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There are currently 195 countries in the world. That’s a lot of places. No surprise, a very small percentage have had an impact on boxing. Superiority in sports has a lot to do with culture, opportunity and resources. This is a major reason why the United States has been historically dominant in the sport. Mexico became a major player later, for many of the same reasons. Puerto Rico and Cuba, although small geographically, have managed to have an impact due, in part, to their proximity to the US. It’s my opinion that if those small islands were on the other side of the world, their success would’ve been lessened dramatically, perhaps extinguished.
There are those around here that like to trumpet the “superiority” of blacks in boxing. I don’t think there’s any question blacks have had greater relative success in the sport, but how many of them have come directly from African nations? Not too many. I think it supports my point.
China and India have the greatest populations on earth, by far. Yet they have essentially produced no one in boxing. It has nothing to do with race. Those people just don’t care about the sport, or, arguably, about sports in general, the way people do in the boxing nations. The Dominican Republic is a good place to focus on. They have a racial makeup very similar to that found in Cuba and Puerto Rico, yet they produce virtually no high level boxers. On the other hand, they produce the greatest baseball players in the world. How do you explain that? In my opinion, they lack one of the necessary ingredients, cultural interest.
There are those around here that like to trumpet the “superiority” of blacks in boxing. I don’t think there’s any question blacks have had greater relative success in the sport, but how many of them have come directly from African nations? Not too many. I think it supports my point.
China and India have the greatest populations on earth, by far. Yet they have essentially produced no one in boxing. It has nothing to do with race. Those people just don’t care about the sport, or, arguably, about sports in general, the way people do in the boxing nations. The Dominican Republic is a good place to focus on. They have a racial makeup very similar to that found in Cuba and Puerto Rico, yet they produce virtually no high level boxers. On the other hand, they produce the greatest baseball players in the world. How do you explain that? In my opinion, they lack one of the necessary ingredients, cultural interest.
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