that annoys me a lot, in the UK Boxing only gets any coverage when it's attached to some stupid nationalist message. What happened to sport just for love the competition? Or is it all just an expression of national pride now?
It is the normal thing to do. When we chose our favrote sports teams we do so usualy because there is some sort of self idifiction between ourselves and that team. They might be from where we are from. Our parents might be fans therefore we are fans. Boxing is no diffrent. If the boxer is like us we are more likely to identify with that boxer than with another boxer and therefore root for that boxer over other boxers.
I suppose I must have some natural inclination towards it but when I think of my favorite or most respected current fighters, they're pretty fairly scattered around, nationalistically.
I like the ideas in Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson. Since reading it, I really have no nationalistic pride, though I'm a lot more proud of my local region. For example, most Filipinos are crazy about Manny Pacquiao. The Philippines is a relatively small country and the people have similar interests. When one of them does something great on a large scale it makes them feel as though one of their neighbors did it, and it makes them feel pride for their locality. If a fighter from Northeast PA became a legend, I'd probably be totally for it. But when a guy is American, that means nothing to me, because I don't have much in common with a lot of Americans. I support a lot of UK fighters and most of my favorite boxers are from outside the U.S. I particularly hate hearing about 'American' fighters and 'European' fighters, like it's a team sport and Europe is a country instead of an enormous continent.
Boxing has been totally mis-managed for a long time to the point where your average sports fan has more interest in F1 and cricket. Whatever has to happen to get boxing into the media is fine with me, but I agree its a **** situation to be in.
Im Mex/American so i root for both countries. Although im partial to Mexican and other Latino fighters. All my favorites are from Mexico,USA,or Latin America
I only support Black American fighters. **Edit** I should qualify the above by also including European based Armenians (**** Vanes Martirosyan).
Not pride, is that should be reserved for something you attain or achieve. As George Carlin says, but I do embrace it.
I didn't say anything about anybody's "right" to do anything. Being from somewhere is not an achievement. Race and/or ethnicity aren't achievements either. If you're going to be proud of something, be proud of something that you had something a little more to do with than where or what color you were born is all I'm saying.
Same. :good Only I don't think it's strictly a Mexican pride thing. Mexican fighters usually fight in a more crowd pleasing style so even if they were ****ing Swedish I'd still probably root for them.
atriot I find myself rooting for Italians and Americans. I can't help it, it's like the World Cup. You're not going to root for Argentina when you're from the U.S. just because you like a player on that team. You're going to root for your home country or the country of your ancestors. It's in our nature to have nationalistic pride. When Hopkins fought Calzaghe, he had the whole U.S. behind him. it wasn't because of his style (it's not crowd pleasing at all) but because he represented our nation against Calzaghe who represented Wales.
I agree :yep But evern my favorite Black fighters are all crowd pleasing Tyson,Hagler,Hearns,Mosley,Holyfield,Young George,Fraizer i prefer them to many other guys like Pernell or Mayweather although i appreciate the talent of those 2, i have always rooted for their opponent to knock them out. I also was a fan of fast slick guy too like Leonard but he also new went to grab his balls take guys out when he had too. Ali was more boxer but he also was as tough as they come and mixed up at times. Plus he was Ali so thats good enough for me:yep I also love Mannys style and hes a good guy but his fans (especially on ESB) almost have me rooting against him. I I will admit that i even liked Rickey Hatton.
People cheer for their national athletes in the Olympics. Everybody does it. Rich countries, developing countries, poor countries. They are like ambassadors, they represent your people to the world. It's like you're the one who's playing and winning and losing. You live and die with them. Like they are your AVATAR.