Reading methods are valuable cultural and educational objects. They guide students into the world of the written word and, since the end of the nineteenth century, they have associated letters, sounds and words with illustrations. In French schools, in the reading methods published between 1880 and 1960, the word 'boxing' was often associated with the letter X. The word 'rixe' (street fight or brawl) was used as well. The illustrations of these two activities in schoolbooks and the subsequent tacit legitimisation of boxing, a combat sport, in primary education raise questions. By showcasing both the rigour of French Boxing and the entertainment aspect of English Boxing, these illustrations associated educational requirements and iconographic appeal. The representations became educationally and socially acceptable. The gradual 'sportivisation' of these pugilistic illustrations demonstrated the orthodoxy, and even the orthopraxy, of the body in sports that accompanied schoolchildren as they learnt to read.