81 Punch All About Boxing

CHAPTER 1 The Main Event OCTOBER 30, 1974. ZAIRE, AFRICA. 20 MAI STADIUM... NEARLY 60,000 EXCITED SPECTATORS WAIT FOR THE START OF ONE OF THE GREATEST MATCHES IN BOXING HISTORY. MILLIONS MORE WATCH ON THEIR TELEVISIONS IN HOMES AROUND THE WORLD. The champion, George Foreman, is about to fight a former world champion named Muhammad Ali. Ali is fast and his skills as a boxer are amazing. But Foreman is younger, and he is a powerful boxer who has won many fights. The bell rings to start the fight. The crowd goes wild. In the early rounds Foreman comes out strong. He throws punch after punch. Ali stays against the ropes around the ring and takes Foreman's punches. It looks like an easy win for Foreman. But Ali doesn't go down, and little by little, Foreman gets tired. His punches are not so powerful.

第一章主要事件1974年10月30日 扎伊尔、非洲。20迈体育场… 近6万名兴奋的观众等待着拳击史上最伟大的比赛之一的开始。 还有数百万人在世界各地的家中通过电视观看比赛。 拳王乔治·福尔曼即将迎战前世界冠军穆罕默德·阿里。 阿里速度很快，作为拳击手，他的技术令人惊叹。 但是福尔曼更年轻，而且他是一个强大的拳击手，赢得了很多比赛。 比赛开始的铃声响了。 人群变得疯狂起来。在前几回合，福尔曼表现强势。 他一拳接一拳。 阿里紧贴着拳击台周围的绳子，抵挡住了福尔曼的拳头。 看起来福曼很容易赢。 但阿里没有倒下，渐渐地，福尔曼厌倦了。 他的拳没那么有力。

In the eighth round, Muhammad Ali comes out strong and punches hard. Foreman goes down. It's a knockout! Ali is the winner! Ali is the world champion once again! The Sport of Boxing Boxing is one of the oldest sports in the world and still one of the most popular. Millions of people go to boxing matches or watch them on TV every year. Champions become heroes for many people, as famous as movie stars and musicians. Fans of boxing see it as the most exciting and challenging sport in the world. Boxing seems to come naturally to humans. Kids sometimes fight playfully, and, of course, both kids and adults sometimes fight for real. When they do, it seems natural for people to use their hands and arms to protect their face and body and to attack by punching with their fists. Maybe that is one of the reasons boxing is still so popular today. Boxing simply takes natural human actions, adds some rules, and puts it all in the boxing ring.

在第八回合，穆罕默德·阿里强势出击，出拳有力。 福尔曼倒下了。太棒了！阿里赢了！阿里又一次成为了世界冠军！拳击是世界上最古老的运动之一，也是最受欢迎的运动之一。 每年都有数百万人去看拳击比赛或在电视上观看。 冠军成为许多人心目中的英雄，就像电影明星和音乐家一样出名。 拳击爱好者认为它是世界上最激动人心、最具挑战性的运动。 拳击对人类来说似乎是天生的。 孩子们有时会开玩笑地打架，当然，孩子和大人有时也会真的打架。 当他们这样做的时候，人们似乎很自然地用他们的手和手臂来保护他们的脸和身体，并用拳头攻击。 也许这就是拳击运动至今仍然如此受欢迎的原因之一。 拳击只是将人类的自然行为，加上一些规则，并将其全部放在拳击台上。

A Simple Idea It is said that boxing is a complex sport based on a simple idea. The idea is to hit your opponent more than he hits you and win the fight by scoring more points. Or, hit your opponent so hard that he can't continue to fight. Boxing is easy to understand. Boxers cannot hit with their feet or legs. They can only use their hands. However, professional boxers have to practice their sport for years. They need to be strong, fast, and smart. They need to watch the other person, plan ahead before a punch comes their way, and block their opponent's punches. Boxing matches can be long. Matches can last for almost an hour with only a few short breaks. Professional boxers don't wear anything to protect their heads or bodies, but they do protect their hands with leather boxing gloves.

一个简单的想法据说拳击是一项基于一个简单想法的复杂运动。 游戏理念是让你的对手打你的次数比他打你的次数多，并通过得分来赢得比赛。 或者，把你的对手打得太狠以至于他无法继续战斗。 拳击很容易理解。 拳击手不能用脚或腿击球。 他们只能用手。 然而，职业拳击手必须多年练习他们的运动。 他们需要强壮、敏捷和聪明。 他们需要观察对方，在对手出拳之前做好计划，并挡住对手的出拳。 拳击比赛可能会很长。 比赛可以持续近一个小时，只有几次短暂的休息。 职业拳击手不穿任何东西来保护他们的头或身体，但他们用皮拳击手套保护他们的手。

Not for Everyone For thousands of years, men and boys, and sometimes women and girls, have learned the great sport of boxing. But not everyone agrees that it is a great sport. Boxing is dangerous and violent. Over the years, many athletes have been seriously injured or even died from boxing-related injuries. In 1963, champion boxer Davey Moore died from injuries that happened during a fight. Many people still talk about Moore's death to show just how dangerous boxing can be. Some people think that boxing should be banned. And while some countries already ban boxing, in most of the world, the debate continues. Very few countries today ban boxing.

几千年来，男人和男孩，有时还有女人和女孩，都学会了拳击这项伟大的运动。 但并不是每个人都认为这是一项伟大的运动。 拳击既危险又暴力。 多年来，许多运动员因与拳击有关的伤害而严重受伤甚至死亡。 1963年，拳击冠军戴维·摩尔死于在一场比赛中受伤。 许多人仍然在谈论摩尔的死，以表明拳击有多危险。 有些人认为拳击应该被禁止。 虽然一些国家已经禁止拳击，但在世界上大部分地区，关于拳击的争论仍在继续。 现在很少有国家禁止拳击。

CHAPTER 2 Bringing It to the Ring: The History of Boxing BOXING IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST SPORTS. Where It All Started There are pictures of something similar to boxing on the walls of Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old. And boxing is mentioned in the great Greek poem, the Iliad, written almost 3,000 years ago. It was in ancient Greece and Rome, about 2,500 years ago, that boxing became popular. The Greeks believed that fighting with your fists was one of the games played by the gods. That's probably why boxing was included in the first Olympic Games in 776 BCE. In Rome, boxing was popular both as a sport and as part of gladiator contests. But this was boxing in its most basic form: no rounds, rings, rest periods, or point systems. Just two opponents fighting to the death.

第二章拳击的历史拳击是世界上最古老的运动之一。 在3000多年前的埃及古墓的墙壁上，有一些类似拳击的图片。 大约3000年前，伟大的希腊诗歌《伊利亚特》中提到了拳击。 大约2500年前，拳击在古希腊和罗马开始流行起来。 希腊人相信用拳头打架是众神玩的游戏之一。 这可能就是拳击在公元前776年被列入第一届奥运会的原因。 在罗马，拳击作为一项运动和角斗士比赛的一部分都很受欢迎。 但这是拳击最基本的形式：没有回合、拳击圈、休息时间或计分系统。 只是两个对手拼到死。

The Beginning of Modern Boxing By the Middle Ages, around the 5th century, the sport of boxing had almost disappeared. Then, in the early 18th century, in what is called the Age of Enlightenment, the British started to become interested in the traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. Boxing was something the British took great interest in, and soon the sport started to really take off. In the 19th century, rich Britons supported their favorite boxers with large sums of money and prizes. However, boxing matches at that time were still very dangerous, and there were few rules. Many famous boxers were seriously injured or killed. In 1743, the first set of rules to control boxing were written down. The new rules said that a fighter could not hit his opponent after he fell down. Another important rule was that a fight ended when a boxer could not stand and return to the ring after 30 seconds.

现代拳击的起源到公元5世纪左右的中世纪，拳击运动几乎消失了。 然后，在18世纪早期，也就是所谓的启蒙时代，英国人开始对古希腊和古罗马的传统产生兴趣。 拳击是英国人非常感兴趣的运动，很快这项运动开始真正流行起来。 在19世纪，富有的英国人用大笔金钱和奖品支持他们最喜欢的拳击手。 然而，当时的拳击比赛仍然非常危险，而且没有什么规则。 许多著名的拳击手严重受伤或死亡。 1743年，第一套控制拳击的规则被写了下来。 新规则规定拳手在对手摔倒后不能打他。 另一个重要的规则是，当拳击手在30秒后无法站立并返回拳击台时，比赛结束。