If Cuba was not under Communist control how different would boxing be?

[-jose-]

Mayweather, Cotto, Martinez, Chavez jr.,
Hopkins, Trinidad, Oscar, Tyson etc...
and many more, how different would all these
boxers careers be...
I believe boxing would be 10 xs
more exciting (not that I don't enjoy it now)
I guess we would never know...





Cuba's Boxing Gold

Boxing, a sport in which two individuals face each other in a square "ring" to do battle with their gloved fists, is said to be a "team sport" in Cuba, and it is the sport in which the island has taken home the most medals. It's not an exaggeration to say that Cubans have dominated international amateur boxing, winning more gold medals in men's competition than anyone else.In the heavyweight division, Cubans have won 7 of the last 9 gold medals issued at the Olympic Games. The other two medals went to the U.S. in 1984 and 1988 (Cuba did not attend the those Games in support of the Soviet bloc boycott). Still, of the 104 total gold medals issued in men's boxing at Olympic tournaments since 1972 (including 1984 & 1988 Games) Cubans have taken home 32 of them (51 total medals).In World Amateur Boxing competitions, Cubans have won 64 of the 152 gold medals issued between 1974 and 2005.

[-Spinal-]

If you change one thing in history, it will dramatically change a lot of other things.


What if Cuba being what it is, is what makes their boxers so good?

[-jose-]

If you change one thing in history, it will dramatically change a lot of other things.


What if Cuba being what it is, is what makes their boxers so good?

Good point

[Light_Speed]

What if Cuba being what it is, is what makes their boxers so good?

That's exactly it. When they outlawed professional boxing they started to invest tremendeous amounts of money and resources on amateur boxing, even hired trainers from other countries because the success of cuban amateur boxing was thought to represent the success of the country itself. All that time, money and brain power invested in creating a great olympic boxing tradition is precisely the reason why cuban boxers are so good today.

[GoogleMe]

What if the Sovjetunion were allowed to go pro back in the days? That'd have changed everything drastically!

[-EAGLE-]

without communism Cuba would be a country like El Salvador, drugs, gangs, murders, rape and you could go on.

[2shameless]

Poverty breeds great fighters, so yeah, hard to say if the boxing landscape would be better or worse.

[RichCCFC]

I thought it before but the communist thing is the whole reason, they have boxing camps all over Cuba with hundreds of boys training to win gold.

[big paulie]

If you change one thing in history, it will dramatically change a lot of other things.


What if Cuba being what it is, is what makes their boxers so good?

Agree, its the system that has mainly produced all these world class amateurs over the last 40 years. The kids in Cuba train with equipment so old and tatty that most clubs in this country would throw away, kinda puts the multi billion sports nutrition industry and modern training techniques to shame.

Going slightly off subject its not purely Castros communist regime that has many people in Cuba going through hardship and poverty, the U.S imposed trade embargo which prevents Cuba trading with other countries and vice versa can't be too helpful to the countries economy either!!

Teofilio Stevenson was once offered a seven figure sum to defect in the seventies by Don King, he famously said he'd rather have the love of millions of Cubans than millions of dollars. Integrity.

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

The Mexican-Puerto Rican rivalry would probably be replaced with the Cuban-Puerto Rican rivalry and Cubans would be running boxing in the US .

(I think I might've just started something )