National Sporting Club

About

The National Sporting Club (NSC) was a private members' sporting club founded in London on 5 March 1891 by John Fleming and Arthur Frederick Bettinson. Operating from premises at 43 King Street, Covent Garden, it staged professional boxing and acted as a de facto national supervisory body for the sport during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The club appointed officials and enforced silence during rounds. In 1909, it introduced Lonsdale Belts for seven championship weight divisions. Four ring deaths between 1897 and 1901 led to manslaughter proceedings, but none resulted in a conviction. Later accounts differ on whether the decisions legalised boxing or left its status uncertain.