Photo © Pavel Losevsky | Dreamstime.com
Don’t look for it in the Olympics any time soon but the International Boxing Association (IBA) has adopted a new discipline and is encouraging its member federations to incorporate it into their structures.
Bare-knuckle boxing, which as the name suggests, is contested without gloves, has very ancient roots, although its popularity has grown in recent years due to its raw nature and appeal to mixed martial arts fans. Boxing event owners (as well as other owners of combat sports events) who incorporate the new, edgy discipline can expect to draw in another demographic.
According to the IBA website, the decision to embrace a new discipline was made at the organization’s board of directors meeting that recently wrapped up in Dubai.
“The evolution of the sport needs to meet the interests of a new generation of athletes and fans worldwide,” IBA President Umar Kremlev said in a statement on the website. “Boxing, as we know it today, comes from fist fighting, which is a pure and primal form of our sport. The IBA remains at the forefront of innovation and honors the origin of boxing, hence, the idea to become a governing body for bare-knuckle fights was born. It is a return to the essence of boxing, a great spectacle and showcase of skills and courage.”
The earliest documented forms of this type of fighting date back to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, although it was in the U.K. in the 19th century that it became established as a more organized sport.
Meaning that yes, everything old is new again.
As a report in Inside The Games noted, the United States and the United Kingdom currently lead the way as competitions dedicated to bare-knuckle boxing have established rules that vary from league to league. Among the most popular is the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which has grown in popularity over the past decade with events being broadcast on pay-per-view platforms.
Bare-knuckle boxing is already embedded in American pop culture, thanks to movies like Far and Away in 1992, in which Tom Cruise played an Irish immigrant who journeyed to America in 1892 and made a living as a brawler.
The sport is already spreading across the U.S. Shortly after the New Year, Philadelphia was the host of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship-Knucklemania V. And according to the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) website, there are events scheduled for Albuquerque, New Mexico; Uncasville, Connecticut and Fort Worth, Texas.
Presently, IBA is developing the rulebook and guidelines to determine the best practices for the new discipline, deliver quality events – and maintain safety standards.
IBA is inviting bare-knuckle boxing athletes to private collaborative input; it is also encouraging its national federations to create their own bare-knuckle departments with an eye to regulating the discipline on the national level.
IBA is expected to have more information on the new discipline in mid-June.
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