Pugilistic Globalization: The Boxing World Has Flattened-Variety Is The Spice Of Life

Question: Which Boxers from around the world do you wish got the attention they rightfully deserve???

And here's a rant to go along with it.
Sorry in advance if this is too preachy or bleeding heart.

The Sport of Boxing has become increasingly International in a very big way over the last 15 years with the rise of the Klitschko's, Pacquiao, Lewis, Martinez, Froch, Calzaghe, De La Hoya, Cotto and many many more. Its just a fact that most people (especially we Americans) resistant to this change in Boxing must become accustomed to. We may never dominate the Heavyweight Division ever again, and many other Divisions for that matter, or maybe we will... who knows. But we must come to terms with the fact the sport has become Globalized like it never has been before and in my opinion for precisely this very reason Boxing in America is not anywhere close to as popular as it once was. Interest seemed to wane in the sport once Lennox Lewis a British Jamaican became HW Champion, and basically the sport disappeared almost entirely from the national radar the moment two Ukrainians took over the division. De La Hoya and Canelo are popular mainly because they are bolstered by their Mexican American fanbase the same goes for Miguel Cotto and the support of his Puerto Rican American fans, its not because Americans really care. Americans support Floyd our prodigal son, even though he's not the most exciting fighter but he's truly ours so we love him, maybe only Manny Pacquiao has been able to truly transcend our ambivalence towards foreign fighters, his personality and all action style contributed to this greatly, but still Manny is far from being as popular as Tyson in his heyday. The same goes I'm sure for many other countries, if their guy isn't Champion they don't care quite as much. It's just something we must all come to terms with and get over and recognize the sport is not ours anymore or anyone else's to control, its truly one of the most diverse and International sports there is and maybe if we can focus on the fighter and their talents instead of where they are from, then we would be able to appreciate the sport all the more.

Obviously I'm a huge proponent of supporting Boxing all over the world as opposed to being stuck in your own nationalistic myopia. Because personally I don't think I'm being as good of a fan as I can be without diligently exploring the world of boxing to its fullest extent to the far reaching ends of the earth, because somewhere there's some undiscovered diamond in the rough waiting to be unearthed, and that diamond could ultimately become the next top 10 P4P star in the making. And as true Boxing fans shouldn't we all want to know who The Next Big Thing could be, or at the very least witness a special talent that may not get the attention they so rightfully deserve.

Its not like Boxers didn't exist in every country back in the day, we just never paid them any attention and the few occasions that they made the journey to the US, sometimes a massive upset would occur like Schmeling's KO victory over the great Joe Louis or the robbery of Oscar Bonavena who clearly beat Smokin' Joe Frazier on points. We just chose to pretend like they didn't exist, because we are a very self centered country and it physically pains us if we aren't dominating a sport. We couldn't care less about Soccer until we get into the World Cup and then every American turns into a massive Soccer (Futbol) fan, no one cared about Cycling until Lance Armstrong won the Tour De France then everyone became infatuated with it, when we took on The Russians at the Olympics we became obsessed with Hockey all for a few fleeting seconds, until America's run of good luck in that particular sport is over and then we go back to not caring once again. Which should make most of us kind of question the voracity with which we are devoted to and obsessed with Football, Baseball and Basketball, is it genuine, would we still care about those hallowed US institutions if we weren't dominating them, most likely not, but they're also basically exclusively American, we don't want anyone else competeing with us in them, because another illusion that we are the best at everything may be shattered if we find out that we're not and we'd rather be ignorant than to find out the truth.

We shouldn't be afraid to look beyond our own borders or be afraid to support someone who has nothing in common with our societies or cultures, the main reason I think fans seem to be unwilling to embrace international talents is fear, fear that we may have to admit to ourselves that maybe our country isn't the best at something, that maybe someone else is just as good or maybe a little bit better than we are. If you are a true fan of the Sweet Science what difference does it make what country they are from, the only thing that should matter is how good they are at their occupation. If they are the best at what they do, then they should be embraced by us and not have a petty thing like where they are born be held against them because we are insecure that our Fighter might be beaten by them. The fighters are regular men they are not a representative of you or the country you happen to share with them, we can't pin all of our nationalistic hopes and dreams upon them and feel betrayed if they let us down. Its natural that people side with what's familiar to them, but what is wrong with broadening your horizons a little bit. Do people think that by merely embracing a fighter from Ukraine, China, The Phillipines or Uganda that somehow they are being disloyal to their homeland. that is an incredibly immature way to look at the world.

We should all make a modicum of an attempt to put aside our petty provincial, national, cultural biases and explore the sport from sea to shining sea like never before, This world to some extent has been flattened which is a metaphor used by the economist Thomas Friedman to explain the equalizing nature of Free Trade (which I don't necessarily agree with) and the effects it has on the global economy, putting us all on equal footing to a certain degree. Well because of the internet and the easy access to international sporting events on various channels and availability of matches on Youtube and various other outlets it easier now than ever before to indulge in our favorite sports. And in that way The Sport of Boxing has been flattened. We should all take advantage of this new Golden Age that we are experiencing and try to thoroughly Educate Ourselves as much as possible and be the most complete and competent fan we can be. Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Latin America, Africa, The Middle East all have gems waiting to be discovered we should all become prospectors and hunt down as many of them as possible because the more talent there is populating this sport, the better the competition, the better the matches, the more entertaining they'll be to us.

The fact that Gonzalez, Uchiyama, Usyk, Inoue, Mekhontsev, Makabu, Kudryashov, Rigondeaux, Estrada, Lebedev, Gvozdyk, Joshua, Huck and many other great fighters are in some cases never even seen by audiences outside their native country, aren't getting a spot on cards on US television, are not even vaguely known names by the fans of the sport is a pity, there are so many currently and potentially great talents that will never get the credit or the recognition they deserve which is really depressing and flat out sucks. The cream of the crop should always rise to the top and be seen by the masses so they can become the star they should be and get the credit, and praise they so rightly deserve but far too often because foreign fighters are thought to be so hard to market to domestic audiences that isn't the case.

So we should all try to give a effort to Globalize ourselves just a little bit because after all Variety is the Spice of Life we should at least attempt to diversify our tastes. No one should want to eat the same boring thing night in and night out, that's not much fun. It doesn't make you less of a (whatever country you're from) for appreciating all the talents the world has to offer, it just makes us all the best most well informed fans we can be.

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Sidenote:
I've always been like this, when I was a kid I used to collect Horror movies, it started out with Universal Monsters, then on to the movies of the 60's, then 80's Slasher flicks, until that just wasn't enough and I had to track down through all the rundown video stores and magazines all of the most obscure Horror movies I could find from the depths of Italy, Spain, Russia, Mexico etc all over the world, and then I felt like a true fan, or is it fanatic.:nut Well I feel the same way about Boxing too.

 

:huhYeah he's pretty well known to HBO audiences at the moment, yet Hughie Fury and Hekkie Budler won't make the HBO broadcast, which is pretty ****ty. Same way every match Shiming has had has been broadcast by them yet still no Chocolatito or Monster Inoue.:-(

 

I didn't limit it to only Americans, but obviously the fact that I'm American bleeds through quite a lot, but what I'm saying should apply to everyone.

And America is still pretty bad when it comes to caring about anyone who isn't American. Pacquiao is about the only true breakout star, Cotto Puerto Ricans love mainly and Canelo, De Lahoya etc its Mexican support that drives their popularity.
Part of the reason the sport isn't popular as it once was is because of the lack of American Boxers who are marketable stars, so Americans don't care anymore.

 

Great example, there's about 1000 channels now days and as much as I dislike the style of Rigo there should be a way for fans of his to see him on at least one of the 70 or 80 sports channels in existence.

 

What Robney you got no love for Nieky Holzken.

Yeah I'm the same way, my contrarian nature makes me root for the little known guy from unheard of countries to completely turn over the apple cart and annoy the hell out of mainstream fans to certain extent.

 

:think