BoxRec

Boxers almost always come from very poor or working class backgrounds but how many good fighters have been from 'wealthy' backgrounds?

Azumah Nelson (son of a Doctor)

Am I right in thinking Ray Leonard come from a 'comfortable' background?

Anymore fight fans? 8)

Ali grew up in a relatively comfortable household

So did James Hare.

and Naz!

he`s dad had a shop!

Gene Tunney is an obvious one from the past and a modern one would be Barrera.

There have been several successful fighters who were college grads. Fifties welter Chuck Davey was one, and I believe the Carlos Palomino-Mando Muniz match was the first title bout between college grads. I'm not sure about the childhood circumstances of these fighters, but BA is definitely more middle class than a degree from the College of Hard Knocks.

jimbob wrote:Eubank's folks were pretty rich wern't they?

NAH! he Grow up in “New York”

FRANKIE OTERO -FORMER CONTENDER- COMES FROM A MIDDLECLASS BACKGROUND- HIS FATHER WAS AN AIRLINE EMPLOYEE IN MIAMI AND FRANKIE IS CURRENTLY A REAL ESTATE APPRAISER, BROKER AND LANDLORD. COLLEGE BOYS INCLUDE KEN NORTON, BONECRUSHER SMITH, CARLOS PALOMINO, ARMANDO MUNIZ AND KARL ZURHEIDE. FIGHTING DOCTORS INCLUDE HAROLD REICHMAN AND FORMER MEXICAN HEAVYWEIGHT ISMAEL RUIZ.

enrique wrote:FIGHTING DOCTORS INCLUDE HAROLD REICHMAN AND FORMER MEXICAN HEAVYWEIGHT ISMAEL RUIZ.

And don't forget the fighting Klitoris brothers.

Of course, whether a "Dr. of Sports Scientisticology" (or whatever the f*** their degrees are) qualifies as a real doctorate is a topic for another thread. It sounds kinda suspiciously like those "Recreational Facilities Management" degrees major colleges give out so their major-sports athletes can all say they got a college degree and thus keep the NCAA happy. ;)

"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?" --Frank Zappa, "Camarillo Brillo"

Well you couldnt tell by the way he fights but Marco A Barerra's father was and is a mexican movie producer and they lived very well before marco was fighting.And I beleive Morales had a good life too.

pugilisticprofessor wrote:Well you couldnt tell by the way he fights but Marco A Barerra's father was and is a mexican movie producer and they lived very well before marco was fighting.And I beleive Morales had a good life too.

I think I am write in saying that Barerra was studying law before he decided to concentrate on Boxing full time. Apparently he was also a promising football player as well.

Floyd Maywether, Danny Green.

I think Vernon forrst may have been fairly well off also i think.

tonyevs wrote:Gene Tunney is an obvious one from the past.

Gene Tunney's father was a stevedore (also known as dock worker). It was a working class socio-economic level. His mother didn't work outside the home. They had 7 children so there were a lot of mouths to feed. Both parents were immigrants who were born in the Western part of Ireland - Mayo County, which was a poor area of Ireland at the time.

They lived in a poor area of Greenwich Village when Tunney was a boy. They rented and didn't own their apartment. There is some evidence that Tunney's mother had to borrow the money from the town priest in Ireland in order to emigrate to the U.S. This was a common practice at the time because most people couldn't save up the money for the trip. Then, once they were in the U.S., they would gradually repay the priest so that he could take the money and loan it to someone else so that they could emigrate to the U.S. Tunney's father may have had to do the same thing.

Gene Tunney had to leave school at the age of 15 in order to work full-time in order to help support the family. He also worked while he was attending school in order to pay for his own tuition. He used to take orders at a butcher's shop before school, then return after school to deliver the orders.

After he left school at 15, he worked at the Ocean Steamship Company and worked his way up the ladder there until he enlisted in the Marines during World War I. He taught himself to type and be a stenographer in order to advance on the job, and he took correspondence courses in Math and other subjects.

He fought a few fights professionally before he enlisted, then he became the Light-Heavyweight Champion of the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Forces) in the military, then when he returned after the war, he continued with his professional boxing career.

He had a reputation for living frugally, saving, and investing his money in real estate even before he became the Heavyweight Champion. Of course, once he became the heavyweight champion of the world, he was able to command enough money to become a millionaire.

He retired early and married a young, beautiful, multi-millionairess (worth $200 million at the time which would be worth at least 10 times that amount today) who was related to Andrew Carnegie, so he obviously became very wealthy - but he didn't start out as wealthy, at all. He was a classic case of 'rags to riches.'

You can see Gene Tunney's birth certificate and family tree information at the following site:

http://www.genetunney.org/birth.html

Great post Boxingfan2004 great information i never knew.

Marco Antonio Barrera and Alfonso Zamora, two Mexican fighters who came from well off familys. Barrera's a trained lawyer and Zamora won the lottery and he was already pretty well off.