Herodotus, Histories 5. 7. 10 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) : "He [Zeus] held the games in honor of his victory over Kronos. The record of victors include Apollon, who outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing."
The son of Zeus and Leto gets a lot of credit in athletics, from beating Hermes in sprints to besting Ares in boxing. Why is this? Does this have anything to do with:
Apollo being linked to endurance in athletics
Phobus being added to Apollo when denoting fear, which is a huge part of fighting
Bonus:
From my reading there seems to be a clear difference in the Greek mind between an athletic fighters (boxer, pankrationist,etc) and warriors. Diomedes is described as a "spearman" as if to make it clear that he excelled in the use of weapon's, not fists. Does this play into it, that there was a difference between athlete and warrior?
A note in my copy of The Iliad says " Phorbas, the strongest man of his day, and haughty as he was strong, was likewise a great proficient in the art of boxing. He compelled all his guests to box with him, and having vanquished, slew them. At length, rendered still prouder by success, he challenged the gods to contend with him, and was conquered and slain by Apollo. Hence Apollo became the patron of boxers."
Another version of the story of Phorbos maintains that he would attack and slay Pilgrims on the road to Delphi , killing them with his boxing skills. In this version he is also slain by Apollo.