Patriotic rooting ?

[candyslim]

Patriotic rooting is much more a foreign thing, not an American thing. America has athletes that are great at basically every sport. Foreign athletes do not. Russians and Germans and Brits and Mexicans and Asians arent good at sports like basketball. Boxing is more of a primary sport to the best athletes in the those countries so the fans are obviously gonna get behind them more in the sports they're actually good at. Boxing is a last resort sport for the best athletes in America.

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

Basketball is a GLOBAL sport. It's just that other nationalities arent very good at it. The sport is huge nationally and internationally, be serious.

Everybody else has a toe in the water. It's only the US that take it seriously. If it's truly global there are nations that beat you more than once every few years, yes? Please name them because it's not something I know much about.

We taught our sports to the world and now the world regularly kicks our butt at them. Not the US though because they have rejected all our sports and prefer to play alone or with the little leaguers

What kind of football, Ossyrules, Gridiron, or Association ?

There is only 1 football my friend

Our neighbours across the pond refer to it as soccer, but it's not their fault they are a confused nation

I know that and you know that ... hell 90% of the civilized world knows that ... like me dear ol' mum used to say ... "There's always one"

[candyslim]

And the only reason foreignors are better at cricket is because Americans dont even play it.

Blimey ! and we get called arrogant. Thank you for not playing it so we can win occasionally.

[diddy]

And the only reason foreignors are better at cricket is because Americans dont even play it.

Blimey ! and we get called arrogant. Thank you for not playing it so we can win occasionally.

No problem. Just being honest. I don't know one person in the States who has ever played it. Not one. And I probably know someone that lives in 25 of the 50 states.

[diddy]

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

Basketball is a GLOBAL sport. It's just that other nationalities arent very good at it. The sport is huge nationally and internationally, be serious.

Everybody else has a toe in the water. It's only the US that take it seriously. If it's truly global there are nations that beat you more than once every few years, yes? Please name them because it's not something I know much about.

We taught our sports to the world and now the world regularly kicks our butt at them. Not the US though because they have rejected all our sports and prefer to play alone or with the little leaguers

What kind of football, Ossyrules, Gridiron, or Association ?

There is only 1 football my friend

Our neighbours across the pond refer to it as soccer, but it's not their fault they are a confused nation

I know that and you know that ... hell 90% of the civilized world knows that ... like me dear ol' mum used to say ... "There's always one"

Everybody else only has "a toe in the water" because it's the sort of sport that you need a high degree of athleticism in to succeed.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Patriotic rooting is much more a foreign thing, not an American thing. America has athletes that are great at basically every sport. Foreign athletes do not. Russians and Germans and Brits and Mexicans and Asians arent good at sports like basketball. Boxing is more of a primary sport to the best athletes in the those countries so the fans are obviously gonna get behind them more in the sports they're actually good at. Boxing is a last resort sport for the best athletes in America.

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Just to be clear, I love the atmosphere at fights in the UK. Your patriotic cheering is awesome. We just don't care here.

[Best Coast]

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, it's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

I've heard it said by numerous British boxing commentators and journalists that one of the goals of the 2012 British Olympic boxing federation (from the ground up) was to take British boxing enthusiasm to a new level (for youth, trainers, fans and every other segment) and IMO they definitely accomplished their goal.

Among other things since 2012 the attendance has exploded with two of the biggest boxing crowds not only in British history, but recent WORLD history. It's no coincidence that both Froch-Groves II (80,000 live attendance) and Joshua-Klitschko (90,000 live attendance) happened after the 2012 London Olympics.

90,000 ties the alltime British record (from 1939) and is the biggest crowd worldwide since 1993's Chavez-Haugen bout in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City (130,000+).

I live 8 miles from the Mexican border and it's safe to say that Mexicans are the world's most hardcore boxing fans. But these days Brit fans are running a strong second!!

[Ossyrules]

Patriotic rooting is much more a foreign thing, not an American thing. America has athletes that are great at basically every sport. Foreign athletes do not. Russians and Germans and Brits and Mexicans and Asians arent good at sports like basketball. Boxing is more of a primary sport to the best athletes in the those countries so the fans are obviously gonna get behind them more in the sports they're actually good at. Boxing is a last resort sport for the best athletes in America.

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

It's a good point. Would your equivalent be to cheer a guy from your state? All things considered USA is more of a continent than a country, and Britain more like Florida size wise.

Does guys from Florida support Roy Jones, Lacy, Thurman etc? You get my point

[candyslim]

Everybody else only has "a toe in the water" because it's the sort of sport that you need a high degree of athleticism in to succeed.

So the USA has a monopoly on athleticism? Wow, I had no idea. I think I'll leave it there Diddy because I'm guessing you're very young, and I don't want to say anything to insult you.

Hey Ossy I've worked out why it is we aren't better at sports than we actually are. I mean we play the Germans at football, the Kiwis at Rugby Union and India at cricket. WTF are we doing, I mean these guys can really play?. That's where we are going wrong, we should play India at Rugby, New Zealand at football, and the Germans at cricket ... sorted.

Failing that we could invent a new sport because we are pretty good at that, or if we're feeling lazy take a sport played exclusively by school-girls in another country, change it just enough so you can get away with re-naming it, and re-brand it as a sport for men. Probably no one else would want to play it or maybe one or two other countries might adopt it purely as a minority sport, and we could give it a grandiose sounding competition like "The Tournament of the Entire Universe"

What do you mean it's been done already, you're winding me up, surely?

[candyslim]

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

Like I said Saad, if it's bigger in the UK, it's a recent development, but historically boxing is way bigger in the states. Maybe the decline is due to the relative decline in economic necessity, add to that the decline in US dominance, especially in the heavyweight dvision. Make no mistake though, boxing might be more popular than ever in the UK, but it's still a minority sport, or at least not a primary sport, disregarding the fact that half the country has become a casual fan since the rise of Anthony Joshua, and of course everyone has recently acquired expert knowledge of boxing (that's irony by the way in case anybody was wondering).

I think you're on the right track with the point about population, and was it Ossy who made the point about the US being effectively a continent? I once heard it explained that the US is too large for the population to identify with, and in order to personalize it, the population need to sub-divide it ... I'm an Irish-American, a Mexican-American, a German-American (I've never heard the term British-American or English-American though probably because that was once the norm?)

Despite this professed lack of patriotic bias though, everyone is very familiar with that U.S.A. chant at sporting events.

[ValMar]

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

Like I said Saad, if it's bigger in the UK, it's a recent development, but historically boxing is way bigger in the states. Maybe the decline is due to the relative decline in economic necessity, add to that the decline in US dominance, especially in the heavyweight dvision. Make no mistake though, boxing might be more popular than ever in the UK, but it's still a minority sport, or at least not a primary sport, disregarding the fact that half the country has become a casual fan since the rise of Anthony Joshua, and of course everyone has recently acquired expert knowledge of boxing (that's irony by the way in case anybody was wondering).

I think you're on the right track with the point about population, and was it Ossy who made the point about the US being effectively a continent? I once heard it explained that the US is too large for the population to identify with, and in order to personalize it, the population need to sub-divide it ... I'm an Irish-American, a Mexican-American, a German-American (I've never heard the term British-American or English-American though probably because that was once the norm?)

Despite this professed lack of patriotic bias though, everyone is very familiar with that U.S.A. chant at sporting events.

Minority sport ? 90 000 ? What about "majority sports" ?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

It's a good point. Would your equivalent be to cheer a guy from your state? All things considered USA is more of a continent than a country, and Britain more like Florida size wise.

Does guys from Florida support Roy Jones, Lacy, Thurman etc? You get my point

If there was an equivalent I suppose that would be it. Depends on the person and the fighter, you're likely to have never heard of a fighter from your area until he pops up on TV against someone you know. Personally, I never had a regional inclination for cheering. I'm from MD and I hated Leonard as a child. On the flip side George Chaplin and Vince Pettway were probably the premiere Baltimore fighters and I almost always cheered for them. With the exception of cheering for Shavers live against Chaplin.

So cities would be more than states, but nothing like over there.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

Like I said Saad, if it's bigger in the UK, it's a recent development, but historically boxing is way bigger in the states. Maybe the decline is due to the relative decline in economic necessity, add to that the decline in US dominance, especially in the heavyweight dvision. Make no mistake though, boxing might be more popular than ever in the UK, but it's still a minority sport, or at least not a primary sport, disregarding the fact that half the country has become a casual fan since the rise of Anthony Joshua, and of course everyone has recently acquired expert knowledge of boxing (that's irony by the way in case anybody was wondering).

I think you're on the right track with the point about population, and was it Ossy who made the point about the US being effectively a continent? I once heard it explained that the US is too large for the population to identify with, and in order to personalize it, the population need to sub-divide it ... I'm an Irish-American, a Mexican-American, a German-American (I've never heard the term British-American or English-American though probably because that was once the norm?)

Despite this professed lack of patriotic bias though, everyone is very familiar with that U.S.A. chant at sporting events.

It's been gradual and recent, I would never suggest that Boxing was bigger than Soccer. Maybe not Rugby either? What else? It's way down the line here. Yes, historically it was huge here but it hasn't been for a long time. I literally used to watch fights in the 90's with 20+ friends. Casuals I suppose, but they knew dozens of fighters. Camacho/Haugen was one, not exactly Joshua/Wlad. Not one of them even watches a fight on a whim.

Yes, many of our states are vast. Texas would be a very large country.

You'll hear USA chants. I'm not suggesting that nobody cheers that way, just not as wide spread or rabidly. Then again, you'll have championship fights here where a handful of tickets sold and casino's gave freebies to gamblers who couldn't care at all. You could also here a packed MSG sing Happy Birthday to Roberto Duran while he beat the shit out of hometown boy Davey Moore.

This, and all American Boxing issues, goes back to the premium cable and casino money overpaying fighters and letting promoters not work. Hall shows are largely a thing of the past in most cities. That's how you build a fan base. Let fans identify with you. Some guy from Baltimore fighting in Vegas is as likely to get me fired up as a girl from Baltimore on reality TV.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

For instance, WWE is listed above Boxing on ESPN. Yes, Pro Wrestling has more fans.

[Tomasino]

Patriotic rooting is much more a foreign thing, not an American thing. America has athletes that are great at basically every sport. Foreign athletes do not. Russians and Germans and Brits and Mexicans and Asians arent good at sports like basketball. Boxing is more of a primary sport to the best athletes in the those countries so the fans are obviously gonna get behind them more in the sports they're actually good at. Boxing is a last resort sport for the best athletes in America.

That's a very nationalistic thing to say. Basketball is an American sport. We aren't good at it compared to Americans there again we tend to be better at cricket ...

Boxing had it's origins (as an organized activity} in Britain but during the whole of the last century it was completely dominated (pro-boxing anyway) by the US. Most British kids and I'd guestimate 75% of those around the world, want to play football (soccer to you) , so I wouldn't agree that boxing is more of a primary sport in Britain, or if it is, ir's a very recent development.

Just For the record, and at the risk of coming over as patriotic (heaven forbid), for a country of roughly 20% of your population, we do ok at quite a lot of different sports as the medals table of each of the last few Olympics would attest.

And the only reason foreignors are better at cricket is because Americans dont even play it.

Nobody watches basketball apart from Americans, never mind play it. It's a game for freaks. Soccer is global and USA is shite at that.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I thought Basketball was huge in China?

[Baby Face Finster]

Basketball is a GLOBAL sport. It's just that other nationalities arent very good at it. The sport is huge nationally and internationally, be serious.

Everybody else has a toe in the water. It's only the US that take it seriously. If it's truly global there are nations that beat you more than once every few years, yes? Please name them because it's not something I know much about.

We taught our sports to the world and now the world regularly kicks our butt at them. Not the US though because they have rejected all our sports and prefer to play alone or with the little leaguers

There is only 1 football my friend

Our neighbours across the pond refer to it as soccer, but it's not their fault they are a confused nation

I know that and you know that ... hell 90% of the civilized world knows that ... like me dear ol' mum used to say ... "There's always one"

Everybody else only has "a toe in the water" because it's the sort of sport that you need a high degree of athleticism in to succeed.

So there is no athleticism in soccer? Basketball and to the same degree Volleyball, is more dependent on size than other sports. You can excel at soccer no matter what size you are, not so true for basketball. I dare say that outside of the US Hockey is a bigger global sport than Basketball. China for instance is set to pump massive money into developing the game there.

[Baby Face Finster]

Everybody else has a toe in the water. It's only the US that take it seriously. If it's truly global there are nations that beat you more than once every few years, yes? Please name them because it's not something I know much about.

We taught our sports to the world and now the world regularly kicks our butt at them. Not the US though because they have rejected all our sports and prefer to play alone or with the little leaguers



I know that and you know that ... hell 90% of the civilized world knows that ... like me dear ol' mum used to say ... "There's always one"

Everybody else only has "a toe in the water" because it's the sort of sport that you need a high degree of athleticism in to succeed.

So there is no athleticism in soccer? Basketball and to the same degree Volleyball, is more dependent on size than other sports. You can excel at soccer no matter what size you are, not so true for Basketball. I dare say that outside of the US Hockey is a bigger global sport than Basketball. China for instance is set to pump massive money into developing the game there.

As for patriotic rooting in boxing I don't really have any hometown fighters to root for. Toronto has never had anyone replace the popularity of George Chuvalo. Sean O'Sullivan was the last guy to come close.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I haven't heard that name in forever. Was it Simon Brown that did him in? He and Dewitt, didn't get as far as expected. Though Willie had his nose knocked off by Cooper.

[Baby Face Finster]

I haven't heard that name in forever. Was it Simon Brown that did him in? He and Dewitt, didn't get as far as expected. Though Willie had his nose knocked off by Cooper.

Yeah, O'Sullivan was blitzed by Simon Brown and he was never the same after that.

[candyslim]

Minority sport ? 90 000 ? What about "majority sports" ?

Yes I realize that sounds crazy but I'd guess there were people at Wembley that night who had never even heard of Tyson Fury, and a significant proportion who would never have heard of Oscar De La Hoya. It's not so much boxing as the Anthony Joshua effect.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies when the best we had was 'Enery Cooper: Lovely bloke, decent heavyweight, bit small, prone to cuts, not a great chin, and not properly world class. just another in a long line of "horizontal heavyweights" which was what we were known for, having produced no heavyweight Champion back to the end of the bare knuckle era. Ok, Bob Fitzsimmons was born in Cornwall but went to Australia and eventually America. Can't really count him. I was a Joe Bugner fan, built like Adonis but frustratingly timid and defensive. At least you knew he could compete with the top Americans without ending up on his back. That was as good as it got.

Then along came Frank Bruno. The country loved big Frank despite the fact he wasn't very good, not really. Yes he won a won a belt so held a version of the title but he couldn't hold it. The best you could really say about Frank was that he could rub shoulders with the top Americans at the top table, which was a massive step in the right direction. Was he a genuine World Heavyweight Champion though? ... not really.

Then along came Lennox Lewis. Was he a genuine world Heavyweight Champion? ... Unmistakably! ... but was he British? ... Erm, well ... kind of : Born in the West Indies, lived in London, moved to Canada, represented Canada in the Olympics and won them medals. I guess we can claim joint "ownership" at best.

Then we got Tyson Fury who despite being an utter nutter, did beat the great Wladimir Klitschko fair and square, no arguments and he's British well British/Irish. Can it get any better than that?

Well actually yes because now there's AJ who holds two fragments of the World Heavyweight title and looks well capable of adding the others. Not only is he on the top table by right, he may prove to be the best of them around ... that'll do for now. And he's ours - he was born, grew up in, and lives in Watford near to London . He's British (of Nigerian parents though so Nigerians can take pride) and he da man.

Now do you get it?.

Maybe if you're American you don't, but then you've had pretty much a whole century's worth of World Heavyweight Champions. It's no big deal.

[greg]

..no shame cheering for your own countryman unless, of course, he's a clown, doper, low life etc..

[ValMar]

Minority sport ? 90 000 ? What about "majority sports" ?

Yes I realize that sounds crazy but I'd guess there were people at Wembley that night who had never even heard of Tyson Fury, and a significant proportion who would never have heard of Oscar De La Hoya. It's not so much boxing as the Anthony Joshua effect.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies when the best we had was 'Enery Cooper: Lovely bloke, decent heavyweight, bit small, prone to cuts, not a great chin, and not properly world class. just another in a long line of "horizontal heavyweights" which was what we were known for, having produced no heavyweight Champion back to the end of the bare knuckle era. Ok, Bob Fitzsimmons was born in Cornwall but went to Australia and eventually America. Can't really count him. I was a Joe Bugner fan, built like Adonis but frustratingly timid and defensive. At least you knew he could compete with the top Americans without ending up on his back. That was as good as it got.

Then along came Frank Bruno. The country loved big Frank despite the fact he wasn't very good, not really. Yes he won a won a belt so held a version of the title but he couldn't hold it. The best you could really say about Frank was that he could rub shoulders with the top Americans at the top table, which was a massive step in the right direction. Was he a genuine World Heavyweight Champion though? ... not really.

Then along came Lennox Lewis. Was he a genuine world Heavyweight Champion? ... Unmistakably! ... but was he British? ... Erm, well ... kind of : Born in the West Indies, lived in London, moved to Canada, represented Canada in the Olympics and won them medals. I guess we can claim joint "ownership" at best.

Then we got Tyson Fury who despite being an utter nutter, did beat the great Wladimir Klitschko fair and square, no arguments and he's British well British/Irish. Can it get any better than that?

Well actually yes because now there's AJ who holds two fragments of the World Heavyweight title and looks well capable of adding the others. Not only is he on the top table by right, he may prove to be the best of them around ... that'll do for now. And he's ours - he was born, grew up in, and lives in Watford near to London . He's British (of Nigerian parents though so Nigerians can take pride) and he da man.

Now do you get it?.

Maybe if you're American you don't, but then you've had pretty much a whole century's worth of World Heavyweight Champions. It's no big deal.

Well done, Candyslim !

[candyslim]

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

Like I said Saad, if it's bigger in the UK, it's a recent development, but historically boxing is way bigger in the states. Maybe the decline is due to the relative decline in economic necessity, add to that the decline in US dominance, especially in the heavyweight dvision. Make no mistake though, boxing might be more popular than ever in the UK, but it's still a minority sport, or at least not a primary sport, disregarding the fact that half the country has become a casual fan since the rise of Anthony Joshua, and of course everyone has recently acquired expert knowledge of boxing (that's irony by the way in case anybody was wondering).

I think you're on the right track with the point about population, and was it Ossy who made the point about the US being effectively a continent? I once heard it explained that the US is too large for the population to identify with, and in order to personalize it, the population need to sub-divide it ... I'm an Irish-American, a Mexican-American, a German-American (I've never heard the term British-American or English-American though probably because that was once the norm?)

Despite this professed lack of patriotic bias though, everyone is very familiar with that U.S.A. chant at sporting events.

It's been gradual and recent, I would never suggest that Boxing was bigger than Soccer. Maybe not Rugby either? What else? It's way down the line here. Yes, historically it was huge here but it hasn't been for a long time. I literally used to watch fights in the 90's with 20+ friends. Casuals I suppose, but they knew dozens of fighters. Camacho/Haugen was one, not exactly Joshua/Wlad. Not one of them even watches a fight on a whim.

Yes, many of our states are vast. Texas would be a very large country.

You'll hear USA chants. I'm not suggesting that nobody cheers that way, just not as wide spread or rabidly. Then again, you'll have championship fights here where a handful of tickets sold and casino's gave freebies to gamblers who couldn't care at all. You could also here a packed MSG sing Happy Birthday to Roberto Duran while he beat the poo out of hometown boy Davey Moore.

This, and all American Boxing issues, goes back to the premium cable and casino money overpaying fighters and letting promoters not work. Hall shows are largely a thing of the past in most cities. That's how you build a fan base. Let fans identify with you. Some guy from Baltimore fighting in Vegas is as likely to get me fired up as a girl from Baltimore on reality TV.

In answer to your question I would say in first place is football. In places 2nd through 6th I would also say football, there's nothing else comes close. After that I guess you have Rugby Union (there's also Rugby League which is very popular but almost exclusively in the north of the country) Cricket (summer only), Motorsport, Boxing, Golf, Tennis, Cycling ... it's really difficult to rank other sports, football is so dominant and it's tribal.

The UK is a tiny place geographically speaking but you notice enormous variation in the way people speak over very short distances, for example you have Ricky Hatton with his Mancunian i.e. Manchester accent yet thirty miles away in Liverpool you have the "Scouse" accent as demonstrated by Tony Bellew for example. Local rivalries can be fierce and it's not unusual for someone losing a bet to be made to wear a rival team's shirt as a forfeit, and that is a huge deal for some.

Those who align themselves to a successful team rather than supporting their local club are subjected to good-natured scorn at best, and known as "glory hunters". Sometimes that scorn isn't so good-natured. In the past football violence was a way of life for many young men and it still goes on today although far less frequently.

It makes it quite hard to understand the attitude that you don't necessarily root for your own or support your local fighters, although I must say I'm far more of a "citizen-of -the-world" as a fan of boxing than I am as a football fan so I kind of get it.

[Ossyrules]

Boxing is bigger there than it is here. He's right there, Figure Skating destroyed Garcia/Guerrero on prime time TV. The population point is exactly what makes us less nationalistic. We're split off amongst our states with pro and Collegiate sports(though my favorite college teams are far away). A boxer from where I live now is 1,500 miles away from where I'm born. Just doesn't work that way in individual sports, especially since our promoters haven't bothered to try and build local draws for many decades. That's why foreign fighters are as likely to be cheered here as Americans in major fights.

Like I said Saad, if it's bigger in the UK, it's a recent development, but historically boxing is way bigger in the states. Maybe the decline is due to the relative decline in economic necessity, add to that the decline in US dominance, especially in the heavyweight dvision. Make no mistake though, boxing might be more popular than ever in the UK, but it's still a minority sport, or at least not a primary sport, disregarding the fact that half the country has become a casual fan since the rise of Anthony Joshua, and of course everyone has recently acquired expert knowledge of boxing (that's irony by the way in case anybody was wondering).

I think you're on the right track with the point about population, and was it Ossy who made the point about the US being effectively a continent? I once heard it explained that the US is too large for the population to identify with, and in order to personalize it, the population need to sub-divide it ... I'm an Irish-American, a Mexican-American, a German-American (I've never heard the term British-American or English-American though probably because that was once the norm?)

Despite this professed lack of patriotic bias though, everyone is very familiar with that U.S.A. chant at sporting events.

Minority sport ? 90 000 ? What about "majority sports" ?

Believe me it's not a mainstream sport.

It is promoted well over here at the moment though. Probably at it's best since the 90s when we had eubank, Benn etc

Spend a fortnight in England and you'll see what the mainstream sports are