The origins of boxing can be traced back to the Ancient Mesopotamia from the Sumerian civilization. The earliest known depiction of boxing comes from a Sumerian relief from the early third or second millennium BCE. It depicts two men without gloves, facing each other with their arms bent and fists clinched.
Other ancient cultures boxed bare fisted and the Minoans appear to be the first civilization to use boxing gloves. Boxing first appeared in the Olympics at the 23rd Olympiad in 688 BCE and the boxers wound leather thongs around their hands for protection. Modern boxing evolved from 16th and 18th-century prizefights in Great Britain. Disclaimer: Mankind’s earliest sports grew out of survival skills. Wrestling is considered one of the very first, with depictions found in the Lascaux cave paintings in France dating back over 15,000 years. Running also has prehistoric roots, since speed was crucial for both hunting and escaping danger; by around 3,000 BCE, footraces were already being held in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the very first Olympic event in Greece in 776 BCE was a sprint known as the stadion.
