Team Scotland has a proud history in Boxing at the Commonwealth Games with our boxers winning medals at every Games to date. To round off our ‘Celebrating Our Past, Building Our Future’ Sport Focus, here are 12 things you might not know about Boxing and the Commonwealth Games:
1. Boxing was one of six sports included at the first Commonwealth Games (then known as the British Empire Games) in 1930 and, as a core sport, must be included at every Games.
2. Boxing is the only sport in which Scotland have won medals at every Commonwealth Games. Scottish boxers have also won medals at every Youth Games where the sport has been included.
3. Scotland have won 65 Boxing medals at the Commonwealth Games; 17 gold, 16 silver and 32 bronze. This medal tally places Scotland 4th on the all-time Boxing medal table, just one gold medal behind Australia.
4. There is a three way tie for the title of Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth Games boxer; Josh Taylor, Tom Imrie and Dick McTaggart each won one gold and one silver medal.
5. Alongside his two Commonwealth games medals, Dick McTaggart took European Championship gold, became the first British boxer ever to compete at three Olympic Games and remains Scotland’s only Olympic boxing champion to date.
6. After winning Commonwealth Games gold at Kuala Lumpur 1998, Alex Arthur went on to win eight professional titles, including British, Commonwealth and European Super Featherweight belts and became WBO World Super-Featherweight Champion in 2007.
7. Glasgow 2014 gold medallists Josh Taylor and Charlie Flynn both won medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games before stepping up to senior competition.
8. John Docherty and Sean Lazzerini became the first Scottish boxers in history to win gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games at Samoa 2015 and both were selected for Gold Coast 2018 with John winning bronze.
9. Women’s Boxing was first included as a demonstration event at the 1904 Olympic Games. It was over a century before it was back on the programme as a full Olympic medal sport for the London 2012 Games.
10. Women’s Boxing events were included in the Commonwealth Games for the first time at the Glasgow 2014 Games. The first female boxers to compete for Team Scotland at a senior Commonwealth Games were Vicky Glover and Megan Gordon, both 18 years old when they competed at Gold Coast 2018. Nine months before making her senior Games debut, Megan Gordon was also Scotland’s first female boxer at the Commonwealth Youth Games, winning bronze at the Bahamas 2017 Games.
11. A Boxing bout consists of three rounds of three minutes for both women and men.
12. Head guards were first introduced in 1984 and were required for all amateur bouts until 2013, when they were dropped for senior male boxers. Female boxers and male boxers below senior level are still required to wear a head guard.
Find out more about the sport in the Commonwealth Games on our dedicated Boxing page and look out for our next sport focus as we profile each of the 25 sports in which Scotland has competed at the Commonwealth Games.