Comments Thread For: Daily Bread Mailbag: Spence-Crawford, Lara, Haney-Loma, Hatton, More

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen "Breadman" Edwards tackling topics such as Mauricio Lara missing weight for Leigh Wood, Devon Haney vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko, Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, the career of Ricky Hatton, and more.
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[R.I.P Chico]

Insightful as always from the Breadman. Conlan is Irish though! Fury has a great jab too.

[SteveM]

Supporting your race.
I DO NOT think its ok to support your race. Either we aspire to a raceless and classless society where we all treat each other as equals or we put little barriers in the way that stop us ever reaching a utopian society. I get that racism is hard and it is hard to reconcile what has happened and is happening. I get that people support fighters from their own country - I do a little but only if there is no other reason to root for them. I don't always root for the England soccer team - I'll as likely want the team playing the best football to win.

I'm a white Brit. But I don't IDENTIFY as a white person. I have travelled around the world lived in Ecuador for 15 years and 99.99% of the time I was never aware of my whiteness when surrounded by thousands of non-whites. Only when I got in an argument and somebody told me to leave the country if I didn't like what he was doing - then I became aware - like a light had been shone on me. But then it's reset and carry on.

I root for boxers mostly on style and personality and character. I rooted for Golovkin not because of his colour but because of his aggressive style. Hagler was a favourite of mine. Ali too. Tank rubs me up the wrong way for cherry picking and his boastful nature. I was anti-Canelo when he was hiding at 155 but as he has challenged himself more and more I'm now a fan. I could give two shits that he is Mexican.

I loved Naseem Hamed - the flamboyance and the KOs. I liked Teo a couple of years ago for same reason but now his crazy talk bothers me. I'll be watching next weeks fight at 4am my time - can't wait - but won't be rooting for Taylor because he's british and much less because he's white.

The world is more and more fucked and rooting for fighters because they are the same colour as you just makes it incrementally more fucked.

Just imagine if nobody, anywhere in the world, gave any importance to patriotism and nationalism - there'd be no wars or at least far fewer. Nobody would condone having a leader who was a patriotic warmonger. Apply the same principle to race and things would have to be better.

[M111]

Insightful as always from the Breadman. Conlan is Irish though! Fury has a great jab too.

Irish, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, part of the UK.

[SteelFist01]

Supporting your race.
I DO NOT think its ok to support your race. Either we aspire to a raceless and classless society where we all treat each other as equals or we put little barriers in the way that stop us ever reaching a utopian society. I get that racism is hard and it is hard to reconcile what has happened and is happening. I get that people support fighters from their own country - I do a little but only if there is no other reason to root for them. I don't always root for the England soccer team - I'll as likely want the team playing the best football to win.

I'm a white Brit. But I don't IDENTIFY as a white person. I have travelled around the world lived in Ecuador for 15 years and 99.99% of the time I was never aware of my whiteness when surrounded by thousands of non-whites. Only when I got in an argument and somebody told me to leave the country if I didn't like what he was doing - then I became aware - like a light had been shone on me. But then it's reset and carry on.

I root for boxers mostly on style and personality and character. I rooted for Golovkin not because of his colour but because of his aggressive style. Hagler was a favourite of mine. Ali too. Tank rubs me up the wrong way for cherry picking and his boastful nature. I was anti-Canelo when he was hiding at 155 but as he has challenged himself more and more I'm now a fan. I could give two shits that he is Mexican.

I loved Naseem Hamed - the flamboyance and the KOs. I liked Teo a couple of years ago for same reason but now his crazy talk bothers me. I'll be watching next weeks fight at 4am my time - can't wait - but won't be rooting for Taylor because he's british and much less because he's white.

The world is more and more fucked and rooting for fighters because they are the same colour as you just makes it incrementally more fucked.

Just imagine if nobody, anywhere in the world, gave any importance to patriotism and nationalism - there'd be no wars or at least far fewer. Nobody would condone having a leader who was a patriotic warmonger. Apply the same principle to race and things would have to be better.

Well said, and I agree. I understand why people like to cheer for and support fighters and athletes that they can relate to, whether it's someone who is of the same race and/or nationality, religion, from the same city, town, etc. For me personally, with the exception of international competition like the Olympics, World Cup, etc., I will absolutely root for my country. But, I see it differently regarding boxing and other individual sports. When it comes to my favorites, none of those things factor into my fandom. I don't have a certain set of criteria I look for specifically, but my favorite fighters generally have a style that I am entertained by, along with a mentality that they will face all comers and are humble not only in defeat, but outside of the ring as well.

But, for the most part, I also don't think that there's a right or wrong reason (besides obvious racism or bigotry) to root for a particular fighter, athlete or team for that matter. You can like a team because they are your hometown team, or maybe you like a team from across the country, because you like their uniforms, or a specific player, etc.

Sadly, Bread is right that boxing is very tribal and racial to varying degrees depending on many factors, but thankfully not everyone is actually racist, and hopefully more people will start to support their favorites based on merit, or superficial things like their team's color schemes, and things like that, and not dwell on personal things like race, religion, etc.

[BritJimbo]

Irish, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, part of the UK.

Thank you. Last I looked, Northern Ireland is a part of the UK.

He wasnt born in Ireland. He was born in the United Kingdom.

Get it straight foreigners.

[buge]

The thing about Moretti scoring the 10th for Haney is that guaranteed (without a knockdown or KO, which didn't seem likely to happen) Haney would win his scorecard. It looked like Loma was coming on strong, and the 11th and 12th could possibly be even more heavily Loma's way, so Moretti had to get that round in there then for Haney if Haney was to win his scorecard. It reeks of corruption.

[Wacked_Out]

Oh cmon, it's human to be racist. Discrimination is the bad thing. But enforcing some beautiful dream that can't exist in reality is a recipe for disaster. (like communism). Best to accept it and just personally be good to all people anyway. If we all do that it wont be an issue.

[Wacked_Out]

Thank you. Last I looked, Northern Ireland is a part of the UK.

He wasnt born in Ireland. He was born in the United Kingdom.

Get it straight foreigners.

So is the king of England king of Ireland? I have no idea how the UK works. I actually know it's not, but I see UK I just think England. So what's Britain? And where is the Shire?

[SteveM]

Oh cmon, it's human to be racist. Discrimination is the bad thing. But enforcing some beautiful dream that can't exist in reality is a recipe for disaster. (like communism). Best to accept it and just personally be good to all people anyway.

Racism and being racist is an arrogance assuming that one race is automatically superior or inferior than another - if you believe that then you have a mindset that will change your reality, change the way you lead your life.
I notice a person's colour or race just like I notice other physical traits; fat, thin, tall, old, young, happy, sad, angry, friendly, threatening. It all happens in an instant and is part of our defence mechanism as our foremost interest is self preservation.
I have to ask what is behind supporting a fighter because he is black. I could speculate but any conjecture or opinion would sound much better coming form a black person - not me. But my point is - I think it leads us further away from progress towards a totally non racist society. I don't believe that beautiful dream cant exist - it won't exist in our lifetimes but we should think about 100 years/200 years from now. And be good to all people anyway , as you say.