Boxing's top nations.

What do the numbers behind the countries mean?

 

Puerto Rico is the US. Are those Puerto Rican champs not doubly listed as US champs?

 

In most of Europe almost no one cares about boxing. It is a tertiary sport at best. I've got quite a few friends in Spain, and have visited there a half dozen times. Despite my own preoccupation with the sport I can't recall discussing it once there or with any Spanish acquaintances.

 

USSR/post-USSR school of boxing that has fractured into Russia/Ukraine/Kazakhstan, etc, should be seen as a Euro school at its roots they were far more affiliated with Europe than Asia in sports and a lot of the trainers and talent were from the European half of the country initially. An amatuer power rather than pro, obviously, but it crossed over effectively and provided the foundation for the recent decades of decent success of those countries.

A lot of european countries had stronger amatuer tradition historically that coul compete with the UK there, but didn't cross over to the pro's as much. Look at the European amatuer championships for instance.

Broadly speaking, there's not as much poverty and struggle for decent steady opportunities in most of Europe as there is in central/south america. That will play a notable general role. Boxing is a niche sport for a long time in europe, even in the uk. I know the South Koreans dropped off a lot as the country got wealthier; it would be interesting to compare the boxing culture there with Japan, who have kept a steadier momentum this century.

It's something that you would need to look at from country to country.

 

Here's the European Amatuer championships historic medal tallies. 1925-2024. gold-silver-bronze-total


Soviet Union 93 35 36 164

2 Russia 71 23 18 112
3 Poland 34 33 53 120
4 Bulgaria 25 36 57 118
5 Italy 25 31 59 115
6 Hungary 24 33 62 119
7 Germany 21 20 33 74
8 East Germany 19 25 42 86
9 Ukraine 16 13 29 58
10 Ireland 15 8 34 57
11 Romania 14 32 74 120
12 West Germany 13 13 23 49
13 England 12 21 28 61
14 Sweden 10 10 21 41
15 France 8 20 32 60
16 Turkey 7 9 23 39
17 Armenia 7 7 19 33
18 Yugoslavia 6 18 28 52
19 Azerbaijan 5 7 11 23
20 Denmark 5 6 12 23
Spain 5 6 12 23
22 Netherlands 4 10 10 24
23 Georgia 4 9 10 23
24 Finland 4 3 26 33
25 Belarus 3 10 16 29
26 Czechoslovakia 3 6 21 30
27 Belgium 3 2 6 11
Serbia 3 2 6 11
29 Wales 3 1 5 9
30 Great Britain 2 5 5 12
31 Croatia 2 3 9 14
32 Lithuania 2 1 5 8
33 Moldova 1 3 9 13
34 Scotland 1 2 12 15
35 Austria 1 2 9 12
36 Estonia 1 2 0 3
37 Norway 1 1 6 8

 

You forgot France, 44 champions.

 

To be fair, Spain has their hands full at other sports, Football, Tennis, Basketball...

 

People always wonder why Brazil doesn´t have more boxers... well, the whole fighting scenario was always focused towards other fighting arts, and of course football.... there is no money to be made in Boxing...

 

The reason why the UK has had so many more elite fighters than the other European nations is they have the Commonwealth title mostly to themselves which ensures the best British fighters in any given weight class will be in the mix. The best fighters in dozens of European countrys are competing with each other to reach the world level. You can't really consistantly produce the numbers of champs and contenders the British do that way.

https://ainsworthsports.com/boxing_fighter_rankings_by_nation.htm

If you look at these exhaustive list of top fighters in all weight classes Italys the only European country with 200 with a few others having 100. The British have had nearly 900. Many would consider Ukraine the 2nd best Euro boxing nation and they've has only had 62. And this isn't because Ukraine has only existed 30 years its by birthplace the earliest fighter on that list debuted in 1904. This is actually less than Spain Ukraines just hit on a higher percentage of those potential champions.

They are really competing with US states or British regions here. Germany and France have more people than the UK but the UKs domestic pipeline is considered a regional one not a domestic one because it was set up for the British Empire.

The British are the best boxing country in Europe right now but when they weren't and if they weren't they'd still produce more top fighters.

 

I am not sure that colonialism is the issue here.

I think hat uptake in the relevant countries is more important.

Only fair to note the UK's dominance in the bare knuckle era.

 

math is like hard and stuff.

and here’s another question — are they counting Mexican-Americans are Mexicans? I see that happen sometimes. Andy Ruiz is often listed as Mexican.

 

Looking at the internet, it is very clear to me that Boxing is much more popular in the UK than in any other place in Europe. I would even say that it is more popular today in the UK than it is in the US...

Boxing is not popular in Argentina as people may think, Basketball, Tennis, Rugby Union and Motor sports are more popular than Boxing in there, at least today.