… boxing was therefore often discussed and debated. Its supporters presented it as a noble art and a science fit to teach young men discipline and to make them into good soldiers. 2 Print culture and pugilism in the late 1780s. If the … argued that the three requisites for a good boxer were strength, courage and art, and the purpose of his treatise was to teach the third. In the wake of Broughton, new manual guides teaching the science conferred to boxing a new legitimacy. Furthermore, Mendoza received royal patronage from the Prince …