James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett is more than a boxing legend. He was the first of a new breed of modern-era boxers who approached the sport of boxing methodically. The fast, sleek Corbett believed in training for his fights and in employing speed and strategy rather than uncontrolled power to outmaneuver an opponent.

Through the late nineteenth century, professional boxing was not so much an organized sport as a barbaric fight-to-the-finish free-for-all in which bare-knuckled combatants wrestled and clawed their way to victory. Boxers were more like hooligans who exuded a rough, crude manliness. The sport became more orderly with the institution of the Marquis of Queensberry rules (named after Sir John Sholto Douglas [1844–1900], the eighth Marquis of Queensberry, who helped draft the new boxing rules). Bouts consisted of three-minute rounds featuring minute-long rest periods in between, and to protect their hands...