Forms of illegal bare knuckle boxing go back centuries and was very popular in the 1800s just before gloved matches and Marquis of Queensberry rules were introduced, but with the advent of video cameras and the Internet, one can argue that it is even more popular now. Should you doubt my claim, just go to Google.com and search any variation of the phrase "street fight” and see what pops-up….dozens of websites specifically dedicated to displaying such acts of violence. You can go to Youtube.com, do the same thing and thousands of videotaped illegal fights will appear. For the purpose of this topic, let’s simply focus on organized backyard types of brawls that feature only willing participants. These matches usually have money put up by the fighters themselves or their backers, with the winners awarded the entire purse. We are talking about anywhere between a few hundred to several thousand dollars being at stake for any given match. The rules of these fights are closely similar to  London Prizefight Rules which predate the more modern form of boxing. Fighters may only strike with fists, may not clinch or hold, and in the event of a knockdown, will have thirty to forty-five seconds to rise. Should a fighter get knocked out, fail to rise within the allotted time or simply submit and give up, the bout will come to an end with the winner being declared. There are no decisions in these matches;someone must definitively lose. Once gloved boxing became a legitimate sport (at least in some states and countries), bare knuckle boxing took its position in 2nd place. Fast forward to today, and you will find while these kinds of fights are certainly still illegal, the law is seldom enforced. There is plenty of news about law enforcement busting dog or cock fighting rings, but you will rarely hear about police breaking up organized fights involving people. Moral judgments aside, the biggest concern should be the health and welfare of the bare knuckle fighters . With no medical personnel on site during such matches , it is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt or killed.

 To my mind, government should interfere. At least they should consider of the sanctioning such a kind of bouts to improve conditions. In the meantime, until the law and a governing body take control of such events, I expect to see more and more of these kinds of matches on the Internet and hope nobody gets seriously injured.