obviously designed to inflict pain. That wasn't painful enough for them so they created the bronze Myrmex (which means limb piercer). Since they were using slaves to fight the contests, it was more like a Fox weekend special - a fight to the death entertainment show - than boxing as we know it today. Rome eventually banned the limb piercer and boxing altogether around 30 BC.

After Rome fell, it would take more than 1000 years before the sport was reintroduced - by the English, no less.

It was an illiterate Englishmen, James Figg, the first heavyweight champion in the sport's history, who opened a fight academy in London in 1719, and made boxing popular (he was also a fencer, so was "respectable.").

Yet, it would take another 24 years before the well educated Jack Broughton, considered the "Father of English Boxing," wrote the first British boxing rules. These rules outlawed hitting below the belt, or hitting an opponent that was down. Wrestling holds were allowed but only above the waist.

Under Broughton's rules, there was a 3-foot square in the center of the ring and when a fighter was knocked down, his handlers had 30 seconds to pick him up and position him on one side of the square, or the fight was over.

Broughton is given credit for inventing the first boxing gloves, called "mufflers," but hey were used only in practice, not in a real fight.

These rules were used throughout England with only minor tampering until the Pugilistic Society (founded in 1814) developed the London Prize Ring Rules in 1838.

The new rules called for a ring 24 feet square, enclosed by two ropes. A knockdown marked the end of a round. Rounds were introduced with a 30 second break. The fighters were given eight seconds to "toe the mark," or "come to scratch," unaided, in the center of the ring after the break or the fight was over.

English rules were used until 1889 when the last bare-knuckle championship bout was fought.

Boxing first began in America between black slaves whose masters wagered huge sums against them. The first great American fighter, a slave named Tom Molineaux, won his freedom by knocking out a champ from a rival plantation. In 1809, he went to England to fight and won a couple of fights and in 1810 -1811, he fought and lost to the English champion, Tom Crib. His jaw was broken on the last fight.

Bill Richmond the "Black Terror" of Staten Island, was a servant of General Lord Percy, who commanded the British forces occupying New York during the Revolution. Richmond fought a number of British soldiers and never lost. Percy took him to England to fight in 1777.

Richmond knocked out his first English opponent in 25 seconds. In 1805, he too was knocked out by British champion Tom Cribb. He was 41 years old. Richmond continued fighting until he was 52 and never lost again.

Most fighting in America was frowned upon or even made illegal in the Eastern part of the country, so many fights were held in the midwest to escape the law. It wasn't until after the Civil War that boxing came into its own. Credit is given to the Boston boxer John L. Sullivan and the Queensbury Rules for making the sport popular and acceptable here.

In 1866, The Marquis of Queensbury, a big supporter in British sporting circles, laid down a new set of rules. These rules included the mandatory wearing of gloves. Unlike the English rules that dealt with bare knuckle, there was no wrestling allowed at all. Rounds were three minutes with a one minute rest period between. Finally a boxer had ten seconds to recover from a knockdown. These are the basic rules we follow today.

John L. Sullivan (1858-1918), the "Boston Strong Boy", became the first great sports hero in America and began his rise in fame by beating Troy's Paddy Ryan which is known in boxing circles as the first great prize fight in American boxing history. Sullivan was known as an honest fighter. He would fight anyone (but refused to fight black men), anywhere, with bare fists, skin-tight or padded gloves, and under any rules.

He is credited with saying, "I will fight any man breathing. Always on the level, yours truly, John L. Sullivan".

Troy has a unique place in the early history of American Boxing with three fighters, Paddy Ryan, John Morrissey, and John C. Heenan. All three were bare knuckle fighters and two of them (Ryan and Morrissey) were heavyweight champions of America.

Next Week: Round Two. Troy's 19th century boxers. Two champions and a wife beater.