Pugilistic Globalization: The Boxing World Has Flattened-Variety Is The Spice Of Life

What about all the American fighters nobody really cares about? There are unpopular American fighters the US hasn't embraced. Ward and Malignaggi spring to mind. Quilin, Bradley, Broner, Figueroa, Algieri, Tony Thompson, Brian Viloria, Mauricio Herrera, etc.

 

For what it's worth I'm a white British male yet have very little genuine interesting in the British fight scene. I probably watch more fights from Thailand than anywhere else, know more about the Japanese domestic scene than my local scene and have favourites ranging from Japanese novices to a world champion from Nicaragua...

I know I'm in the minority but still...

 

I think you are giving Europeans and the non-USA Americans too much credit. The kinds of stuff I read about happening in Europe, they hate foreigners, especially if you are black or Muslim. They hate their white neighbors too, but that's just because they've been fighting them for centuries.

 

I think the bigger issue is the Yanks not supporting their own fighters enough. Porter, ward, Thurman, garica, dirrells, quillan etc are all decent enough fighters probable top 5/10 in their respective divisions yet nobody bothers turning up when they do fight.

America still probably has more champions than any other country, they shouldn't really have to embrace to many other fighters other than a top 5 pound for pound star imo.

maybe I'm slightly different but I'd rather see 2 guys slugging it out in a small hall in my local area than 2 talented foreign blokes on tv who are often in shocking mismatches.

 

Over the years boxing has become a niche sport for the English-speaking section of the USA, however, in the Spanish-speaking section it seems to have grown ( people forget the USA is actually a bilingual country ).

Yay, international boxing. I'd rather watch a fighter from Sri Lanka with a good style than an American with a boring style.

 

Well, for one thing there's the way you guys throw bananas at your black soccer players. That sort of thing would never fly over here.

Then there are your racist neo-Nazi far right political parties which are gaining alarming amounts of power like Sweden Democrats, Greece's Golden Dawn, the French National Front, Dutch Party for Freedom, British National Party, Slovak National Party, or Italian Northern League, led by politicians such as Geert Wilder or Marine Le Pen.

There's the messed up laws that get passed in places like France and Switzerland making it illegal to build minarets or wear head scarves, targeting Muslims. And the Pegida anti-muslim marches in Germany that attract tens of thousands or marchers waving anti-muslim signs. Plus, the mass murders motivated by racism and anti-immgrant sentiment perpetrated by Anders Breivik in Norway and Peter Mangs in Sweden among others.

Europe 2015 reminds me a lot of Europe 1930s, like something bad is brewing over there.

 

You have seen what the president of the USA looks like right?:hi:

 

Then why do you muricans endlessly whine about racism? :think

 

atsch We do? How many times do you think I hear about that topic a year? Answer: hardly any.

 

The potential is huge in boxing. Most people in the business realize it. Whether or not america follows will not matter in future.

 

While most believe that going down to one title per division will improve boxing, I've always maintained it will make it worse. One of the biggest things it's done is make the sport more global.

Take someone like Golovkin for example. If it wasn't for the 4 different ranking organisations and him working his way up the rankings and eventually becoming WBA champion and thus creating interest he'd probably still be fighting in Germany against unheard of opponents.

Kell Brook, another example, with the Top Rank & Golden Boy dominated Welterweight division, without working his way to an IBF mandatory shot, said promoters wouldn't listen to the challenge and he'd still be fighting journeymen in the UK.

The sport would be dominated by hype-jobs who's face fits, hand picked by HBO and given cherry-picked opponents to keep TV companies happy.

Who's to say there wasn't the Klitschko's, Golovkins. Kovalev's etc in the bygone era dominated by Americans, there probably was and just lacked the opportunity.

 

rigo was a main undercard on 3 pac ppv, headlined at least 2 other hbo fight show.

rigo had more than his share of chances in making himself an attraction.