Why the Boxing Ring is Square: The History and Evolution of the “Ring” in Boxing

Have you ever wondered why the boxing ring is called a ring when it's actually square. The name goes back to the bare knuckle days centuries ago, where fighters battled and spectators would make a natural ring, and it got to the point where they would actually draw a ring in the ground to help keep spectators away from the fighters, and later they would actually build little fences around the fighters and eventually make their way to building a platform in the eighteen hundreds for the fighters to get on to keep them away from the crowds. And they made it a square because that was a lot easier than making a ring. But everyone had called it a ring so much that they kept the name ring even though it was a square, And on May thirteenth, nineteen sixty seven, they actually tested out an octagonal ring to avoid more injuries than had come from the square ring. It may not have stuck for boxing, but it made its way into another sport. Join us today as we dive into the history of the boxing ring and how this one little thing has stained boxing forever. Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into the history of the boxing ring. Now, first we got to learn a little bit about boxing itself. It actually goes back, at least fighting does. Over five thousand years ago, an ancient Mesopotamia archaeologist uncovered some carvings that depicted two men engaging in a fistfight for competition, and these early contests were likely held in open spaces with onlookers forming a circle, as they do even to this day. When there's a fight that happens in school yards around the bar, people make a ring around to watch because you want to watch, but you don't want to be a part of it. And the ancient Egyptians actually embraced boxing as well, although calling it boxing was more just like fighting. It wasn't only with your fists, it was with your whole body. It was closer to what we now know is in May. But ancient Greece was different in a lot of ways. They actually formed multiple sports and boxing was one of them, and it actually became part of their ancient Greek Olympiad. Though there were no rounds, no weight classes, and the bouts will continue till one man signaled defeat by raising a finger or was rendered unable to continue, mostly because they died, and through the years it continued to evolve into the seventeenth century when it really started to explode in England where bare knuckle fighting really took off. It would be held in fields, taverns, and even back alleys, and spectators would naturally form a circle around the fighters like they did before, creating a human ring. In this circle, the action contained and gave everyone a view of what was going on. Now, sometimes it would add simple roads that are kind of like the ropes at the banker to go in and out and around to get to the tellers, kind of like that, making a simple circle. And the first bare knuckle fight actually took place in sixteen eighty one between a butler and a butcher. Now was this the first one, Probably not, but it's the first one that was written down in history that far back. That's really what we keep track of now. Prize fighting took shape with James fig in seventeen nineteen, who we covered on a previous episode, who really changed bare knuckle fighting and championships forever, and his protege, Jack Broughton, gave even more to the sport when he created the Broughton Rules in seventeen forty three, which gave boxing a more formal set of rules closer to what would resemble boxing the day, and his rules actually required a one yard square in the center of the fighting area where boxers could meet and start each round. And this is the first time the square really took place, as it typically was a circle that would get drawn on the ground or roped off. But circle are hard to create a ring out of with material, but a square's a lot easier. Then boxing continued to evolve and in eighteen thirty eight, the London Prize Ring rules introduced a major innovation, saying a twenty four foot square ring marked by ropes or chalk should be placed in the informer circle. And this really standardized what would go on to become boxing, as boxing had lots of rules that adjusted, but there's some things that stand out, just like the boxing ring stood out, and other namesakes such as the phrase ringside seat emerged in the nineteen sixties. Now they actually involved this to include ropes as well, because just squaring off it did not keep spectators away. This was all in protection of the fighters. They would eventually lift it off the ground, giving them a stage to fight on and include the ropes, so one fans could not get in and two the fighters wouldn't fall off the stage because they're focused on a fight and if you don't have a barrier for the fighters, they're going to fall off. Now, what was also included in these new rules was a round, meaning thirty seconds to rest when a fighter got knocked down or thrown to the ground. This allowed each fighter to rest and gave them the opportunity to go to their corner. Now, the corner is the one that makes sinks with the square, and the corner didn't come about until after they started to have the ring, so if they were still fighting in a ring, they would have gone to their side. But now they say go to your corner because they have the corner and the square already set up by the time these rules were introduced. And these rules further made it more like boxing out all headbutting, gouging, hitting below the waist, kicking, fighting and using hard objects and making the sport less brutal and more focused on skills. Wrestling was still allowed, but they added more penalties and the London Prize Ring rules started spread quickly through Britain and the United States, and these led the groundwork that would become what it's known as the Queen's Bury Rules in eighteen seventy six and really led to what boxing as we know today. It mandated that they would have padded gloves which they used to use when they got ready for a match to protect their hands. But it actually but they added it to the rules to help a new level of safety. Now whether it really actually helped safety as it because of the padded gloves, it led to more face shots rather than body shots, but that's a story for another day. Now. Rounds were actually standardized as well, as it became three minutes per each with one minute break between rounds, making it more structured like we have today, and it specified the ring would be twenty four square feet, making it a normal and standardized for both amateurs and professionals, so no matter where you fought in the world, you were fighting in a similar ring. And wrestling and hugging were banned as they wanted to focus on striking rather than grap as wrestling was its own sport, and if a fighter got knocked down for ten seconds and could not get up unaided, they would be cleared a knockout, introducing the modern knockout rule that we have today, and it also said that no other person would be allowed in the ring during the round other than the official in the boxers and the Queensberry rules are really what's known as modern boxing rules. There have been changes over the years to how boxing gloves, round limits and everything like that, but it really changed boxing forever. And that doesn't mean that boxing wasn't finished innovating, as the ring has stayed pretty standard, but with a few new things. They've added padding to the ropes around the ring. They've added padding to the corners to help protect the fighters, and in nineteen sixty seven they actually tested an octagonal ring to help limit the corners that fighters would end up in. Now boxing didn't want to go for this. It was a huge change as the ring had been around for over a century, but it was worth a try, and though that they they didn't use it, another sport called it. Mixed Martial Arts better known as MMA took the octagon to new levels as they needed it for their style of fighting. And it's interesting when you watch clips of boxing, almost all of them look the same, as it hasn't changed in years, it's been standardized and really hasn't changed other than a few amenities. And if you watch a boxing max from the early nineteen hundreds to now square as a ring. Thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. If you want more boxing content, check out the Boxing Movie Podcast. Each episode they discuss a film with a boxing theme, covering a whole cinema history from silent movies to this century, with more than just Rocky and Raging Bowl And we'll put a link in the description below for you to check them out. 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