It seems the midwest has always been a good breeding ground for Good-Great to even legendary fighters and champs etc: Michigan - Mayweather, Louis, Hearnes, Dirrell, Toney Ohio- Charles, Mancinia, Pavlik, Charles, Pryor, Broner Missouri- Alexander, Spinks, Armstrong, Moore But noticably missing atleast when compared to the other midwestern states is Illinois boxers particularly Chicago (One if not the most popular city in the midwest) anyone can speculate. Is it a lack of boxing gyms throughout the state? or maybe because they make great NBA players (Thomas, Rose, Wade)? :huh I sorta get this vibe Being from the northeast in how NY and PA have produced more good to great boxers but a place such as NJ (which is literally right next to NY, and I understand they had Hagler) has not in comparison.
Kinda wonder this myself as a Chicagoan and a boxer. Tony Zale was from here (basically), but the recent decades haven't been so great. Golota fought out of here, as do a bunch of Polish fighters. Ken Norton is from Illinois, but not Chicago. Hagler was from Massachusetts by the way.
My bads must have been the other way around I know he did spend some time out in jersey but MA is still northeast but it doesn't have to be IL just Chicago overall I just always felt Chi-Town would be a goldmine in terms of boxers
Some decent Chicago boxers: David Diaz, Emanuel Augustus, Montell Griffin etc. Link: http://boxrec.com/fighterfinder.php...ame=&towncity_id=18680&division=ALL&submit=Go
Yep they came to mind too, but they're not exactly the caliber Chicago should produce. And I mentioned Zale before, IIRC he's actually from Gary, Indiana, but that's still Chicagoland.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...kid-gavilan-golden-gloves-junior-welterweight An old article on Chicago's ten best boxers (as of 1985, but I don't know how much it would really change). IIRC when ESPN listed the best boxer from each state, Barney Ross was Illinois' #1
Oh yeah, Oliver McCall is a Chicagoan. Gerald McClellan was born in Illinois but is really a Kronk product.
Yea its crazy it seems wide open for a young boxer to become the pride and joy of the state (IL) and city (assuming its chicago). The NBA (Wade Thomas Rose) and the Rap game (Common, Kanye) seem to be locked.
Chicago's historically been a place for huge fights to take place too (Tunney vs. Dempsey, Liston vs. Patterson, etc.), but for some reason this city just hasn't churned out champs like it should. It's a shame we don't even get big fights here anymore, not since Don King had a few like 5 years ago.
I hear you man seems like NY is feeling it too we haven't had that top flight prospect since Judah had his dome straight, and we all know how that went before that we had Tyson, Briggs and Bowe in the 90s and the other NY fighters before that was a little before my time. I wish we had a top flight prospect right now like the mid west and west coast have in guys like Broner Ward Garcia etc
