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With the exception of a single mention, and that mention has been referred to as "a preposterous instance," pugilism stayed in oblivion until something like 17 centuries later, when one meets up with it in England. There is nothing to equal the strange disappearance of pugilism over so prolonged a span of time, especially when one remembers pugilism was among man's earliest methods of battle.

One historian, and one alone, found a pugilistic revival between 30 B.C. and 1750 A.D. He claims to have discovered that a gentle priest, later canonized as St. Bernardine, caused his parishioners to substitute fist fights for knife duels in Siena, Italy, about 1201 A.D.

Siena was a town, like so many others, where tempers flared, honor was assailed and honor had to be avenged. This resulted in duels in which the vanquished and often the victor ended in their graves. It is recorded that the priest, aware that angered men would fight regardless, suggested the substitution of bare fists for lethal weapons. His parishioners harkened to his pleas.

The priest taught men and boys how to strike blows without breaking their hands. Most important, he demonstrated how arms could be used to block punches. His stress was upon defense, since he did not want anyone brutally damaged. His preachment was that each man was to "box up" the enemy attack-self defense-and thus began a boxing era that endured throughout the lifetime of the priest.

The priest, according to the historian, was wise enough to realize that men, even with "honor at stake," were not eager to invite death-for themselves. Paying heed to the pleas of the priest, the men of the congregation put away whatever were the weapons in use at the time and called on their fists alone. The priest became referee, ending all bouts when honor had been avenged and before one warrior had seriously injured the other.

With the death of the priest, fist fighting gradually ceased in Siena. All trace of it is lost in four more centuries. Then historians, in group formation, found that men in England settled grudges with their fists and that some men, superior tothe rank and file, began to indulge in contests "for the fun of it," later for side bets or purses.

Thus, England is called the "Cradle of Pugilism." There was a lot of fist fighting in England in the 17th Century, but it was chiefly in "rough-and-tumble" style. Men who engaged in encounters were privileged to wrestle, punch, or toss the other to the ground. The technique through those years called for throwing a man to the ground with such force as to bounce the energy from him. That usually continued for hours, and such bouts, because of their length, decreased in favor.

However, some men made it strictly a punching bout, as witness this item, which appeared in January, 1681, in the "London Protestant Mercury":

"Yesterday a match of boxing was performed before his Grace, the Duke of Albemarle, between his butler and his butcher. The latter won the prize, as he hath done many times before, being accounted, though but a little man, the best at that exercise in England." The names of the fighters, the rules under which they fought and all important details are absent. But this is not surprising to those familiar with early history in England, especially as it concerned sports. The fight, or contest, was the thing. Who participated never was regarded as of much consequence-unless the individual was of royalty, nobility or the aristocracy. Even in more modern times, the English ignore names, or, if names are given, they lack identifying process. It is "Smith fought Brown," or "J. Smith fought R. Brown" and little more.