• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

PUGILISM WITHOUT PROTECTION IS A NICHE SPORT STAGING A REVIVAL IN THE UK HAVING OCCUPIED THE UNDERGROUND FOR 150 YEARS, BARE-KNUCKLE BOXING NEAR IS NOW EMERGING INTO THE MAINSTREAM, POSSIBLY IN A CAR PARK NEAR YOU. MEN’S HEALTH VISITED A RECENT THE BOUT TO ASK WHY THIS MOST BRUTAL AND PRIMITIVE OF COMBAT SPORTS IS ENJOYING A BLOODY SECOND ROUND > GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER WORDS BY SAM ROWE – PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG FUNNELL 112 MEN’S HEALTH KNUCKLEMENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 113 ONCE A “TEARAWAY”, ANDY TOPLIFFE NIGE TUNNINGLEY’S SOUGHT TO LEGALISE ARMY CAREER BKB AS “CARDBOARD INSTILLED IN HIM GANGSTERS” WERE A LOVE OF COMBAT 52-YEAR-OLD DAVID EXPLOITING THE RAWLINGS SAYS HE COMPETITORS HAS BARE-KNUCKLE NEILL MANNING BOXING IN HIS BLOOD IS A FATHER OF SEVEN WHO LAYS TARMAC BY DAY THE FIGHTER THE CHALLENGER THE PROMOTER THE TRAINER wo insufferable minutes and 31 mid-air Superman punch to the jaw films. What’s going on here in Oxfordshire referees and corner men are mandatory, hand wraps affixed with tape, it means legend GC Joynes, is the man responsible chastening seconds. That’s all it takes for and ends with a flurry of sickening jabs. isn’t that, and not just because no-one while medics are on hand to treat any that – win, lose or draw – bloodied, busted for giving this venerable sport an image sophomore fighter Nige ‘The Cannon’ As The Cannon holds his arms aloft, looks like Brad Pitt. This is a gory advert injuries. Rounds are three-minutes long faces are the norm. refresh. With his former company, B-Bad Tunningley, a pipe fitter from West his night’s work considerably shorter for bare-knuckle boxing – or BKB, to use and unlimited in number. Bouts go on “The one certainty in bare-knuckle,” Promotions, he successfully lobbied Yorskshire, to incapacitate Neill ‘The than his commute, The Rhino sits limply its newer, more sanitised moniker – as until one fighter either concedes, is says Andy Topliffe, promoter of tonight’s authorities to make bare-knuckle boxing Blue-eyed Rhino’ Manning, a Tarmacer on his backside, stunned, defeated, blood a fledgling commercial sport. knocked unconscious, or is adjudged to Field Rage event, “is this: if you can’t take permissible in venues holding a mixed from Berkshire. Standing in a dimly lit gushing from one ear. The rules – for there are some – have taken enough by the referee or pain, you cannot be in this game. Why? martial arts licence or on private land. Oxfordshire warehouse on a cold Saturday Bare-knuckle boxing has been staged are thus: no biting. No headbutts. No medical staff. But seldom do they last Because it bloody hurts. Simple as that. Last year Topliffe sold B-Bad – which evening in March, an inebriated crowd in subterranean lock-ups and caravan eye-gouging or punches below the waist. long, largely because the 12x13ft hay bale FAMOUS EXPONENTS If you get punched in the ear or whacked courts a mainstream audience with drafted from a nearby pub watch in awe sites since time immemorial. While never If a fighter is floored they have 20 seconds pit (roughly half the size of a standard OF BKB INCLUDE in the gristle under your nose, it’s bone upmarket arena shows and fight cards KEANU REEVES AND and excitement as Tunningley discharges completely outlawed, it has nonetheless to find their feet; should they drop to boxing ring) in which the fights take crunching on bone.” held in boxing rings – in order to honour RAY WINSTONE a battery of unorthodox moves. The final become the stuff of fantasy and folklore. one knee, five seconds grace is awarded place offers no place to hide. With no Topliffe, a former publican and great- BKB’s more rustic, grass-stained roots, sequence begins with a punishing, You’ve heard the stories, you’ve seen the before the contest resumes. Gum shields, AGENCY STEM GREG FUNNELL AT protection to speak of bar flimsy cotton grandson of Edwardian prizefighting CONTINUED ON PAGE 119 > T114 MEN’S HEALTH MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 115 FISTS FLY UNTIL A FIGHTER IS KNOCKED OUT, QUITS OR IS ADJUDGED TO HAVE MANNING, ‘THE HAD ENOUGH BY A REF BLUE-EYED RHINO’, CRAMS IN SOME LAST- MINUTE PAD WORK STAMINA AND ENDURANCE ARE VITAL WHEN GOING THE DISTANCE IN A BARE-KNUCKLE FIGHT THE TRAINING “I’m fighting a gloved match next weekend, but the training for this isn’t much different,” says Tunningley. As with those preparing for ring boxing, bare-knuckle fighters need to combine cardio for stamina with pad or bag work for power and NIGE ‘THE CANNON’ strength. Past BKB fighters were TUNNINGLEY HAS known to punch phone books A BACKGROUND IN or steep their hands in petrol MMA, INCLUDING to make their fists rock solid. BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU AND MUAY THAI THE FIGHT In the first round, after just two and a half minutes of brutality, Tunningley (left) floors his opponent. The winning move is a Superman punch borrowed from his cage-fighting days. “It’s an old MMA move,” he explains between laboured breaths. “You fake a left and THE CANNON WARMS then you’ll use that momentum UP IN PREPARATION to bring your hand down, TO ENTER THE TINY straight through the middle.” HAY BALE ARENA GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER 116 MEN’S HEALTH MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 117 THE DEFEAT “I knew I’d won during the stare off,” says Tunningley, afterwards. “Stare into someone’s eyes, and as soon as you catch that little bit of fear, you’ve won already.” Bad blood was a standard fixture in the underground bare- BKB’S UNREGULATED knuckle scene, but today NATURE LENDS ITSELF TO LACK OF gentlemanly conduct is more HEAD PROTECTION common. “He’s my brother now, as far as I’m concerned,” says the victorious Cannon. MANNING RECEIVES A SPORTING CHEER, FOLLOWING HIS FIRST-ROUND DEFEAT > CONTINUED FROM PAGE 115 opponent, 31-year-old Manning, has with events like tonight’s. “Field boxing a physique that attests to his admitted was the original boxing going back 300 fondness for McDonald’s and Chinese years,” explains Topliffe. “It was incredibly takeaways. “I wouldn’t consider myself popular. Even members of the Royal an athlete,” he says in the aftermath of Family would have a bet. The best fighters the contest, cigarette in one hand, can were revered like superheroes.” of strong lager in the other. “But if I get THE While the fighters on parade tonight a good shot on someone, full power, it don’t look much like the modern idea of does something.” a superhero, it would be wrong to make Followers of BKB are hopeful that, with AFTERMATH stereotypical assumptions of the kind significant investment and a change in “I wish I’d stuck it out longer,” of men attracted to the sport. “I’ve got public perception, the sport will make Manning admits, “but I felt solicitors who have fought for me,” a return to the limelight and attain the blood pissing out my ear says Topliffe. “I’ve got scaffolders, IT status of other high-profile combat events and my missus was watching. engineers, you name it. And the majority such as MMA. Many even contend that it’s I didn’t want to get myself too are not doing it for the money. The thing arse. But it also made something click a safer option than gloved boxing since badly hurt in front of her.” War they all have in common is grit. It takes BKB HAS ESTABLISHED inside me. I realised I love combat. the head of a bare-knuckle fighter doesn’t wounds are a common fixture a certain breed of man to step into a STATUS IN THE US, When I left the army I started working take such sustained punishment. On WITH FEMALE FIGHTS in BKB, but unlike gloved bare-knuckle pit. He’s got to be able to AND PAY-PER-VIEW on the doors and all of a sudden the fear tonight’s evidence, it’s difficult to view boxing’s long history with brain take pain and control fear. Make no BROADCASTS I used to have as a kid turned into an this as anything other than credulous. But injuries, superficial cuts and mistake, these are tough men.” intense rage.” Tunningley has studied BKB’s popularity is clearly on the rise – scrapes such as Manning’s, The toughness of tonight’s victor is virtually every kind of combat sport and Topliffe claims to have already fielded though sore, tend to heal fast. never in question. Following a misspent martial art: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, calls from Sky Sports about broadcasting youth involving drugs and mischief, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai. He trains bouts in the future. There will no doubt be Tunningley, 33, joined the army in 2001 hard – high intensity cardio work, pad resistance from many quarters, yet one and did tours in Northern Ireland and sessions, sparring – and when he fights, thing is certain: the gloves are off. Iraq. There, he says, he became a man. he says, it’s with hate in his heart. “I miss “The military gave me a kick up the the army life. To me there’s nothing better than getting in a cage, or on some mats, and having a good tear-up.” Not all fighters take their preparation GUTTER CREDIT GUTTER so seriously, however. Tunningley’s 118 MEN’S HEALTH MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MENSHEALTH.CO.UK MEN’S HEALTH 119.

Load more

  4

Copy Link