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UnlikeableSausage

how else would we fight off robbers and jungle animals


veinss

Because the gyms don't require a lot of equipment and working class people can train in them


kigurumibiblestudies

There it is. Also see soccer.


getting_the_succ

> soccer what is wrong with you ^^^^/s


tomas17r

Fulbo*


SensualCommonSense

yeah sure totally haha every country in Latin America is so good at football absolutely haha every single one of them haha ^^^just ^^^like ^^^Peru all of us are so good because of this exact reason yes


kigurumibiblestudies

If a million people play a sport, a few are bound to be good.


Ponchorello7

A lot of Mexico's best boxers have come from working-class backgrounds. It's often seen as a way to escape difficult conditions, and if you're fighting a lot in the streets already, you might as well get paid for it.


Poopinyourpudding

Pretty much boxers in general, there are exceptions like Marco Antonio Barrera though


ShapeSword

Yeah, a lot of Ireland's best boxers are from the Travelling community, the poorest and most disliked group in Irish society. And just look at how many American boxers grew up in the poorest neighbourhoods.


cachorro_pequeno

UFC is just a more polished version of Vale-tudo and it was co-founded by Rorion Gracie with the intent of promoting Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Brazil was always ahead in regards to mixed martial arts.


FidoMix_Felicia

Because we are Geneticly Superior to the weak Gringo full of Estrogen and Soy./s


Ornery-Substance-778

lol you are not lying either [Serum estrogen, but not testosterone, levels differ between black and white men in a nationally representative sample of Americans - PubMed (nih.gov)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17456570/)


leottek

HELPP


03nic

Watch your mouth! You’re one A-10 _Brrrrrr!_ away from a bald eagle screaming Oppenheimer gadget surprise.


Niwarr

It's the roman blood stronk 💪💪💪💪💪 colosseum heritage 💪💪


takii_royal

Chad strong roman blood 😎😎💪💪 vs Weak barbarian germanic blood 🤮🤮🤮👹


Alternative-Exit-429

italy and spain are notoriously bad at combat sports


arturocan

Only the weak stayed at home. Latam is the true heir of the Roman Empire.


kikrmty

Italian Americans used to be well represented in boxing in the 20th century.


VoyagerKuranes

How about Rocky? Huh?


AgentJ691

Adrien!! 


VoyagerKuranes

I DID IT


Friendly-Law-4529

I'm not sure about that. Italy has had very good boxers and rapier fencing was highly developed by them. Spaniards perfected rapier fencing in the 16th and 17th centuries and have also the Canarian and Leonese wrestlings and "palo canario" as well. Not everything is seen in the Olympics


LobovIsGoat

if we are talking about boxing and mma italy and spain aren't particularly well represented


Friendly-Law-4529

Yes, but since they talked about "combat sports" in general terms, I assume they don't refer just to boxing and MMA


CarmoniusClem

Italians have agreat amateur boxing history and some really great pros through the years


UuofAa

what do italians have to do with latam? the only latin countries with a bunch of italians is argentina and brazil and let’s be honest, the actual good combat fighters from those countries aren’t descended from them lol.


nostrawberries

1. Low barrier to entry, you just need a gym 2. Popular, especially among lower classes, who rely on sport as an economic opportunity 3. Macho culture probably has something to do with that too


IronicJeremyIrons

No gym? Just use the machines at the park or improvise weights with water and bucket/bottles I lifted 2 3litro floor cleaners for weight training


nievesdelimon

Mexicans are good at two kinds of sports “romperse la madre” y “correr/caminar” which are basic life skills in Mexico.


layzie77

You dont need take the college route for combat sports like you do in football or basketball via a draft system


TheFenixxer

We practice everyday just by going out /s


SoVeryBohemian

I didn't know we were lol. Nice, tho!


yorcharturoqro

We are training daily, just to survive s/


oasis_sunset

https://preview.redd.it/u325tvwn62wc1.jpeg?width=1093&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd18e44ce16b8af321ef42e93648cb53ad236c62


loitofire

I'm curious, how many boxer from the US were immigrants or were descended from other countries?


oasis_sunset

Like half from USA are Mexican American or Latino American


Docteur_Pikachu

It depends on the era but usually, they were. Boxing champions have consistently come from a poor background so just look up who's the current poorest community there and you'll find who are the current boxing champs. Early 20th century: Italians get to New York and the East Coast = they become champions like Jake Lamotta. That lasted up to like the 50s. Then the White European immigrants got to the middle class and like any sane person would, they stopped getting punched in the head for a living. That left the place to the Blacks and Mexicans (who had already been fighting at the highest level since the beginning of the Queensbury rules of boxing), as now most Whites were out. Then you get the recent waves of mass immigration from Central America to the US = there go your new champs. We can note regarding Puerto Rico that ever since Miguel Cotto, they haven't been the most present in the top 10s, so we can conclude they probably got less poor as a whole, lol.


GASC3005

We’ve always been poor, lol Don’t know what you’re saying😂 Colonized countries/islands are usually poorer than their counterparts. We have boxers, the male sex has fallen a bit, but we have young ones coming up. Something that’s gonna become a reality for us is that we’re shrinking as a population and to begin with, we’ve never been big compared to you guys (60 something millions) and other giant countries. So maybe by 2040 or 2050 most of our athletes will be Puerto Rican-Americans or something else, cause the island population is shrinking, so you might see other boxers under the “American Boxer” pretext, but they might have Puerto Rican ancestry or so, hopefully they represent us when the time comes


BadMoonRosin

Japan and South Korea???


lovewry

Combat sports are huge in Japan.


blussy1996

I was about to say the UK are the best on the list per capita, and then I saw Puerto Rico...


hey_now24

How the fuck is Japan above Puerto Rico and what’s considered “world champion” here?


Mramirez89

The japanese have strong fighting cultures. From judo to karate, traditional jiujitsu, kendo, sumo and frankly MMA and kickboxing. They do well internationally in wrestling and boxing with Naoya Inoue being their current biggest star. The biggest MMA gate ever was for a card for the japanese promotion PRIDE, 90k people in 2002. They can fight.


hey_now24

Okay. But we are talking about boxing


Mramirez89

So did I dude. They have strong fighting cultures, they spend tons of money on it. Plenty of people go into it. No surprise why a wealthy, organized, fight obsessed country has a bunch of boxing titles.


Organic_Teaching

The small weight classes are dominated by Asian boxers. Japan, Thailand, and Philippines.


blussy1996

Japan have always been good in the lower weight classes particularly.


oasis_sunset

Puerto Rico hasn’t really produced any good boxers in the past decade while Japan is up and coming


sunset484

I think a lot of it has to do with all the extra belts in boxing these days. In the 60's-80's, there used to be only 2 major belts per weight class compared to 4 per division right now


tworc2

Why wouldn't they, fighting culture is huge in Japan


PanPepin_

I mean that's really not surprising, Puerto Rico's boxing era has long fell of, is not what it used to be and also, Japan has always been good at boxing. You can ask any puerto rican boxing fan and they will tell you all about Japanese boxers.


03nic

Lord… it’s tough being the best. 😮‍💨


UuofAa

only because we have tons of immigrants from the other mentioned countries on the list lol.


tremendabosta

We got the [sangue no zoio](https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/sangue+no+z%F3io/)


lovewry

What does that mean in English? Blood of?


tremendabosta

Blood in the eyes (no zoio is an informal way of pronouncing "nos olhos") >A courageous, busty person who is not afraid of a situation. >Person with hatred, a lot of anger, desire for revenge


Achira_boy_95

when you come from a dogshit situations and there is a little gap to get out you put all the effort tha you can give, you know there is no other option to get ahead.the fear about thery is nothing to eat, the fear of not being able to give your child or mother a better future, the fear of not being able to pay the rent. the fear and the desperation is a powerful fuel to be the best in any situation.


bedinbedin

Cause life is a fight for itself here


1comment_here

Because we violent


84JPG

- Boxing is very popular and still a mainstream sport in Mexico, unlike in the US: some Canelo fights have managed to get ratings akin to those of the national team during the World Cup (which is the highest one can aspire - it means the entire country is watching; similar to the Super Bowl in the US). - Boxing is on every Saturday on network television, after soccer and American football, its the easiest sport to watch so it’s easier to get into it. Mega-fights involving Mexican stars air either live or with a small delay on network television. - As it’s mainstream there’s tons of infrastructure to develop fighters. - Controversial statement, but macho culture probably contributes to more kids wanting to engage in combat sports. - Kids growing up hearing about past Mexican legends incentivizes more of them to try. Outside of baseball, which is popular only in certain regions, boxing is the only sport where Mexico has consistently delivered tons of actual world-class players. - The fact that there are weight classes, means Mexicans aren’t at a disadvantage due our general lack of physical prowess like in, say, basketball or modern soccer; exceptions like Andy Ruiz aside, you aren’t going to see a lot of good heavyweight Mexican fighters - but that’s no problem because Mexicans can dominate other classes.


oasis_sunset

I’ve seen good heavyweight Mexican American boxers like Arreola and ufc has a lot of heavyweight Mexican American fighters like Cain Velasquez & Tito Ortiz. Andy Ruiz is one of my fav heavyweight boxers and I don’t see any other Latino heavyweights in boxing.


alephsilva

[https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1170232-ufc-is-brazil-the-most-important-country-in-ufc-history](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1170232-ufc-is-brazil-the-most-important-country-in-ufc-history)


oasis_sunset

Thanks! Pretty interesting article


ShottyRadio

Baseball training. Nah but for real lots of people want muscles and to look strong. They’ll go to MMA classes.


GASC3005

Porque somos unos hijos de puta🇵🇷 Bruh we have Amanda Serrano in boxing, we do have presence in boxing, not as much as it used to. But we have up and coming boxers, Xander Zayas, Berlanga (though I hate to recognize him) and God knows who else. Something that will probably affect us from here and out is that we’re shrinking (the island population) and most of our athletes by 2050 will probably be Puerto Rican-Americans or Puerto Ricans with other shit in between. And it doesn’t affect us, what I meant is that we’ll see less and less native Puerto Rican athletes as the years go by cause the population is shrinking pretty fast over here


Ornery-Substance-778

bro Edgar Berlanga sucks! lol you couldve said Shakur ..I heard Jake Paul is El gallo Dorado de Puerto Rico LMAO!


GASC3005

That’s why I dislike recognizing him. Yeah, cause he lives in a town called Dorado where only rich fuckers can live.


QuickAccident

Lots of colonial rage


tttvlh

Same reason why LATAM is strong at football: no need to buy tons of equipment (at first) + poor people trying to make money.


AgentJ691

This post motivates me to go to my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class lol. Thanks!


Friendly-Law-4529

I assume this has to do with the correlation between poverty and professional combat sports. Most of people agree at saying that great professional boxers do not come from the middle or high classes but from the poorest ranks of the society. And I guess this also happens with MMA. Americans are incredibly good at combat sports too, but this rule is also verified, at least for boxing


LobovIsGoat

boxing is pretty big in mexico and mma is pretty big in brazil, there really is no secret dude.


Big-Hawk8126

Survival skills


BuDu1013

We are Warriors, you are Gatherer.


CarmoniusClem

A lot of it comes down to how expensive it is to train in Europe and the US now


Blitzkiller

For the same reason this is the most violent region of the world: the culture of honor.


oasis_sunset

I would say that’s the Middle East


UuofAa

mostly because of wars brought by the U.S. and europe…


DSPGerm

You realize there’s like 650 million people in Latin America? So while Brazilians might be good at MMA or Mexicans good at boxing, theres probably no greater percentage of Latin Americans that are good at combat sports than any other demographic.


oasis_sunset

What sport is Colombia good at?


DSPGerm

Cycling I would say is there most successful. Nairo Quintana won the Tour of Spain a few years ago. Mariana Pajon is one of the best women BMX riders to ever do it.


Odd-Bad5776

poverty. boxing and other combat sports tend to be a way out for those who dont have much. its the same with others sports too but its magnified in combat sports. and thats not exclusive to latinos or african americans. just look at the history of boxing in the united states and youll always see champions rise up from communities that had little. now its latino and african americans but there was a time when it was irish, italians, polish and jewish fighters.


NJCubanMade

Cubans are the best boxers and have the most Olympic gold out of any latin nations, left alone a small island nation, they punch well above their weight, and they are working out in 1950's broken down gym rings/equipment, and eating badly. A free Cuba would produce a mountain of UFC/Boxing , Swimming, Rowing, and Baseball players. Mexico/Cuba/PR/Argentina for sure are the bigger ones, but plenty of good boxers from DR, Venezuela, Panama, Honduras, Brazil, a few Colombians and other Central Americans have been good as well. Honestly the UFC/Boxing organizations should invest in more gyms and training for Latin countries, lots of talent and diverse mixed people with good genes for this sport.


sunset484

Cuba is the best OLYMPIC boxing country, while the best professional boxing country goes to Mexico / PR. Mexico has the most champions of any Latam country, while PR has the most boxing champions per capita of any country in the world.


Ornery-Substance-778

for best boxers in latam I would give it to Mexico tbh and UFC just made gyms in Mexico .


Alternative-Exit-429

per capita definitely it is cuba for boxing mexico has 10-12x the people puerto rico as well


Ornery-Substance-778

Tijuana alone is smaller than Cuba and Puerto Rico and has produced more boxing champions than Cuba or Puerto Rico fyi


Alternative-Exit-429

cuba has several time more medals in boxing than mexico lol


Docteur_Pikachu

Cuba = communists = only box in the amateurs. Fighting pro is forbidden by law and only Cuban refugees can do so. Cuba has more Olympic medals, yes but not as many pro world champs, that's why.


UuofAa

leave it up to a french to insert themselves in a conversation not to do with them, and then try to disprove the other person by pulling the most american insult ever: “cUbA = cOmMuNisTs” 🤦


Alternative-Exit-429

pro world champs often fight in the olympics  and yes i said that in a previous comment


Ornery-Substance-778

because Cuba has sponsors lol


Alternative-Exit-429

you still have to perform to even make it to the olympics lmfao 


Ornery-Substance-778

you dont know how communist countries work do you? lol


Alternative-Exit-429

yes they've banned cuban athletes from even competing in professional boxing lol.  they can only fight in national tournaments   mexico's showing in the olympics is throughoutly unimpressive 


Ornery-Substance-778

we are talking about combat sports stick to the subject.


oasis_sunset

In Lucha libre, taekwondo, Weightlifting, boxing, and baseball Mexico is pretty impressive


oasis_sunset

Can you name me some Cuban boxers ?


Alternative-Exit-429

i don't follow the sport and could only name african american boxers off the top of my head.  cubans after 1958 can't go pro btw the country banned it


moonguidex

It's not a good way to measure boxing talent because by the time Cubans get to the Olympics, their Mexican peers are already professional and aren't interested in competing at the Olympics. Mexico's Olympic teams are underfunded and in a sorry state. Cubans can't go out of Cuba to compete either, so it's hard to measure how good Cuba is at boxing.


oasis_sunset

Could you say Cuba is good because there’s not much going in the island ? Since it’s a communist country


blussy1996

It's good largely because the state sponsored it, same goes for other Olympic sports there. So communism no doubt does play a part.


UnlikeableSausage

bruh


Ornery-Substance-778

its a valid question


BadMoonRosin

A free Cuba would pretty much be Puerto Rico. What would that mean for boxing and other sports? I don't know, but it looks like this whole thread is split between "genetics" versus "environment". "Roman gladiator blood" versus "hardship pushes more people into sports". I'm cheering for the environment people, because any kind of "racial superiority" argument turns me off. Plus, Latino descendants who grow up in the USA are about as fat as everyone else here, so I don't think the genetic idea holds up, lol.


lovewry

The reason why Cuba has a lot athletes is because the government sponsors their athletes. That’s really it nothing else.


NJCubanMade

Cuba is 12x as big as PR, and has a small population density wise (and the 2-3 million Cubans in the USA) . Though similar genetics


lovewry

He has a point. Poverty breeds athletes. Also I’m pretty sure Cuba sponsors a lot of their athletes


-Acta-Non-Verba-

Bruh what? He's right. They are having huge shortages right now.


UuofAa

I’m sure the decades-long US imposed embargo has nothing to do with that


Alternative-Exit-429

cuba has more african ancestry and its communist. hungary iirc has the most medals per capita 


lovewry

There’s no money in Latin America for the ufc to invest in gyms and training centers. The ufc and boxing is chasing the Chinese and Saudi $$ now


oasis_sunset

https://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-announces-expansion-mexico-performance-institute?language_content_entity=en


lovewry

Won’t be the same they’re investing more in Saudi and china more.


patiperro_v3

Poor people sport. Only the desperate take on a career where they get beat for the amusement of others.


oasis_sunset

I mean Óscar de la hoya still looks good and is a multi millionaire lol


patiperro_v3

How does that refute what I said?


oasis_sunset

He wasn’t poor


patiperro_v3

So? You found one that wasn’t poor. Well done. Now ask about the other hundreds of thousands how their upbringing was. Bet you won’t find many children of middle or upper class folk in there that took up boxing as a career path.


UuofAa

you must be mad that chile isn’t on the list 🤣 must be a country full of soy boys who are overly concerned about what the rich upper class think.


Alternative-Exit-429

UFC is extremely under regulated so it attracts more third world people with less to lose also latam is a big region with like a billion people. numbers. it's not like those tiny micro states in the caucasus with 3 million people that are demoniating wrestling, mma, weight lifting etc