BoxRec

Bit of a random question but any input would be appreciated.

We all know the great boxing cities Philly, New York, Deroit, Chicago etc but I was wondering what are some of the smaller towns which have produced a lot of great fighters.

Youngstown, Ohio has a population of around 70k and has produced Earnie Shavers, Ray Mancini and more recently prospect Kelly Pavlik.

Brockton Mass has Marciano and Hagler.

Obviously Canastota has Basillio and Backus which is impressive considering it's a village.

Any others?

A great old fight town that was covered in the movie 'Fat City"was Stockton Calif.
Turned out Yaqui Lopez and some others.

When I posted the question I was more thinking of US towns, but come to think of it Merthyr Tydfil in Wales deserves a mention. It has a population of around 50k and produced Jimmy Wilde, Howard Winstone and Johnny Owen, not bad going at all.

St. Louis has had a slew of quality fighters, though it is not really a small city, as is Kansas City, MO, but there are smaller cities like Joplin and Springfield, MO.....Louisville, KY…..Providence, RI…..Tulsa and Oklahoma City, OK.....Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, WA.....Pittsburgh and it’s bordering counties and the bordering West Virginia counties, Reading, Wilkes-Barre, Allentown and Lancaster, PA.....Houston, TX....several smaller California cities.....Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.....Baltimore and Salisbury, MD.....Indianapolis, IN…..Denver, CO…..New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Waterbury, CT and several other CT cities….Several cities in New Jersey, Atlantic City, Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, Camden and Paterson, NJ….Tampa, FL…..New Orleans…..St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth, MN…..Fargo, ND…..Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, NY…..Ohio has several smaller cities that produced quality fighters, Akron, Columbus, Cincy, Dayton, East Liverpool, Chillicothe, as someone mentioned Youngstown, Cleveland and Coshocton, all produced some really good talent…..Memphis, TN….Fort Worth, San Antonio, TX, El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico, Houston and Galveston…..Salt Lake City, UT….Norfolk and Richmond, VA…..Milwaukee, WI…..Hot Springs and Little Rock…..Wichita and Topeka, KS…..Holyoke and Fall River, MA….Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, MI…..All of the above have been big supporting cities of boxing and most all have very solid histories steeped with boxing and it's fighters.

barry wrote:St. Louis has had a slew of quality fighters, though it is not really a small city, as is Kansas City, MO, but there are smaller cities like Joplin and Springfield, MO.....Louisville, KY…..Providence, RI…..Tulsa and Oklahoma City, OK.....Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, WA.....Pittsburgh and it’s bordering counties and the bordering West Virginia counties, Reading, Wilkes-Barre, Allentown and Lancaster, PA.....Houston, TX....several smaller California cities.....Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.....Baltimore and Salisbury, MD.....Indianapolis, IN…..Denver, CO…..New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Waterbury, CT and several other CT cities….Several cities in New Jersey, Atlantic City, Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, Camden and Paterson, NJ….Tampa, FL…..New Orleans…..St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth, MN…..Fargo, ND…..Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, NY…..Ohio has several smaller cities that produced quality fighters, Akron, Columbus, Cincy, Dayton, East Liverpool, Chillicothe, as someone mentioned Youngstown, Cleveland and Coshocton, all produced some really good talent…..Memphis, TN….Fort Worth, San Antonio, TX, El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico, Houston and Galveston…..Salt Lake City, UT….Norfolk and Richmond, VA…..Milwaukee, WI…..Hot Springs and Little Rock…..Wichita and Topeka, KS…..Holyoke and Fall River, MA….Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, MI…..All of the above have been big supporting cities of boxing and most all have very solid histories steeped with boxing and it's fighters.

Whoa! That is one information-rich post, cheers buddy

>>>>Whoa! That is one information-rich post, cheers buddy<<<<

Well...I try to inform, but you can look through the years of those I mentioned and find several top fighters from the area's.

J-C wrote:When I posted the question I was more thinking of US towns, but come to think of it Merthyr Tydfil in Wales deserves a mention. It has a population of around 50k and produced Jimmy Wilde, Howard Winstone and Johnny Owen, not bad going at all.

Merthyr has produced two World champions + two British, Commonwealth and European champions - namely:

Jimmy Wilde, Howard Winstone, Johnny Owen + Eddie Thomas.

The town (as you correctly stated has a population of around 50k) is also unique in that it has 3 statues of its champion boxers. Alas, the greatest of them all, Jimmy Wilde, is the sole boxer who does not have a statue.

http://www.johnnyowen.com

Pretty hard to top Louisville, Kentucky -- home to FOUR heavyweight champions: Marvin Hart, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Ellis and Greg Page.

Cincinnati, Ohio....

St Paul and Buffalo.