Mitt Romney, whose father, as we know, was born in Mexico, attended Saturday night’s Manny Pacquiao / Juan Manuel Marquez fight, and this was his reaction as Marquez went lights out on Pacquiao:
I was at a bar waiting for a drink and some guy started talking to me about the fight which really wasn’t all that interesting to me. The guy who started talking to me was black and said “You ever been to Hooters during one of these fights? They got one dollar beers and you gotta get there at 5 o’clock to get a seat. And it’s all Mexicans. You got families of Mexicans in there with their little kids watching. It’s crazy.” Even though the Filipino Pacquiao and the black Floyd Mayweather being the most well-known boxers in the world, boxing in the U.S. over the past decade has fallen almost completely out of favor with whites and blacks while being picked up by Mexicans.
It is very interesting to me how the newest immigrants throughout the history of the U.S. have always been the backbone of boxing. The pattern is consistent save for Asians. The Irish at the turn of last century and then the Italians and some Jews. From the blog The Other Side:
Author and boxing historian Jeffrey T. Sammons states in Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society: “The succession [of great fighters] had gone from Irish to Jewish … to Italians, to [B]lacks, and to Latin[o]s, a pattern that reflected the socioeconomic ladder. As each group moved up, it pulled its youth out of prizefighting and pushed them into more promising … pursuits” (92).
Mexican support for boxing might help sustain the sport for another couple of decades when it might have otherwise failed. If demand does increase though it might be one of those underground phenomena like NASCAR which is hugely popular but flies under the national radar because it is so far removed from the media elites who tell the rest of us about national trends.
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Interestingly, Jack Dempsey, probably the most famous boxer of the first half of the 20th century, had Mormon roots and expressed pride in his Mormonism. He was the darling of the Irish, but his parents were Mormon converts. It should be mentioned that at least one Jewish writer tried to claim him for the tribe.
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And there Brazilian immigrants from miles around while crowd sports bars to watch MMA.
You have to be a real dummy to willingly get into a boxing ring and let someone knock your brain around.
The succession [of great fighters] had gone from Irish to Jewish … to Italians, to [B]lacks, and to Latin[o]s, a pattern that reflected the socioeconomic ladder. As each group moved up, it pulled its youth out of prizefighting and pushed them into more promising … pursuits.
When did blacks move up the socioeconomic ladder?
They just switched to basketball and football (to say nothing of drug dealing). And to EBT cards. No need to climb that ladder when The Man makes sure the livin’ is easy.
By the way, if you want to see Marquez incredible knockout punch, you can see it here:
Manny’s lucky that his career survived his “death to gays” comment last year.
Amazing punch. Reminds me of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out when Glass Jaw Joe gets bombed and then quivers and crumples to the mat.
Just after he died I was cleaning out my Jewish great uncles home wheire I stumbled on his boxing trophies. It turned out that the old man, who I had always considered a bit of a doofus, had been the state welter weight Golden Gloves champion in the 1920s. I thought that this was really cooll but I still wonder why no one had ever mentioned his championship to me before. .
OT, but yes they are fat:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/diners-called-fat-girls-on-restaurant-bill-check-cameo-club-cardroom-lounge_n_2267805.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
There is apparently a Roberto Duran biopic in the works. I guess it will be interesting to see the turnout for that. If Mexicans can make it a blockbuster or not.
Since Duran was Panamanian, I don’t know if there is a nationalist Mexican urge to see a biopic. Now a JC Chavez biopic would be a different story…
When I attended the first Holyfield-Tyson fight in 1996, the crowd at the MGM Grand was almost entirely white. Now the crowds are overwhelmingly hispanic for virtually every match in the same venue.
Since Duran was Panamanian, I don’t know if there is a nationalist Mexican urge to see a biopic.
But… but… but… the Progressive Thought Complex insures us that all blacks and browns are forever united in a spirit of common underdog striving against the White Straight Male Hegemon. So Mexican, Panamanian, Brazilian… all brothers and sisters of color!
And someday even Progressives may understand that “Latino” nationals happily hate people from other Latino nations not their own. Meanwhile, the government/media complex ensures they are all united in the goal of bleeding Whitey dry. Once the cash runs out, then we’ll see the true colors of the rainbow, which is nothing but shades of red.
And someday even Progressives may understand that “Latino” nationals happily hate people from other Latino nations not their own.
See any fight between a Puerto Rican and a Mexican. (E.g., Cotto/Margacheato)
Incidentally, one of the really refreshing things about boxing is the way that no one pretends that race/nationality doesn’t matter in the judging. Everyone knows that if you’re fighting a Mexican in Texas, you better knock him out, ’cause you’re not getting a decision. Find me another channel in the popular culture that still admits, w/o judgement, that people favor their own.
White, long-time boxing aficionado here. One thing not mentioned in your analysis is the growing predominance of Eastern European boxers. No one ever talks about a ‘great white hope’ anymore, partially b/c six of the top ten heavyweights are white EEs. EEs populate many of the lower weight classes as well, from lightweight up, with superstar-in-the-making Genady Golovkin being perhaps the most visible.
Plenty of Asians, (and Asian fans) in the lower weight classes, too. Bottom line: illegal immigrants aren’t needed to save boxing, it’s doing fine in the rest of the world, and they’ll always be a market here as well. People, usually do-gooder/anti-violence types have predicted its demise before, they were wrong. Also–the highest-paid athlete in the WORLD in 2011? A black American boxer. The year before that? A Filipino boxer. HBO makes hundreds of millions off boxing. It ain’t going nowhere.
When I attended the first Holyfield-Tyson fight in 1996, the crowd at the MGM Grand was almost entirely white. Now the crowds are overwhelmingly hispanic for virtually every match in the same venue.
I’ve stayed at the MGM Grand a few times and can tell you that MMA crowds in Vegas are mostly Hispanic now, too.
My guess is that Las Vegas has become the playground of the whiter upper class of Latin America now. All of the nightclubs in LV feel more like Bogota and play the same techno/latin house music where they take every bullsh** American pop song and mash up the lyrics over the same beat ad nauseam. If you thought that Enrique Iglesias sucked before, just wait til you’ve done a batchelor party weekend in LV.
About 1 year ago I stayed at the Wynn (mucho expensive) and there were these 3 Venezuelan dudes hanging out at the bar with us. One guy ordered his drink but his bodyguard insisted on tasting it first, like a modern-day ganymeade. These dudes were straight out of Miami Vice.
Either way, these are all whiter looking Latinos that can afford to attend these events, travel and gamble. The only Indio looking Hispanics I see are the short, squat dark types cooking the food or cleaning stuff.
I’ve only watched the ESPN highlight video, but Marquez (who is white as near as I can tell) looked a whole lot bulkier than Pacquiao. I can’t help but think that a similar blow by Pacqiuao against Marquez would not have have been as devastating. I also couldn’t help but think, looking at the physique of Marquez – steroids? Looking at the two physiques, it struck me as unlikely that these two men belonged in the same weight class.
@mike: Apparently, every reporter covering the fight also suspected that Marquez juiced up for the fight. And it will never be proved, because boxing doesn’t take dope testing seriously — and why should they, when the worst cheating is done by the judges? If Pacquiao had landed that same counterpunch — with Marquez whiffing his own punch a split-second earlier, his head and eyes turned away from the coming counter, and body standing straight up, not braced for a hit — Marquez would have also gone to sleep for a minute. Pacquiao scored a similar KO of Ricky Hatton a few yrs ago, only it was in the middle of the ring, not against the ropes.
From what I can tell Duran was popular among Mexicans, as he was boxing when the sport was more dominated by blacks, and he wasn’t competing against Mexican boxers, so it’s a case of beggars can’t be choosers.
mike, nick:
i haven’t followed boxing closely at all, but when i was reading up on marquez for this post i found something written two years ago speculating that the previous fight with Pacquiao would be his last one since he was 37 at the time and losing a step. but those punches he was landing as a 39 year old are comparable to the bombs Barry Bonds was blasting in ’01. if you’re Marquez, why not juice? assuming you have the technology not to get caught, Pacquiao has no room to complain about it since he either juices or has avoided being tested for juicing.
Romney… haha, what a loser. At least Dole had the excuse of being an ancient codger who lived in another era and McCain had the excuse of being a demented and brain damaged ancient corpse.
Nick, what makes me doubt Marquez is his admitted association with a known PED-supplier turned informant for his training camp, coupled with the almost comical changes in his physique at age 39. He had fought Pacquiao for 36 rounds previously and never come close to scoring even one knockdown despite landing many superb right hands. I have seen a younger Marquez hit lighter fighters like Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis with everything but the kitchen sink so he could score late round attrition stoppages. Now he’s 39, bulked up almost absurdly, and detonating right hand bombs that twice sent the iron-chinned pacquiao (who has not been legitimately knocked down in more than a decade, since he was basically a kid) flying to the canvas like he had been shot in the head.
However, as you said, it was a perfectly placed punch (I think Pac actually tripped over JMM’s foot just a split-second before the punch was thrown and fell right into it). The first knockdown, in the 3rd round, is actually the one that makes JMM’s performance look suspicious. Marquez’s punches have NEVER had that kind of effect on Manny.
That’s interesting. In Australia, where there are almost no Central and South Americans, boxing matches are watched by whites. At least this was the case at the two matches I saw at the local bar/club. However Muay Thai matches (Thai Boxing/kickboxing) are popular here, with fighters coming from Thailand to fight white Australians.
Nonito Donaire is a very good Filipino-American boxer (he is listed in most publications’ top ten pound-for-pound rankings), so there is one Asian American.
Boxing always tends to draw from the lower classes as it is a tough way to make a living and middle class parents don’t sign their children up for it by and large, hence the tradition of immigrants to the States being quite successful. It’s often a good outlet for troubled kids in bad neighborhoods as it provides an outlet for anger, but at the same time is so incredibly demanding with regards to fitness and training, can also help instill a bit of discipline.
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