Anyone ever hear of Marquess of Queensbury?

[POETICDRINK2U]

EA SPORTS World - Weighing In <<< here's the link


Here's part of the article.


By Jason Thompson

"Who in the hell is the Marquess of Queensbury?"

That is what I said when I heard Ian Sharpe mention this woman (is a Marquess a man?) when we were talking about boxing at the Fight Night Round 4 (FNR4) Community Day last Monday.

Ian then began to lecture me the way all Englishmen address Americans; as a toothless, rope-belted, uncultured hillbilly. As Ian explained the Marquess of Queensbury is merely one of the many things we Americans should thank the English for because the "Queensbury Rules" are largely credited with providing the basis for the modern rules of boxing. (He also explained to me that if it was not for the English, we from "the colonies" would all be speaking French.) After asking that he "give it up" because it was not my fault that the English "chose to wear red and stand in the open" I researched this gift from the UK and...

[wildhawke11]

Originally Posted by POETICDRINK2U

EA SPORTS World - Weighing In <<< here's the link


Here's part of the article.


By Jason Thompson

"Who in the hell is the Marquess of Queensbury?"

That is what I said when I heard Ian Sharpe mention this woman (is a Marquess a man?) when we were talking about boxing at the Fight Night Round 4 (FNR4) Community Day last Monday.

Ian then began to lecture me the way all Englishmen address Americans; as a toothless, rope-belted, uncultured hillbilly. As Ian explained the Marquess of Queensbury is merely one of the many things we Americans should thank the English for because the "Queensbury Rules" are largely credited with providing the basis for the modern rules of boxing. (He also explained to me that if it was not for the English, we from "the colonies" would all be speaking French.) After asking that he "give it up" because it was not my fault that the English "chose to wear red and stand in the open" I researched this gift from the UK and...

Of course i don't know Ian Sharpe but he sounds the sort of guy that needs putting in his place and made to look a right fool so as to have the viewers laughing at him and his ridicules statements. Wish i had been there at the time. The problem today i feel is that many guys who set themselves up as so called experts on the fight game and its history then go on to address the relatively new fan. Of course many of his audience knowing no different at the time take his word at gospel.

Rule 11 which seem as you said to not fit in can be explained
Bob Fitzsimmons was often reported by the ringside reporters as "Leaping in to land his punch" Bringing this a little more up to date both at one time world champions Randy Turpin and later Floyd Patterson used to leap forward to deliver a blow. What we have to keep in mind is these rules were at the start of the more modern rules that came later.

Guess when we are all gone the new generation will really take note of them. I know we laugh and make a joke of it, but its sad really to think that the old timers from even further back will be less thought of due to twits like some of these. Some years back i was at another boxing site and one guy who was posting had never even heard of Jim Jeffries i admit he was a newcomer. I never derided him in fact i went out of my way to be nice to him and he took a lot of my advice in doing a little research and was wise enough to listen and check out some of the things i said to him. Later on i used to listen to him talking boxing to more newcomers. I had to smile to myself at the change in this young man's point of view. You would never believe it was the same guy.

[David Ball]

The Marquess of Queensbury is also famous for setting off the most famous libel trial in the history of Great Britain, land of libel trials, by sending a note accusing Oscar Wilde of "posing as a sodomite." Or something like that, he may actually have accused Wilde of being "a ponce and a sodomite." Apparently, Queensbury's handwriting was so bad that nobody was sure exactly what he had written.

I might ask why they didn't do what people do with my writing, just ask him what it said, but that would be off topic here. What I propose is the possibility that the Marquess' slovenly handwriting may actually have had a crucial and very fundamental impact on boxing history. For example, he is supposed to have written that a boxer who is knocked down must rise by the count of ten. Now, suppose what he really wrote was, "a boxer who is knocked down must buy everybody a round of ale," but nobody understood it.

Who knows if anything like this really happened, but if word processors had existed in the 1890's it's a possibility that boxing might be a very different sport today. That's assuming Queensbury was a competent typist, of course. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't bet on that.

[Bonedwarf]

How does one pose as a sodomite? Do they have a specific pose?

[Marciano6]

The only thing I know about it is when Mike Tyson was at a Bob Sapp MMA fight. Bob Sapp called Tyson out and Tyson kept saying something about it. YouTube - K1 - Mike Tyson VS Bob Sapp (K-1 Battle At The Bellagio 2003

[mikehoudini]

There was a great Tex Cobb line, maybe several, regarding slander or libel, that was in one of the threads. Someone is sure to remember it.