Ancient Greek Boxing

Ancient Greek boxing goes way back! To the eight century to be exact. It was practiced in Greek-city states. Until around 500 b.c. fighters used Ox hides to wrap around there hands numerous times. Soon after they were introduced to a more padded, rigid, and rough substance. They only had a few rules which were No wrestling, Any blow except eye gouging, there was no ring or rounds or time limits, the fight was over when someone gave up or was dead, no weight classes, opponents were selected by chance, judges enforced the rules by beating the fighters with a bat. If you got hit in the nose with their gloves is was almost gauranteed it would break and they had no tool to heal it. They wore no clothes except gloves. A rumor has it that a heroic ruler, Theseus, invented a form of boxing where men sat face to face and beat each other with spiked gloves until someone was killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_Boxing
http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/images6/greek_boxer.gif