Chapter 186: [We must practice martial ethics]

Therefore, if Ma Shao wants to gain a good reputation with lower risk, he must do something different.

In other words, he needs to initiate a reform in the field of fighting.

In 1848, boxing, as Britain's traditional martial art, was a well-known rogue industry, with barbaric forms, corrupt operations and immature techniques.

This situation is known to everyone. Even those who love boxing the most have to admit that there are too many despicable things in this sport.

In other words, reform of combat sports is actually imminent.

Gideon said: "Every boxer's debut begins by challenging others. I can arrange a coach and an opponent for you. As long as you keep winning in the challenges, you can become a boxing champion admired by everyone."

Ma Shao asked: "What kind of coach and opponent can you find for me?"

Gideon: "For a natural king, a coach is not important. I can be your coach just by helping you get familiar with the rules. The rules are important, very important."

Ma Shao laughed and said, "But I heard that fouls are common in boxing matches."

"Indeed, but the rules are still important." Gideon said, "A qualified boxer must know how to avoid fouls to the minimum extent possible, and how to make the opponent commit more fouls than himself."

He added: "In many competitions, the winner is often not the one who is generally recognized as being better at fighting, but the one who is better at using the rules."

Ma Shao suddenly said: "Why don't we establish a new set of rules?"

Gideon was stunned: "New rules?"

Ma Shao: "Everyone knows that the rules of boxing are full of loopholes, both on and off the stage. In this case, why don't we establish a more standardized and decent model to replace traditional boxing."

Gideon: "There are indeed some members of parliament who advocate this, and people who love boxing want it to become a respectable sport... but this seems to have nothing to do with us."

Ma Shao said: "Compared to becoming the king under the existing rules, the real honor is to establish new rules to replace them."

"Gideon, think back to the history you know, and you will find that the most outstanding heroes are always the creators of certain rules."

John Gideon was a fairly pure businessman, but this sentence still aroused some of his imagination and made him think deeply.

After a while.

"What kind of rules are you going to establish?" he asked.

"It's the rules of Apache fighting." said Ma Shao.

Gideon seemed confused: "What?"

"I am a Native American, or what you white people call an American Indian." Ma Shao said slowly, "Apache is the name of my tribe. Apache fighting is a fighting sport that is more suitable for actual combat than boxing and is more martial."

"Martial virtue?" This word might have been originally coined by Ma Shao, so Gideon naturally didn't understand it.

"About the morality of martial arts." Ma Shao explained, "For example, don't bully the weak, don't cheat, respect your opponent, respect life..."

"Our Apache martial arts emphasizes martial ethics. When fighting, we must stop at the right time. Unnecessary bloodshed is not worth encouraging."

Gideon: "Okay, that sounds good, but how are you going to build it, or get people to accept it?"

Ma Shao: "Without actual combat, it's just fancy moves. No matter what kind of martial arts, challenges are always necessary... So, just like a boxer's debut, the debut of this set of rules should also be presented in the form of a challenge."

"Gideon, since you are a professional agent, I will hire you to help me contact some famous boxers and have them challenge me - according to the rules of Apache fighting."

Gideon hesitated. "Of course, I'd love to do that. But the fighters may not be willing to participate in a match using unfamiliar rules unless you are willing to pay them."

"That's right." Ma Shao nodded, "So in the next challenge, whoever defeats me can get a bonus of 500 pounds."

He is indeed a great noble, perhaps a wealthy chief, Gideon couldn't help but think so.

Five hundred pounds is a staggering sum. For most workers, they would have to save up for at least ten years without eating or drinking.

Gideon even wanted to challenge Ma Shao: "Five hundred pounds, that's enough for all the boxers in London to come and try their hand. No, it should be all the men!"

Ma Shao added: "I don't want so many challengers, so failure is not without cost. Those who fail the challenge need to pay one pound - of course not to me, I don't need it, the money will be donated to the Irish victims of the Great Famine as charity."

Gideon was startled, then he reacted and couldn't help but smile and said, "Good idea, now no one will say that we are carrying out barbaric activities!"

Ma Shao smiled and said, "Yes, we are going to hold a charity fundraising event."

Although boxing matches are very popular in Britain and are favored by both ordinary people and nobles, in name, boxing and all kinds of fighting matches are still illegal sports and may be stopped by the police.

Creating a charitable name can undoubtedly greatly reduce this risk, and it also sounds good when said out loud.

Ma Shao gave Gideon a sum of money as a reward and funding, and asked him to help organize and contact boxers in London to participate in this nominal charity fundraising event.

The prize of 500 pounds is still very tempting. In comparison, if you fail the challenge, you only need to pay one pound, and it is in the name of charity donation, which is not too shameful. If you are thick-skinned, you can declare "I just want to donate."

So in the next few days, accepting challenges from London boxers became Ma Shao's daily life, and several boxers would compete with him every day.

In fact, the number of people who signed up is far more than this, but Ma Shao can't accept them all. At least they have to be boxers with some fame.

There was nothing unexpected about the outcome of the discussion.

Relying on his physical fitness far superior to that of ordinary people and a fighting system that was ahead of the times, Ma Shao defeated all the boxers who challenged him, and most of the fights were easy, at least he did not get injured. He also tried his best not to hurt his opponents and really stopped when the time was right.

London is the center of world boxing. Ma Shao set up a ring here and easily defeated a number of little-known boxers in succession. Naturally, media reports quickly fermented and the news soon spread throughout Britain.

It turns out this stuff gets a lot more attention than physics.

So much so that when Joule came to London from Manchester, the first thing he said to Ma Shao was half-jokingly: "I heard on the train that a god of war from Apache appeared in London - could that person be you?"