The 1867 Queensberry rules turned prizefighting into modern boxing
Padded gloves, three-minute rounds and a ten-count — the code that ended bare-knuckle boxing was drafted by a rower, not the marquess it is named for.
Modern boxing runs on a code written in 1867: the Marquess of Queensberry rules. They were actually drafted by John Graham Chambers of the British Amateur Athletic Club, and published under the patronage of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, whose name they carry.
The rules broke sharply from the bare-knuckle London Prize Ring tradition. For the first time, fighters had to wear padded gloves; bouts were split into three-minute rounds with one minute of rest between them; wrestling throws were banned; and a downed boxer had to rise unaided within ten seconds or be counted out.
“The gloves to be fair-sized boxing gloves of the best quality and new.”
Professionals first scorned the code as unmanly. The turning point came in 1892, when John L. Sullivan lost the heavyweight crown to James J. Corbett in a gloved Queensberry contest - and bare-knuckle championship boxing effectively ended.
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