Is boxing ability primarily genetic, developed through training, or merely the butterfly effect?

One only needs to look at Thailands population of ATG Muay Thai guys to see how much having boxing as a national sport could effect the game.

 

You're right again, some of the relatives I've seen training sons, nephews, etc. are not good technical trainers. Most of them aren't somebody that you'd send a fighter to, but they are effective with their relatives. Boxers need to know that somebody cares about them because there are plenty of people they'll run into who will only care about them as long as they can use them. Managers and some trainers are extremely "brave." Their fighters can take a lot of punishment and it doesn't hurt the manager or trainer.

We had one trainer bring some fighters to the gym to spar with our guys and the trainer put one of his guys in who was over matched. My guy knocked him down twice and the guy was obviously hurt, I stopped it. The other trainer said "you should have let your fighter kill him, I wasn't going to stop it." That fighter never boxed again and who could blame him? My fighters heard that trainer and they wouldn't fight for that guy regardless of how much money was offered. A fighter will give more if he knows that he has somebody who will stop the fight when he sees that his fighter has too much heart for his own good.

 

I don't think the other trainer meant that literally, but he should have stopped it, probably after the first knockdown. His fighter was trying, but didn't have the skills/experience yet to compete with the guy we had. I don't think he wanted the guy to get hurt bad or killed, the other trainer just meant he'd let him get beat to the point where he'd see how much heart he had, but that was too far IMO. A fighter needs somebody to take care of him, especially when he has traveled for 2 hours and doesn't know anyone. The trainer himself had been thrown to the wolves in his pro career and he is one of the type that believes in "testing" a newcomer's heart before he spends much time working with him. I don't believe in that, but there are quite a few who do.

 

I think can anyone can train to box. But to actually be “ good” at it you have to be born with something a little extra.