Blood; Brawn; Brains and Broken Noses , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Chris Sykes

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92 pages

English

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Blood, Brawn, Brains and Broken Noses explores the evolution of pugilism, better known as boxing, from its origins in Ancient Greece and Rome to the present day. In England, pugilism became a popular form of entertainment, leading to a golden age, which the book covers in detail along with the careers of five champion pugilists. But the sport hit a major hitch when bare-knuckle pugilism clashed with Victorian morals, and it was superseded by gloved boxing. Afterwards, bare-knuckle boxing went underground and was practised clandestinely and seen only by a select few. The book examines the thoughts of ancient philosophers to explain why pugilism became part of British culture. Nineteenth-century philosophies such as Social Darwinism, Muscular Christianity and Rational Recreation are also explored along with how Rational Recreation influences boxing today. What are the sociological factors that motivate people to take up boxing? And how can the sport prevent societal ills? Blood, Brawn, Brains and Broken Noses holds the answers.

Sujets

Boxing

Xian de Boxing

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	22 août 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801502917
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Testimonials
A must-read for all serious boxing fans. It really hits the mark.
Ricky The Hitman Hatton MBE, holder of multiple world championships at light-welterweight and one at welterweight
Starting out boxing at the age of 12 at Buxton ABC, Chris was one of my first boxing coaches. Chris was a great teacher and trainer. He would sometimes get in the ring and spar with us, which not many coaches do. I have much respect for Chris as he s played a part in where I am today in the ring and out.
Jack One Smack Massey. WBC Youth Silver champion, International Challenge Belt, British Challenge Belt, Junior ABA elite champion, IBF European cruiserweight champion and IBO cruiserweight world champion
Avec l approbation de (with the approval of) Frederic Le Scientifique Klose, welterweight champion of France 1999-2001 and EBU welterweight champion of Europe 2003/04 and 2006
In my 35 years of training and competing in amateur and professional kickboxing, MMA, BKB and numerous unlicensed boxing fights, I ve come to the conclusion that a true master of the martial arts is someone who has both experiential and scientific knowledge of their art(s).
Chris Sykes is exactly such a person in my opinion. Both his considerable first-hand physical experience in a variety of disciplines and his analytical mind for all things fight-related have helped him craft a fantastic book.
I m fairly well acquainted with the history of boxing, and already had a fair amount of knowledge of many of the characters that feature in Chris s book. However, there was much information that was completely new to me, and the way it is presented makes for an excellent and highly enjoyable read. This is no mere textbook. Chris has brought the characters to life thanks to a phenomenal amount of research and his own considerable insight into the fight game.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for, or even just a passing interest in, the story of boxing.
Jonathan Santry, professional martial arts instructor, professional stunt performer for film and TV, former professional fighter (No.4 ranked WAKO pro-kickboxer in Britain, 2009), numerous times British light continuous champion, WKA amateur full contact bronze medallist in 2002 and English cruiserweight bare knuckle boxing champion in 2022.

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Chris Sykes, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801501392
eBook ISBN 9781801502917
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Contents
My Thanks
About the Author
Foreword
The History of Pugilism
James Figg
Jack Broughton
Daniel Mendoza
Tom Cribb
Tom Spring
Lenny McLean
Bartley Gorman
Conclusion
Glossary of Flash Language
The Social and Philosophical Factors which Determine Participation in Pugilism
To Captain Barclay
References
Photos
To Christopher Robert Knight, my dear grandson, may God watch over you, keep you and help you to walk a straight path. Kushti Bok! X
My Thanks
I d like to thank the following people for their help in the creation of this book.
Karen Spring, my illustrator.
Dr Charles Spring for the foreword.
My late grandfather, Arthur Shields, who taught me boxing as a child and sparked my interest in pugilism.
Vance Harvey for giving his consent to use any material from his facsimile edition of Boxiana; Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism (first printed in 1812) Volume 1, and printed and copyrighted by Vance in 1971.
About the Author
One of my earliest memories is, at the age of six, being taught boxing by my grandfather in order to protect myself from school bullies, as being short in stature I was often picked on. His forebears were Romany and he was raised in the tough mill town of Macclesfield, where he boxed before joining the army. I can picture him now sitting in his red armchair, wearing white oven gloves, which he used as focus mitts, and me wearing my little red boxing gloves as he instructed me in the noble art. If I didn t duck or dropped my guard he would cuff me, so I learned fast, trying to copy my hero, the late, great Muhammad Ali. During one of our pugilistic sessions, he looked at me and said, Now that I ve taught you boxing, if anyone hits you, or your little brother, you must hit them back - or I ll hit you! After dishing out an odd black eye and bloody nose, I was left alone. My grandfather died when I was 12 and therefore I lost my coach and didn t get back into boxing until my early 20s, when I joined the newly opened Buxton Amateur Boxing Club with its coach, John Taylor. Around that time, I went to work in a local factory to provide for my growing family. It was heavy shift work with extremely long hours, and consequently I could not adhere to the all-or-nothing pugilistic training regime.
However, I continued to keep myself strong and fit and in my mid-20s I took up jiu-jitsu, with Sensei David Hand, becoming a black belt in 1990. I met Sensei John Salt at one of the jiu-jitsu sessions and was so impressed with his fighting style that I switched to karate and began training with him, gaining a brown belt in Shukokai karate in 1993. Whilst practising karate, I returned to Buxton Amateur Boxing Club for a year or more and boxed at light-welterweight, aged about 30.
Always striving to improve my fighting skills, I next trained in mainly private lessons, sparring with Sifu Graham Abdulla for about 18 months before the pressure of family and work commitments meant I had to curtail my training with him. I did try to keep my hand in, though, by training whenever possible at home, sparring in my backyard and practising karate katas.
In the late 1990s, I was left with six children to look after. Impossible to work, I spent much time studying and teaching my children. During these years, and for many years afterwards, I trained hard and sparred with my friend Gary Clayton.
My four boys expressed an interest in boxing and I returned with them to Buxton ABC to train, becoming a full ABAE coach in 2007. I provided a social good by keeping youths on the straight and narrow through boxing and coaching, including - among others - a young Jack Massey, who is now the IBO cruiserweight champion. Later that year, I started studying Martial Arts Theory and Practice and Sports Development at the University of Derby, graduating with a first class BA honours degree in 2010. Whilst at university, I met Sensei Charles Spring, who was my main lecturer and also taught me Krav Maga, the Israeli close combat fighting method, and Robert Agar-Hutton, teacher of T ai-Chi Ch uan. We have all been friends ever since. Sensei Spring graded me in 2011 and awarded me with a black belt in kickboxing.
In 2014, I moved to France for a couple of years and practised the art of savate with the former European welterweight boxing champion Frederic Klose, an excellent coach. Whilst in France, I decided to do something with my education and started putting this book together in 2016.
Since my return from France, and now aged 60, I continue to train and spar. I have developed my own style, which is a blend of the oriental martial arts I have learnt over the years, and especially the occidental martial art of pugilism. I call it Kickboxing Pugilistica ! Your body and mind should be developed in unison and my advice is if you must train, train, but also train your brain .
I hope you enjoy my book.
Thank you.
Chris Sykes.
Foreword
I have known Christopher Sykes since he came to discuss the idea of studying on the BA (Hons) Martial Arts Theory and Practice programme that I led in 2006/07. He proved to be a very able student, earning a first class honours degree, and also proved to be a very competent martial artist. He is someone who deserves respect in both capacities.
My own interest in all things martial started at a very young age. Both of my grandfathers had been boxers and boxing coaches. Grandad Spring taught me my first self-defence moves at the age of five or six. I then undertook judo from around ten and eventually at 16 began what has become a lifelong passion for karate, which I still teach, compete and train in today. I am also an avid reader of books relating to both boxing and martial arts, and I feel very honoured to have been asked to write the foreword for this book.
The beginnings of this book evolved from discussions that Christopher and myself had around the time he was studying and while he was completing his thesis, which I had the privilege of tutoring him through. Leafing through its pages, I can hear his voice as if we are still holding those conversations and this is one of the aspects of the book that I most enjoyed. Another is that in places it reads as though you are discussing the characters and those involved in the different chapters. Their voices and those writing about them, who are referenced throughout, importantly come through too.
In the early chapters, the scene is laid to bring the roots of pugilism to the fore. These are followed by a journey through the history of boxing and the great characters of the English scene. There are