Arrival of the international Team of English Boxing in Spain in 1911: boxing bans and clashes over bullfighting, regeneration and Europe.

This article explores the first exhibition tour of professional boxers in Spain in 1911. The scandal produced by their exhibition caused boxing to be banned in Madrid. After being abandoned in Madrid's streets with no money, the boxers were required by the Barcelona sportsmen as great sports figures before returning to their home countries. Their vicissitudes allow us to understand, first, the conditions in which these international boxing troupes worked as pioneers of professional sports. In addition, it shows the development of the concept of sport in Spanish society, which was similar to that of other Mediterranean nations. The intellectual middle classes promoted sport as a tool for regeneration and democratisation. This progressive view clashed with the elitist and conservative beliefs held by the first sportsmen, arising from the high industrial class of Barcelona. Madrid's economic and political elites also used the supposed violence of boxing to reject any Europeanisation and defend national traditions – specifically bullfighting. Through the study of this specific case, we can observe the interrelationships of social groups within their progressive integration into international sport networks developing at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]