Does Anyone Box With Pugilism Style Anymore?

[Rudolphuss]

According to "Animal" Mac Young, he seems to have a high opinion of the pugilist fighting style. I am not saying that we should slug it out all day long with no rules, but can we maybe spar with that style while wearing some protection like grappling gloves, headgear, mouthpiece, etc?

By the pugilist style I mean sticking elbows way out and fighting like the way it was done hundreds of years ago, before it became a sport.

http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/evolution.html

Boxing History (tracking the changes)
Let's go back a hundred years. Way back then, bare-knuckled boxing was the norm. This is when you see a guy, standing there wearing a handlebar moustache that you could hang coffee cups off of, with his hands extended in front of him, elbows down.

Now while both the stance and mustache look silly by today's standard, let me point out that this was called "London rules fighting." That's a joke because the stuff was so "no rules" that it made the UFC look like a Teletubbies show. There was no "gentleman's agreement," grappling, gouging, fishhooking, headbutting, purring (grinding a shod foot down the other guy's shin, trying to break his foot to boot) were the norm -- even though they were techincally banned in 1838 with the introduction of these rules. Prior to that it had been really ugly. In fact, that "goofy stance" excelled at keeping people from closing, grappling and doing all those nasty-nasties to your precious body.

Sound ugly? That's just the beginning. Here's where it gets butt ugly. There were no round limits or decisions. Victory was determined by either knockout or the other guy being so punch drunk he couldn't continue. No points, no decision… incapacitation. In other words, you won by beating the other dude senseless. And sometimes the suckers didn't fold as quickly and easily as you might hope. This is why John Sullivan's longest bout went for 72 rounds. The longest fight on record went 114. That, by the way, means all day! It was called because of sunset and declared a draw. See why I say London rules makes UFC look warm and fuzzy? People often did die.

The reason for changes in how boxers hit is very simple. Gloves. When gloves were introduced, boxing went down a totally different evolutionary line. The original purpose of gloves was to protect the participants. (This is really ironic because, while they limited gouging, hooking and other barehanded nasties, in the correct range, the extra weight of the gloves allow you to actually hit *harder* -- provided you hit in a very specific way.) Along with this equipment many new rules and bans were also introduced to further increase the safety of the fighters.

But the real sweetheart was the ban on clinching and grappling. It was no longer necessary to keep the guy away because the ref would do it for you. This is one of the two major reasons the boxing guard came "in" to its modern position. There was no more need for arms to stick way out yonder to keep the other dude back.

The other big reason, guards came in was that position worked better with the new way of hitting.