This website tells the story of British boxing, from its 18th-century roots through to the more familiar era of televised fights. You'll find stories of the most obscure and long-forgotten journeymen as well as Britain's most famous stars.
Learn about the lost customs of the ring and the history of the sport in your area. Discover where and how boxers trained, how often they fought, the conditions they fought under and what drove men to fight for money. You'll learn about British boxing's greatest triumphs, its saddest tragedies, and everything in between.
Search this site for a boxer, venue or some other aspect of boxing history.
If you have an ancestor who boxed professionally, this website can tell you most of what you need to know about the era in which he fought; however, no two boxers' stories are ever the same.
If you'd like to uncover the story of your ancestor's own boxing career, our historian Miles Templeton can help.
Nipper Pat Daly was boxing's most amazing prodigy. Extraordinary but tragic, his was a career like no other in sports history. Born in Wales in 1913, he became a professional boxer at age ten after moving to London. With his exceptional talent, by age 14 he was beating grown men in gruelling 15-round fights. At 15 he was thrashing national champions and at 16 was ranked by America's The Ring magazine in the world's top ten.
In the late 1920s, audiences across Britain sat spellbound as the Wonderboy delivered boxing masterclasses against Europe's elite fighters. Daly beat three British champions, a European champ and the reigning champions of Italy, Belgium and Germany. A magnetic figure, leading sportswriters saw him as a future world champion and possible all-time great. Tragically, however, he was recklessly overworked and forced to retire aged 17, after well over 100 pro fights. Incorporating Nipper's previously unpublished memoirs, Born to Box is the story of his unique career, life and times.
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