Jack Broughton
English 18th-century bare-knuckle boxer, author of the Broughton's Rules of 1743, the first standardised rules of boxing, in force until 1838.
Quick Facts
United KingdomBiography
Jack Broughton was born around 1703, according to one source possibly in London or in Baunton, Gloucestershire. He is known as the English bare-knuckle boxer who, on 16 August 1743, drew up the first standardised rules of boxing, the so-called Broughton's Rules.
In May 1723 he trained as a Thames waterman, and on 1 August 1730 he won the Doggett's Coat and Badge rowing race. He took up boxing around 1726. He stood 180 cm tall and weighed 14 stone, about 89 kg. Between 1730 and 1734 he fought four bouts against Thomas Allen, and from 1738 three bouts against George Stephenson; by 1750 he was recorded as unbeaten for 24 years. We have not been able to verify who taught him boxing.
On 13 March 1743 he opened an amphitheatre on Oxford Road in London. His rules were used until the introduction of the London Prize Ring rules in 1838. In 1747 he opened a boxing school on the Haymarket, where he used an early type of protective glove called mufflers.
He fought his last professional bout on 11 April 1750 against Jack Slack, the "Norfolk Butcher", and lost after 14 minutes to a blow that blinded him. He ran the amphitheatre until 1753–1754, after which he traded in antiques, though he continued teaching boxing until 1787. He died on 8 January 1789 in Walcot Place, Lambeth, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; a gravestone with the inscriptions "Champion of England" and "Pugilist" was not placed until 1988. He left his niece 7000 pounds.