Legend goes that it was urban professionals, working out at New York’s famous Gleason’s Boxing Gym, who started off White Collar boxing in the 1990’s. They didn’t have the time to train for competitive bouts but enjoyed sparring and fancied their chances against city colleagues who trained under similarly constrained circumstances. These hard working guys, living their high-pressure lives, were onto something, tapping into their primal side to ‘go let it out’. They didn’t seek succour from the therapists couch or comfort from the Nanny State’s safety net; they wanted to express themselves through action. And so ‘White Collar’ boxing was born and spread rapidly amongst the Jimmy Choo booted, Paul Smith suited communities of the world to settle in the Armoury Boxing Club, Cape Town - the home of White Collar boxing in South Africa.

But if White Collar boxing is contemporary, the idea of having a distinctive boxing style for ‘gentlemanly’ types goes right back to the start of the industrial revolution in England. During the 18th century bare knuckle prize fighting moved from country fairs into the cities where it became popular amongst the new working classes. In 1747 John Broughton, the most famous fighter of his time, noted the keen attendance of gentlemen at prize fights and opened a boxing academy in the Haymarket, London especially for them. Advertised for ‘persons of quality and distinction’ he introduced the style known as ‘sparring’ which was practised with padded gloves (known as mufflers) rather than bare fists. Boxing became very fashionable amongst the upper classes who claimed that its virtues derived from classical roots and saw its practice as a patriotic duty (they deplored the French for duelling with pistols, which they considered effeminate). Boxing reached its aristocratic zenith under the patronage of the Prince of Wales in the late 18th century and went on to become increasingly popular amongst the middle classes during the 19th century as they aspired to become gentlemen themselves and adopted aristocratic pursuits. Boxing was practiced in public schools, universities and military academies but began to fall out of favour around the 1850’s. Amateur boxing was born with the adoption of the Marquis of Queensberry Rules in 1867 which, though accused of being an attempt by gentlemen to co-opt a working class boxing tradition, was in fact a continuation of Broughton’s rich heritage.



So what of that heritage today? Just about everyone that joins the Armoury says “my dad used to box” and yet hardly any of them have experienced boxing themselves. Boxing in South Africa has been on the verge of extinction in the mainstream although it’s still popular in the townships, because boxing always thrives in deprivation.

• But we don’t believe that boxing is all about ‘gutter to glory’. Some people like us, living in relative comfort, still yearn for the thrill of an adventure and to be tested under adversity. They’re the ones that take to White Collar boxing, regular guys doing something extraordinary.

We believe that we’re meeting a previously unmet need for guys and girls to enjoy authentic boxing training (we’re not talking boxercise!) and, for some, the exhilaration of supervised fighting, without all the macho posturing of MMA and other combat sports where they want to f**k each other over. That’s not our style at all. That’s why we opened the Armoury Boxing Club, and we were right, people love it, we’re often told that it’s a life changing experience!

White Collar boxing is essentially recreational and we take safety very seriously. A White Collar bout consists of just three, two minute rounds and the boxers are protected by 16 ounce gloves (twice as padded as those that professionals wear), head guards, mouth guards and groin protectors. The boxers commit to at least three months of rigorous training to ensure that they’ve got the fitness and skill. Our coaches are there to develop them, technically, physically and mentally so that they’ve got the speed, stamina and strength.

At Armoury Fight Nights we don’t declare winners – all of the boxers are winners as far as we are concerned. Besides, ‘winning’ sometimes corrupts the sport.

Historically boxing has been associated with gambling and dodgy influences, fighters paid to take ‘dives’ and partisan supporters. We want to keep it clean and we nurture good sportsmanship - we expect all of the boxers to respect their opponent and we encourage the supporters to cheer all of the boxers. Both boxers have their arms raised at the end of the bout and they’ll each step out of the ring as champions - and go into the office on Monday morning as returning heroes.