The minority of British boxers in general can bang, I don't think it's just a Gypsy thing. I've always been of the opinion that you're either heavy handed or you're not, you can't really train for it. In terms of their proportion of punchers to non-punchers, I really don't think Gypsies fair any better or any worse.
That makes sense. One other suggestion. If you're raised in a boxing culture from a young age it makes sense that you'll develop skills, whether or not you have the natural athletic capacity to hit hard, which is probably more of a genetic lottery. Those skills could give you a career in pro boxing which if you'd started older may not have been viable. So some gypsy boxers may have simply developed a greater percentage of their natural potential and be facing guys with inferior skills but greater physical gifts?
I have to say (from my amateur boxing days over the course off around 10 years on and off) there is a myth around travellers and their boxing ability. Travellers are IMO like any other category of people the only difference is the majority of travellers men it seems have an interest in competing in boxing. Basically what I'm trying to say for every supremely talented traveller boxer like Fury and Saunders you will find 50 poor to average traveller boxers,
Without a doubt. As @Holler alluded to, I would bet that they would have been boxing from a very young age. As you say this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be producing loads of great boxers. There are loads of other factors that will play a part in whether they can learn and develop more. What I have heard from traveller fighters in the media, is that a lot around the early to mid teens age are lost from the sport because of the cultural need for them to go out and earn a living for their family. Did you enjoy your amateur boxing career, mate?
This is all true but also the idea comes from the fact for the sheer numbers of travellers they are statistically over represented in boxing though if you look you see a lot of them struggle at domestic level. As you say its lots of other factors are dependent and you see that with every demographic of people who box. Thats true again with almost all people the majority of boxers give the sports up for things like careers and kids. Yeah i did mostly, in 29 now and miss it badly but mostly the gym and the camaraderie of it all, occasionally i miss competing but i don't miss weight cutting (though with rose tinted glasses it was nice to see the weight fall off) end of the day though i was at best an average boxer in the grand scheme of things and got in to a career as a computer geek in my early 20s and had a kid so the sensible choice was to pack it in as couldn't commit to training 3-5 days a week, its not like sunday league football where you can put in bare minimum.
