Korea got rich. The uk is rich with very poor people living in parts of it bit like the states .Comfortable people don't very often take up pro boxing .
The Tokashiki fight - which is often classified as among Chang's best - is doubly interesting because it has an underlying context that illustrates Chang's worst attribute: Bad training habits. There was a recent documentary on Chang where he confesses that he had to lose over 30 pounds in less than a month, and that he "failed" at weight control ultimately. He also said he wanted to quit due to exhaustion, and one of the determining reasons he didn't was because he couldn't quit against a Japanese fighter a few days after Independence Day (from Japan). So in one of his signature performances, he was so under-trained and out of shape that he almost quit. Makes you wonder what he'd been if he had Yuh Myung-woo's work ethic, eh?
Nah....that's not the reason behind. Nation wealth has nothing to do with boxing. Japan has many pro boxers and the World Champion like Inoue.
It's a combination of a lot of things, but the country becoming rich was a major factor. I think the Japan counter-example is a bit anomalous. Another was Duk-koo Kim's death. Some others, too, but I don't want to think too hard this morning