Fighting to the Death... Because His Life Depended on It - A Lesson from the Greatest Boxer in History

The Self Defense Channel

Fighting to the Death... A Lesson from the Greatest Boxer in History... Because His Life Depended on It.
Theogenes - the Boxer from Thasos, Greece.
Theogenes was one of the greatest athletes in Greece. He was born in the city of Thasos on the island of the same name in the Aegean Sea. He was a boxer and a pankrationiast (an ancient form of MMA).

He had two victories at the Olympic Games. One was in boxing (480 BCE) and the other in the pankration (476). He won three times in boxing at the Pythian Games; nine times in boxing and once in the pankration at the Isthmian Games; and nine times in boxing at the Nemean Games. He also won the long distance race at Argos. He had 1300 other victories in lesser Games.

It is certain that Theogenes was worshipped as a god in Thasos after his death. One of his enemies whipped his statue. It fell and crushed him to death. The people of Thasos threw the statue into the sea. It was stained with blood. The fields did not produce after this act. The people of Thasos pulled the statue from the sea and put it back in its place. Worship continued. Theogenes was said to heal diseases.

Violence, Suffering and the Cheapness of Life was the rule during the time of Theogenese. Boxing at the time of Homer was not like boxing that we watch today. There was no ring, there were no time limits, there were no rules, and the fight ended when the loser was dead.
Thomas Douglas Jones was born in Aurora, Illinois, on January 26, 1945, the son of Joseph Thomas Jones and Marilyn Faye (Carpenter) Graham. His father was a boxer, and Jones took up the sport as a teenager.
Jones joined the U.S. Marine Corps and trained as a Recon Marine. But in 1963, before he was sent overseas, he was honorably discharged after sustaining an injury in a boxing match, which led to his developing epilepsy.
Jones had resumed his education, and he graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor of arts in 1970. He graduated with a master of arts degree in creative writing in 1973. This is when he wrote "The Pugilist at Rest".
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Greg Pasden
Not only is Greg an expert in reality based self defense training, he is also
a US veteran with over 22 years of military and combat experience, an international certified NRA instructor and co-owner of COBRA Columbus Self Defense Training - teaching reality based self defense. He is 1 of the 3 original Cane Self Defense Empowerment Coaches in the USA teaching combat cane self defense, an experienced world traveler, an international cargo pilot, a family man, and creator of The Self Defense Channel.
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I am a retired educator, ESPN radio host/writer/narrator, spoken-word performer, musician, professional American accent trainer with clients word-wide, founder of American Speech Dynamics and, an Advanced Instructor and 1 of the 3 original Cane Self-Defense Empowerment Coaches.