1908's British domination of olympic boxing

KillerIsBack V2

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In light of last year's british take-over boxing jokes.


In 1908, all 3 Lightweight Olympic medals and all 3 Heavyweight medals and all 3 Featherweight medals and all 3 BW medals were won by British born boxers, representing Britain.

Also, that same year, the Middleweight gold medal was also won by the great Johnny Douglas who was also a good cricket player and became coach of England's Cricket team. And the Bronze was also won by a british William Philo.

A total of 14 medals won by the brits. Remember we're talking about old school weight classes, non of that junior/super. So that's alot.


Edit: on an unrelated note. Some people seem to claim recently on boxing youtube channels that Degale was the first was the first British gold medalist in boxing... Nope In 1956's Olympics Terence Spinks won gold medal as a flyweight, If you're gonna be a douche and say "but Lennox represented Canada, bro" the more recent one.
 
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Think about the geopolitics of 1908. The British Empire was at its peak. WW1 really messed them up.
 
The british used to be the best boxers of the world, until the americans (continent) started to practice boxing...
 
Think about the geopolitics of 1908. The British Empire was at its peak. WW1 really messed them up.

Bro, power vacuum after WW1. Britain was still on top even though the U.S. began to emerge, they weren't the global power that Britain was. The Brits were unmatched after the Great War. It was "dubya 2" that sent them into a tailspin. Decolonization happened after WW2, not the Great War, and neither the U.S. nor the Soviets were in the ascendant until after August 8th 1945. It was that second war that was the passing of the torch.
 
I wonder: since the Brits always loved out-fighting, that would probably suit the amateur style just fine. Though I can't speak to the specifics as to how it was scored 109 years ago.
 
Bro, power vacuum after WW1. Britain was still on top even though the U.S. began to emerge, they weren't the global power that Britain was. The Brits were unmatched after the Great War. It was "dubya 2" that sent them into a tailspin. Decolonization happened after WW2, not the Great War, and neither the U.S. nor the Soviets were in the ascendant until after August 8th 1945. It was that second war that was the passing of the torch.
Even so, after the Great War set them back and the other world powers began to catch up in technology and power.

I wonder: since the Brits always loved out-fighting, that would probably suit the amateur style just fine. Though I can't speak to the specifics as to how it was scored 109 years ago.
Didn't fights last like 50 rounds and have no gloves? The score cards probably weren't needed too often.
 
Even so, after the Great War set them back and the other world powers began to catch up in technology and power.

Actually, I'll say this. The Allied troops boxed amongst one another and that certainly led to an influx in practitioners returned to North America after the war. And in the 1920's boxing was huge during the post-war boom, so there's that too.

Didn't fights last like 50 rounds and have no gloves? The score cards probably weren't needed too often.

Yeah prior to WW1 it was certainly a little more unregulated. I think by the time of the Marquees of Queensbury, there were gloves, alloted time for rounds and rest, but the number of rounds...sheesh Joe Gans and the Durable Dane (I think) went something retarded like 40+ rounds in the middle of Nevada...But since Olympics was amateur I'm not sure what the regulations would have been at the time.
 
Yeah prior to WW1 it was certainly a little more unregulated. I think by the time of the Marquees of Queensbury, there were gloves, alloted time for rounds and rest, but the number of rounds...sheesh Joe Gans and the Durable Dane (I think) went something retarded like 40+ rounds in the middle of Nevada...But since Olympics was amateur I'm not sure what the regulations would have been at the time.
Looking through those guys' boxrec it seems 15-20 rounds was standard for high level pros and you could choose to go up to 45. Gans and the Dane went 42.
 
I wonder how the south americans learned british boxing? did they british teach them or did they learn it on their own?
 
Y'all have been had. Nice work, Killer! The 1908 Olympics was basically a very limited international 4 nations tournament. The host nation was England and the Games were held in London. This was many years before they had much international participation. Keep in mind, this was only the second Olympic Games that boxers could formally compete at.

There were just 5 weight classes and 4 nations competing with a grand total of 42 boxers, 32 of which were from Great Britain. The other 10 were from France (7), Denmark (2) and Australasia (1). The Australasian boxer was representing both Australia & New Zealand at the time. Out of the 15 medals awarded, Great Britain won 14 and the lone medal (silver) went to Middleweight Australasian boxer Reginald Baker.

Boxing at the 1908 Summer Olympics
 
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Yeah prior to WW1 it was certainly a little more unregulated. I think by the time of the Marquees of Queensbury, there were gloves, alloted time for rounds and rest, but the number of rounds...sheesh Joe Gans and the Durable Dane (I think) went something retarded like 40+ rounds in the middle of Nevada...But since Olympics was amateur I'm not sure what the regulations would have been at the time.

I swear, I once heard a story about a fight that went on for two days. They called it a night, then came back the next day to wrap it up. But I can't remember where I heard/saw it and I can't ever find it when I research.


I might also be confusing all of this with The Legend of Bagger Vance.
 
I swear, I once heard a story about a fight that went on for two days. They called it a night, then came back the next day to wrap it up. But I can't remember where I heard/saw it and I can't ever find it when I research.


I might also be confusing all of this with The Legend of Bagger Vance.

And you might be confusing The Legend Of Bagger Vance with something else entirely. Do they golf and then call it a night and then come back and golf some more?
 
I've decoratively compiled a complete list of all Olympic champions representing Great Britain
35px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg.png
in Olympic boxing history to date. The list includes 3 All-Time Great amateurs:

Harry Mallin
(2× consecutive Olympic champ)
Dick McTaggart (3× Olympian, Olympic champ, Olympic
16px-Bronze_medal_icon_%28B_initial%29.svg.png
medalist & VB Trophy winner for “Most Stylish Boxer” at the Games)
Nicola Adams (2× consecutive women's Olympic champ)

Here are all 16 boxers that won a combined total of 18 gold medals

1908
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Games*
(hosted in London with over ¾ᵗʰˢ of the competitors Brits)


Henry Thomas (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1908 London Bantamweight

Richard Gunn (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1908 London Featherweight

Frederick Grace (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1908 London Lightweight

Johnny Douglas (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1908 London Middleweight

Albert Oldman (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1908 London Heavyweight

1920
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Harry Mallin (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1920 Antwerp Middleweight

Ronald Rawson (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1920 Antwerp Heavyweight

1924
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Harry Mallin (Englishman; became the 1ˢᵗ 2× Olympic champ in GB's history)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1924 Paris Middleweight

Harry Mitchell (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1924 Paris Light heavyweight

1956
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Dick McTaggart (Scotsman; became the only Val Barker Trophy winner in GB's history)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1956 Melbourne Lightweight

Terence Spinks (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
Melbourne 1956 Flyweight

1968
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Chris Finnegan (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
1968 Mexico Middleweight

3a854213c52fdcfe4643cf0c6d956c74.jpg
 
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2000
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Audley Harrison (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2000 Sydney Super-heavyweight

2008
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


James DeGale (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2008 Beijing Middleweight

2012
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Luke Campbell (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2012 London Bantamweight

Anthony Joshua (Englishman)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2012 London Super-heavyweight

Nicola Adams (Englishwoman; became the 1ˢᵗ female boxer to ever become Olympic champ in history)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2012 London Flyweight

2016
36px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Games


Nicola Adams (Englishwoman; became the only women's 2× Olympic champ in GB's history)
16px-Gold_medal_icon_%28G_initial%29.svg.png
2016 Rio de Janeiro Flyweight
 
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I know you said men but what's wrong with saying Nicola Adams won in two olympics?
 
what about lennox? he won gold I believe.

edit: did not read the OP in depth, see that that was addressed, my bad
 
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And you might be confusing The Legend Of Bagger Vance with something else entirely. Do they golf and then call it a night and then come back and golf some more?

They did in that movie. I think. It's impossible to know I guess.
 
I know you said men but what's wrong with saying Nicola Adams won in two olympics?

I thought about Nicola immediately when I posted the list but I only included men. I'm about to change that now though. She won 2 Olympic gold medals alone for Britain, not to mention a World Championship and 3 silvers there as well. Women have only been permitted since the 2012 Olympics to box there so that'd only be two Olympiads total. I'll still add her though since there's interest. I didn't know if there would be in women's boxing. When I posted Claressa Shields threads before most didn't seem to care.

Edit. Fixed! Better? @Sunfish

ah, that's possible

Yeah, he was representing Canada when he became Olympic champ in '88. He was born in England though and was a Londoner which meant that he could've competed for Great Britain if he chose to. We've seen this before. Tyson Fury is one example of wanting to represent both Ireland and GB and getting to.

Having initially been denied the opportunity to fight for Ireland at the Olympic Games, he was permitted to represent both Great Britain and Ireland after tracing his family lineage to relatives in Belfast and Galway.[3][4] Fury has represented both England and Ireland as an amateur, winning the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008 before turning professional later that year. He has since held the British and English heavyweight titles twice each, as well as the European, Commonwealth, and Irish heavyweight titles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyson_Fury
 
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