Origins: Sweet Science

At around 900B.C., a greek ruler named Thesus was entertained by seeing men who would sit in front of each other and beat another with their fists until one of them would die, in time this became an Olympic sport where fighters wore gloves (not padded) and wrappings on their arms and elbows, but otherwise were completely naked when competing. After the fall of the Roman empire this sport disappeared, and would later re-surface in England during the late 1600's as Boxing.