A boxing lexicon
Posted: 28 Aug 2016, 02:46
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In 2000 the Oxford English Dictionary people attempted to create a computer-based ‘true’ translator. They abandoned the project in 2010 announcing that computers were “simply too slow” for the task, estimating that there are almost one billion terms and phrases in the English lexicon alone. They are planning on revisiting the effort in 2020, waiting to see if by then computers will be up to the task. (Yes, I agree “one billion” sounds absurd, but it is what they claimed, and I guess they would be the people who know.)
Inspired by the “one billion” remark I began wondering just how many terms and phrases are associated with the fight game, so here is an attempt at an incomplete boxing lexicon. Please feel free to add or correct.
Every time I read someone's post I end up having to come back and add to the list - you gentleman are the prefect source for this; and I have created a deep black hole for myself to dive into.
A boxing lexicon
Boxing
• Boxing
• Prize fight
• Professional boxing
• Amateur boxing
• Bare knuckle fight
• Fisticuffs
• “The sweet science (of bruising)”
Fighters
• Boxer
• Fighter
• Prizefighter
• Pug
• Pugilist
• Champ
• Champion
• “A claimant”
• “A contender”
• Number one contender
• “An opponent”
• “A professional opponent”
• Sparring partner
• “A bum”
• “A palooka” (old one)
• “A ham and egger” (old one)
• “A tomato can”
• “A finisher”
• “Gym warrior”
• “Body puncher”
• “Counterpuncher”
• “Solid puncher”
• Journeyman
• “Lineal champion”
• “The Real McCoy”
• “Pure boxer” (or “natural boxer”)
Fight Announcers’ Favorite Clichés
• “His legs are gone”
• “He’s a catcher” (old one)
• “Can bang with both hands”
• “Swinging from the floor”
• “Glass jaw”
• “He’s got a dimple in his chin” (I heard Angelo Dundee use this one)
• “Weak chin”
• “Solid chin”
• “He’s got a cut . . .(somewhere)”
• “A bleeder”
• “A test-tube bleeder” (I heard this term applied to the British heavyweight Henry Cooper)
• “Against the ropes”
• “Back to the ropes”
• “Laying on the ropes”
• “Caught in the corner”
• “He’s hurt”
• “Wobbled”
• “They counted ten”
• “The kid’s got (no) heart”
• “Looking for a soft spot to lay down”
• “He laid down”
• “He quit”
• “He got mugged”
• “We’re going to the score cards”
• “There’s the bell to start (end) the round”
• “Knocked out of the ring”
• “Knocked through the ropes”
• “Carrying the fight”
• “He has the Indian sign on him” (old one)
• “It traveled a long way, but he got the message”
• “Happy as Larry” (real old one; associated with Larry Foley)
• “Styles make fights”
• “Educated right hand”
• “The usual suspects” (used to identify a fighter with weak opponents on his record; a padded win/lose record)
• “He doesn’t like it downstairs”
• “When he hits them, they stay hit”
• “Nip and tuck” (close and fight)
Boxing Terms that crossed over into common culture as metaphors
• “Low blow”
• “Below the belt”
• “Knockout blow”
• “A knockout”
• “Down for the count”
• “On the ropes”
• “Keep your left up”
• “Protect yourself at all times”
• “The fix is in”
• “Saved by the bell”
• “Throw in the towel”
The Referee and things about the Referee
• Referee
• Ref
• Referee’s instructions
• “The third man in the ring”
• “Touch gloves”
• “Touch gloves and come out fighting”
• “Taking a close look”
• “Referee stopped the fight”
• First warning
• “Took away a point”
• Quick (slow) count
• “pick-up the count”
• “Not making an effort” (DQ)
Ring Announcers’ Favorite Clichés
• “In this corner”
• “In the blue (red) corner”
• “Fighting out of. . .(somewhere)”
• “Wearing _____ trunks, and fighting out of …”
Things fans yell
• “Come on fight”
• “You bum”
• “Finish him”
• “Get up, get up, please get up!” (it is always easy to spot in the crowd the guy who bet on the wrong fighter; sometimes that guy was me)
Types of Punches and such
• Left hook
• Right cross
• Uppercut
• Over-hand right
• Straight right hand
• (Left) Jab
• Bolo punch
• Solar plexus punch (sometimes called the ‘Fitzsimons shift’)
• Kidney punch
• “under the heart punch”
• A haymaker
• Body blow
• Body shot
• Head butt
• Unintentional head butt
• Rabbit punch
• “Thumped”
Fights
• Championship fight
• “Title shot”
• Preliminary bout
• Opening bout
• “Walk-out bout” (walk-out bouts are forced on promoters by State commissions for crowd control purposes; in some States they’re mandatory)
• Elimination bout
• Big Fight
• Rematch
• Guaranteed rematch
• Grudge match
• Bare knuckle fight
• “Fight to the finish”
• “Comeback fight”
• “A stinker”
• “A 15 rounder” (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 . . . 20, Etc.)
• Fight card
Fighting Techniques
• “Stick and move”
• “A banger”
• “A boxer-puncher”
• “A dancer” (old one)
• “A fancy Dan” (old one)
• “Bob and weave”
• “Fights from a crouch”
• “Straight-up fighter” (sometimes called “European style”.)
• “Dirty fighter”
• “Peak-a-boo” (usually associated with Gus D’Amato’s fighters)
• “A hooker”
• “Never hook with a hooker” (no not that, you know what they mean, a guy who throws a good left hook)
• “Move side to side”
• “Never move straight back”
• “Keep your hands up”
• “Double-up on the jab”
• Clinch
• Clinching
• “tie-up”
• Trade (as in “don’t trade with him”)
• “Hit on the break”
• “Punch himself out”
Rules, Scoring, Results, and Crooked Results
• Knockout (KO)
• Technical knockout (TKO)
• Ten count
• Ten-point must system
• Ten-nine round
• Ten-eight round
• Even round
• Unanimous decision (UD)
• Majority decision (MD)
• Split decision (SD)
• Unanimous draw (D)
• Split draw
• Majority draw
• No contest (NC)
• Referee stops contest
• Fighter retired in his corner (RTD)
• Disqualified (DQ)
• Standing eight-count
• Mandatory eight-count
• Three knock-down rule (waved)
• “Stayed on his stool”
• “Quit on his stool”
• (Failed to) “come up to scratch” (old one)
• (Failed to) “toe the line” (old one)
• Got robbed
• “Got jobbed” (old one)
• Fixed fight
• “In the tank”
• A tanker
• “Take a dive”
• “High-dive artist” (old one)
• Controversial decision
Talking about a fighter
• “We” (First person plural used by trainers/mangers/promoters when talking about their fighter; presumptuous considering it’s the fighter who takes all the punches)
• “A piece of the kid”
• “My guy”
• “My guy is ready”
• “We’re ready”
The Ring and Equipment
• The corner
• Neutral corner
• Furthest neutral corner
• “House corner”
• Blue (red) corner
• Turn buckle (gone now)
• Rope
• The ring
• “The squared circle”
• Canvas
• The bell
• Stool
• Bucket
• Spit bucket
• Mouth piece
• Boxing boots
• Trunks
• Gloves
• Training gloves
• “6 ounce Reyes”
• Everlast gloves
• Laces
• Tapped hands
• Endswell
• Heavy bag
• Speed bag
• Jump rope
In the Corner; on the Apron
• Seconds
• Cut man
• Manager
• Trainer
• Ring doctor
• Timekeeper (“and counting for the knockdowns”)
• Judges
• Entourage (supposedly first used to identify Sugar Ray Robinson’s “hanger-on’s”)
Governing Bodies
• Governing bodies
• Marquess of Queensberry Rules
• London Prize Fight Rules
• London Prize Fight Rules (Revised)
• State commission
• Boxing commissioner
• Sanctioning bodies
Classifications
• Heavyweight
• Cruiserweight
• Light-heavyweight
• Super Middleweight
• Middleweight
• Junior Middleweight/Super Welterweight
• Welterweight
• Junior Welterweight/Super Lightweight
• Lightweight
• Junior Lightweight/Super Featherweight
• Featherweight
• Junior Featherweight/Super Bantamweight
• Bantamweight
• Flyweight
• Junior Flyweight
• Strawweight
The Ugly List
• Punch drunk
• Pugilistic dementia
• Parkinson’s syndrome
• “Talks out of the side of his mouth” (old one)
• Ring death
• “Stayed too long”
Sayings too famous or too good to ignore
• “The Ali shuffle”
• “Rope a dope”
• “The Long count”
• “Down goes Frazier”
• “Bum of the month”
• “Let’s get ready to rumble” (First coined by a radio announcer; stolen by Michael Buffer who then copyrighted it)
• “We ‘wuz’ robbed” (Joe Jacobs after the second Schmeling-Sharkey fight)
• “No Mas”
• “You’ve got to knock them out to get a draw over there”
Other Terms I am not sure where to place
• Purse
• “The stake” (old one; they use to tie the purse to one of the ring stakes)
• Side bet (old one)
• Venue
• Fight venue
• Promoter
• Championship rounds (use to be rounds 13 through 15, now just rounds 11 and 12)
• “Tale of the tape”
• Punch stat
• Round
• Middle rounds
• Late rounds
• Last round
• Knockdown
• Rankings
• A top-ten ranking
• The Stare-down
• The weight-in
• Between rounds
• “Walk to the Ring”
• “In the pink” (old one)
• Showing out (losing one’s composure during a fight)
Training Techniques
• “Shadow Boxing”
• “Skipping rope”
• Road work
I am sure there are so many more; just the number of sanctioning bodies (as according to Boxrec) is extraordinarily long and absent form this list.
In 2000 the Oxford English Dictionary people attempted to create a computer-based ‘true’ translator. They abandoned the project in 2010 announcing that computers were “simply too slow” for the task, estimating that there are almost one billion terms and phrases in the English lexicon alone. They are planning on revisiting the effort in 2020, waiting to see if by then computers will be up to the task. (Yes, I agree “one billion” sounds absurd, but it is what they claimed, and I guess they would be the people who know.)
Inspired by the “one billion” remark I began wondering just how many terms and phrases are associated with the fight game, so here is an attempt at an incomplete boxing lexicon. Please feel free to add or correct.
Every time I read someone's post I end up having to come back and add to the list - you gentleman are the prefect source for this; and I have created a deep black hole for myself to dive into.
A boxing lexicon
Boxing
• Boxing
• Prize fight
• Professional boxing
• Amateur boxing
• Bare knuckle fight
• Fisticuffs
• “The sweet science (of bruising)”
Fighters
• Boxer
• Fighter
• Prizefighter
• Pug
• Pugilist
• Champ
• Champion
• “A claimant”
• “A contender”
• Number one contender
• “An opponent”
• “A professional opponent”
• Sparring partner
• “A bum”
• “A palooka” (old one)
• “A ham and egger” (old one)
• “A tomato can”
• “A finisher”
• “Gym warrior”
• “Body puncher”
• “Counterpuncher”
• “Solid puncher”
• Journeyman
• “Lineal champion”
• “The Real McCoy”
• “Pure boxer” (or “natural boxer”)
Fight Announcers’ Favorite Clichés
• “His legs are gone”
• “He’s a catcher” (old one)
• “Can bang with both hands”
• “Swinging from the floor”
• “Glass jaw”
• “He’s got a dimple in his chin” (I heard Angelo Dundee use this one)
• “Weak chin”
• “Solid chin”
• “He’s got a cut . . .(somewhere)”
• “A bleeder”
• “A test-tube bleeder” (I heard this term applied to the British heavyweight Henry Cooper)
• “Against the ropes”
• “Back to the ropes”
• “Laying on the ropes”
• “Caught in the corner”
• “He’s hurt”
• “Wobbled”
• “They counted ten”
• “The kid’s got (no) heart”
• “Looking for a soft spot to lay down”
• “He laid down”
• “He quit”
• “He got mugged”
• “We’re going to the score cards”
• “There’s the bell to start (end) the round”
• “Knocked out of the ring”
• “Knocked through the ropes”
• “Carrying the fight”
• “He has the Indian sign on him” (old one)
• “It traveled a long way, but he got the message”
• “Happy as Larry” (real old one; associated with Larry Foley)
• “Styles make fights”
• “Educated right hand”
• “The usual suspects” (used to identify a fighter with weak opponents on his record; a padded win/lose record)
• “He doesn’t like it downstairs”
• “When he hits them, they stay hit”
• “Nip and tuck” (close and fight)
Boxing Terms that crossed over into common culture as metaphors
• “Low blow”
• “Below the belt”
• “Knockout blow”
• “A knockout”
• “Down for the count”
• “On the ropes”
• “Keep your left up”
• “Protect yourself at all times”
• “The fix is in”
• “Saved by the bell”
• “Throw in the towel”
The Referee and things about the Referee
• Referee
• Ref
• Referee’s instructions
• “The third man in the ring”
• “Touch gloves”
• “Touch gloves and come out fighting”
• “Taking a close look”
• “Referee stopped the fight”
• First warning
• “Took away a point”
• Quick (slow) count
• “pick-up the count”
• “Not making an effort” (DQ)
Ring Announcers’ Favorite Clichés
• “In this corner”
• “In the blue (red) corner”
• “Fighting out of. . .(somewhere)”
• “Wearing _____ trunks, and fighting out of …”
Things fans yell
• “Come on fight”
• “You bum”
• “Finish him”
• “Get up, get up, please get up!” (it is always easy to spot in the crowd the guy who bet on the wrong fighter; sometimes that guy was me)
Types of Punches and such
• Left hook
• Right cross
• Uppercut
• Over-hand right
• Straight right hand
• (Left) Jab
• Bolo punch
• Solar plexus punch (sometimes called the ‘Fitzsimons shift’)
• Kidney punch
• “under the heart punch”
• A haymaker
• Body blow
• Body shot
• Head butt
• Unintentional head butt
• Rabbit punch
• “Thumped”
Fights
• Championship fight
• “Title shot”
• Preliminary bout
• Opening bout
• “Walk-out bout” (walk-out bouts are forced on promoters by State commissions for crowd control purposes; in some States they’re mandatory)
• Elimination bout
• Big Fight
• Rematch
• Guaranteed rematch
• Grudge match
• Bare knuckle fight
• “Fight to the finish”
• “Comeback fight”
• “A stinker”
• “A 15 rounder” (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 . . . 20, Etc.)
• Fight card
Fighting Techniques
• “Stick and move”
• “A banger”
• “A boxer-puncher”
• “A dancer” (old one)
• “A fancy Dan” (old one)
• “Bob and weave”
• “Fights from a crouch”
• “Straight-up fighter” (sometimes called “European style”.)
• “Dirty fighter”
• “Peak-a-boo” (usually associated with Gus D’Amato’s fighters)
• “A hooker”
• “Never hook with a hooker” (no not that, you know what they mean, a guy who throws a good left hook)
• “Move side to side”
• “Never move straight back”
• “Keep your hands up”
• “Double-up on the jab”
• Clinch
• Clinching
• “tie-up”
• Trade (as in “don’t trade with him”)
• “Hit on the break”
• “Punch himself out”
Rules, Scoring, Results, and Crooked Results
• Knockout (KO)
• Technical knockout (TKO)
• Ten count
• Ten-point must system
• Ten-nine round
• Ten-eight round
• Even round
• Unanimous decision (UD)
• Majority decision (MD)
• Split decision (SD)
• Unanimous draw (D)
• Split draw
• Majority draw
• No contest (NC)
• Referee stops contest
• Fighter retired in his corner (RTD)
• Disqualified (DQ)
• Standing eight-count
• Mandatory eight-count
• Three knock-down rule (waved)
• “Stayed on his stool”
• “Quit on his stool”
• (Failed to) “come up to scratch” (old one)
• (Failed to) “toe the line” (old one)
• Got robbed
• “Got jobbed” (old one)
• Fixed fight
• “In the tank”
• A tanker
• “Take a dive”
• “High-dive artist” (old one)
• Controversial decision
Talking about a fighter
• “We” (First person plural used by trainers/mangers/promoters when talking about their fighter; presumptuous considering it’s the fighter who takes all the punches)
• “A piece of the kid”
• “My guy”
• “My guy is ready”
• “We’re ready”
The Ring and Equipment
• The corner
• Neutral corner
• Furthest neutral corner
• “House corner”
• Blue (red) corner
• Turn buckle (gone now)
• Rope
• The ring
• “The squared circle”
• Canvas
• The bell
• Stool
• Bucket
• Spit bucket
• Mouth piece
• Boxing boots
• Trunks
• Gloves
• Training gloves
• “6 ounce Reyes”
• Everlast gloves
• Laces
• Tapped hands
• Endswell
• Heavy bag
• Speed bag
• Jump rope
In the Corner; on the Apron
• Seconds
• Cut man
• Manager
• Trainer
• Ring doctor
• Timekeeper (“and counting for the knockdowns”)
• Judges
• Entourage (supposedly first used to identify Sugar Ray Robinson’s “hanger-on’s”)
Governing Bodies
• Governing bodies
• Marquess of Queensberry Rules
• London Prize Fight Rules
• London Prize Fight Rules (Revised)
• State commission
• Boxing commissioner
• Sanctioning bodies
Classifications
• Heavyweight
• Cruiserweight
• Light-heavyweight
• Super Middleweight
• Middleweight
• Junior Middleweight/Super Welterweight
• Welterweight
• Junior Welterweight/Super Lightweight
• Lightweight
• Junior Lightweight/Super Featherweight
• Featherweight
• Junior Featherweight/Super Bantamweight
• Bantamweight
• Flyweight
• Junior Flyweight
• Strawweight
The Ugly List
• Punch drunk
• Pugilistic dementia
• Parkinson’s syndrome
• “Talks out of the side of his mouth” (old one)
• Ring death
• “Stayed too long”
Sayings too famous or too good to ignore
• “The Ali shuffle”
• “Rope a dope”
• “The Long count”
• “Down goes Frazier”
• “Bum of the month”
• “Let’s get ready to rumble” (First coined by a radio announcer; stolen by Michael Buffer who then copyrighted it)
• “We ‘wuz’ robbed” (Joe Jacobs after the second Schmeling-Sharkey fight)
• “No Mas”
• “You’ve got to knock them out to get a draw over there”
Other Terms I am not sure where to place
• Purse
• “The stake” (old one; they use to tie the purse to one of the ring stakes)
• Side bet (old one)
• Venue
• Fight venue
• Promoter
• Championship rounds (use to be rounds 13 through 15, now just rounds 11 and 12)
• “Tale of the tape”
• Punch stat
• Round
• Middle rounds
• Late rounds
• Last round
• Knockdown
• Rankings
• A top-ten ranking
• The Stare-down
• The weight-in
• Between rounds
• “Walk to the Ring”
• “In the pink” (old one)
• Showing out (losing one’s composure during a fight)
Training Techniques
• “Shadow Boxing”
• “Skipping rope”
• Road work
I am sure there are so many more; just the number of sanctioning bodies (as according to Boxrec) is extraordinarily long and absent form this list.
