With their large population and huge economy, they can't seem to field any top lvl fighters. Whenever they do have an good fighter he is of African or Arab descent.
Is there a reason why the French don't box?
With their large population and huge economy, they can't seem to field any top lvl fighters. Whenever they do have an good fighter he is of African or Arab descent.
Is there a reason why the French don't box?
- -They too busy in their Chantilly lace sautéing escargot and truffles in butter.
Marcel Cerdan is one of the greatest fighters ever, but other than him, I can't think of anybody.
I think it's actually a good question.
Like I wonder the same thing about a lot of places.
Like why doesn't Chicago have more great fighters?
How come there aren't more famous Indian or Arab fighters?
How come there aren't more great boxers from Brazil?
Some places just don't have a culture where boxing is important.
That may settle atm, but, until the later 30s and early 40s the French kind of controlled boxing. NY was the mecca, but outside of NYSAC and NY it'd be fair to say the French IBU had more global impact than the USA's NBA.
During their time as a behind the scenes power the French had good contenders and that's about it. The IBU members started to shift toward Germany, Italy, and Spain. They were all able to get champions out of it before they lost majority control as well.
I have legitimately always wondered how the French held such control in boxing while failing to crown a HW champion.
When the Irish pop happens in the US and NY the Irish are champions.
Queen Vic's Diamond Jubilee = Bob Fitzs gets crowned.
Canada gets a champion just as Canada looks poised to overtake the homeland as the most important nation in the BE and therefore in the world at that time.
France takes over Europe in an economic sense. Consolidating power in sports and other activities like film, but, they fail to crown a HW champion. 1909 cycling, 1910 boxing, etc.
Germany and Italy rise, each get a champ.
Just kinda odd isn't it? Usually the champion reflects the people group putting the most into boxing, unless, they're French. That's not being ant French, just a fact. It's always been something I wanted to answer but never got around to because I'm pretty sure the answer isn't in boxing so much as economics and what was going on in the world at the time.
Honestly, I had no idea of France’s boxing history, I never knew they had that sort of influence.
From an economic perspective, France did relatively well in the 20’s in comparison to some of the other European nations who were all crippled from WW1. They were a lot harsher on Germany at Versailles which helped their economic recovery but their economy was by no means strong. By the the 30’s the Depression had hit them and by the end of that decade they were dealing with a Second World War.
Unsure exactly how this affected boxing in the country, but I imagine their economic state following WW2 reduced their spending on sports and led to them losing all of their influence over boxing- that’s complete conjecture though, I’ve never looked into it.
i asked a french guy if boxing was popular in france, he laughed and said he cant even remember if he had ever heard a boxing report on tv there or heard of a boxer mantioned in a bulletin, nuff said i think
he said team sports are popular there, football and rugby huge then things like tennis and cycling and bowls or something like that
Yeah football and tennis are the biggies I think. And France has produced elite athletes in those sports
Boxing was England's sport.
The French preferred that fruity savate.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41CNTB6130L._SX296_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
i asked a french guy if boxing was popular in france, he laughed and said he cant even remember if he had ever heard a boxing report on tv there or heard of a boxer mantioned in a bulletin, nuff said i think
he said team sports are popular there, football and rugby huge then things like tennis and cycling and bowls or something like that
Hell most of the decent fighters they do have are from the former colonies... North or West Africa mainly.
Same with the footballers, scratch that basically all their top level sports men. :lol1:
They never have been a big boxing country and they probably never will be. They have had a few great fighters but not many. Maybe they just are not good fighters on average or maybe the love of boxing is not there. The good economy may hurt more than help as boxing is often a way to try to get out of poverty.
Why? Cos it's full of Frenchmen innit?
Nah, j/K the French are cool in my book. I like that they ain't afraid to take direct action en mass when their government are being d1cks (and remember that French Cruiserweight who was giving it to the riot coppers?) but boxing just ain't a big thing there. Hell most of the decent fighters they do have are from the former colonies... North or West Africa mainly.