Brutal Bob, "American football," as you call it, is not very popular outside of the states because few if any outside of the states are built for it. You need to combine size, power, speed, skill, toughness, agility and more to be able to compete on any level. And there's not too many people outside of the states (save Samoa) who can wrap all of those qualities up in a single person and then be bright enough to digest the playbook. Now baseball certainly does enjoy popularity. The atmosphere across the globe is of hysteria whenever the WBC rolls around. There are great teams throughout the world (outside of the U.S.), most notably in Japan, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, Cuba, etc. And then are a litany of not so great teams wherever Europeans congregate to play. Even the South Africans field a mildly competitive team.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QHslHpK4-Q[/ame] I've seen Chinese people do some really crazy stuff especially at the circuses and they were doing crazy **** way before cirque de soleil became popular. They can do some pretty superhuman **** with the mind and are pretty disciplined when they put their minds to it. If boxing is allowed it would be a breeze for them. I remember in a tournament acouple years ago Mexico was a rising powerhouse in judo or taekwondo and they were getting owned by the Chinese with ease respectfully. Watching them fight was like watching the Brazilians dominate with ease in soccer. They were unreal. I'd really be looking forward to watching a future Chinese world champ that would be the ****.
I lived in China for two years and never saw one piece of boxing equipment in all my travels. Gotta think that the Chinese don't care much for boxing.
Boxing isn't popular in China. Same thing with India, the 2nd most populous country in the world. Just like men's soccer in the US which enjoys below average popularity. So when it comes to international tournaments, US mens soccer team success is also below average. The Chinese are known for getting really good at certain sports once their commie government decides they want to be good at a certain sport. They'll take a prodigy away from their parents at a young age, hire the best coaches, and usually enjoy quick success in the international scene (recent example is women's tennis).
I dont quite agree with boxing not being too popular in china makes the reason why they dont have elite fighters. I think there is more to it than that. There are tons of chinese and indians living in a country where boxing is popular and yet majority of them is not as interested compared to other asians. Most of them dont have that fighters mentality. I done a fair bit of martial arts and when it comes to sparring, from my observations the chinese or the indians are the one who clearly does not enjoy getting hurts. Not putting them down or anything, it isnt just a matter of popularity or exposure. You got to love fighting, I think majority of them dont, like someone said the chinese and the indians are not built for it. Obviosly not all of them are like this but there are some who just love the fighting sports.