Latin America's coming out party

Jel · Aug 12, 2021

Saintpat said: ↑

Lot of layers and variables.

For one thing, the world got smaller with the advent of the jet airplane and it was probably around the 1970s before those were widespread and affordable commercially — the further back you go, a fighter more or less had to migrate to America or Europe to get noticed. Apart from Mexicans traveling more freely by car across the borders for fights, a guy in Venezuela or Argentina or Columbia beating up on countrymen wouldn’t get much notice … but if a guy was good enough he’d get noticed by someone connected and they’d bring him up to New York or wherever to see if he was real.

By the 1980s, you could afford to bring Nicaraguan Alexis Arguello to Miami and fly in Jose Luis Ramirez to fight him. They could get there quickly and affordably.

I think that has a lot to do with it.

Also, promoters and managers developed in these countries to make connections and make deals to get the better fighters from Latin countries on the radar outside of their regions.

But the advent of the WBA and WBC no doubt had a lot to do with it. You can call them corrupt, but boxing corruption did not begin with them — the mob controlled a lot of the U.S. fight game and people were locked out or elevated beyond their merit because of their connections (or lack thereof). Instead of giving a WBA/C bagman a bucket of cash to get a title shot, you signed your fighter over to some guy who had an associate named Fat Tony … and if you were a poor Latino fighter you weren’t breaking into the upper echelons.

So instead of the usual suspects from New York or the East Coast and some select connected fighters scattered here and there (including across Western Europe and the UK), the WBA/C came along and opened avenues to another part of the world. And they made alliances in Asia and elsewhere to increase access to the avenues of power within the sport.
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Great post and interesting point about the ease of travel - I hadn't considered that.

Richard M Murrieta · Aug 12, 2021

Jel said: ↑

Great post and interesting point about the ease of travel - I hadn't considered that.
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Good post, as I mentioned in my last post, those fighters did not like getting taxed that high, they had plenty of taxes to pay in their hometowns, so they never fought here, those few did not even want to learn the English language.

Saintpat · Aug 12, 2021

@Jel this is a great topic of the sort we don’t see often enough. Tip of the cap my friend.

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Latin America's coming out party

Jel Obsessive list maker Full Member

Richard M Murrieta Now Deceased 2/4/25 Full Member

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Latin America's coming out party

Jel Obsessive list maker Full Member

Richard M Murrieta Now Deceased 2/4/25 Full Member

Saintpat Obsessed with Boxing Full Member