Major Countries with little to no world champions

[DeJulez]

I noticed China has 1.4B people and has only had 3 world championships in its boxing history. History said that in 1953 a boxer died and the sport was looked at as too violent and so was dropped from The National Games of China lineup.
It wouldn't be until a visit from Muhammad Ali in 1979 where China decided if it was to be respected then it would need to start winning medals in boxing.
China worked on its amateur program in the 80s leading to its first appearance in olympic boxing in 1992 and its first medal in 2004 with Zou Shiming winning a Bronze. Zou would go on to win Gold in 2008 as well as Zhang Xiaoping winning Gold at LHW.
China would have claim to its first world champion when Xiong Zhao Zhong won the WBC minimumweight Title in 2012.
Zou Shiming would be the 2nd in 2016 when he won the WBO Flyweight title.
Xu Can was the 3rd win he won the WBA Featherweight title in 2019.
India has about 1.4B. The have medaled and done moderately well in the Asian and Commonwealth games but have never had a world title winner.

So between two countries with 2.8B, which is around 1/3rd of all the people on the planet....they have produced 3 champions.

 

[revoltub]

well, they started it back up in '80 so you gotta think they gotta late start. Especially considering western fighters have been fine tuning gloved style well around 100 years by then.

Maybe it has something to do with getting sponsored

 

[revoltub]

Also just a visit from Muhammad Ali made China reconsider their thoughts on respect and overturn the ban on boxing.

Most baller shit eva

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

They're just predisposed to succeeding in fields based on intellect and technological advancement instead of getting beat to shit in a ring for the blood money in a fight purse.

Prizefighting probably strikes many Chinese ppl as a waste of a brain for dishonorable money.
I hadn't thought about it before. This post is my 'on the spot' best guess, Interesting question DeJulez.

 

[Yacob]

Also just a visit from Muhammad Ali made China reconsider their thoughts on respect and overturn the ban on boxing.

Most baller shit eva

Ali was truly a Don

 

[ironfist05]

Pakistan and Bangladesh never had any champs to my knowledge. Vietnam and Ethiopia, nothing. Brazil and Indonesia have definitely had a few but certainly punching beneath their weight.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

france and italy come to mind. at least in recent years.

 

[SandaKicker]

All the other countries mentioned strike me as a spec on the radar compared to China.

People are saying China will be the no. 1 kickboxing nation in the world soon. So that seems to be their focus.

They are also going through a “UFC 1” moment where Praying Mantis Kung Fu guys are getting exposed so that might have something to do with it as well.

 

[SandaKicker]

There is a poster on here @zapataxiv who lives in China from what I recall.

Maybe he will know why there aren’t as many boxing champions from China as you’d expect.

 

[mozfonky]

I noticed China has 1.4B people and has only had 3 world championships in its boxing history. History said that in 1953 a boxer died and the sport was looked at as too violent and so was dropped from The National Games of China lineup.
It wouldn't be until a visit from Muhammad Ali in 1979 where China decided if it was to be respected then it would need to start winning medals in boxing.
China worked on its amateur program in the 80s leading to its first appearance in olympic boxing in 1992 and its first medal in 2004 with Zou Shiming winning a Bronze. Zou would go on to win Gold in 2008 as well as Zhang Xiaoping winning Gold at LHW.
China would have claim to its first world champion when Xiong Zhao Zhong won the WBC minimumweight Title in 2012.
Zou Shiming would be the 2nd in 2016 when he won the WBO Flyweight title.
Xu Can was the 3rd win he won the WBA Featherweight title in 2019.
India has about 1.4B. The have medaled and done moderately well in the Asian and Commonwealth games but have never had a world title winner.

So between two countries with 2.8B, which is around 1/3rd of all the people on the planet....they have produced 3 champions.

i thought china would have taken over by now, I really did. Couple reasons, capitalism has arrived, and most importantly, they have the numbers and the attitude in terms of work. They work hard and they do it without the complaining that a lot of other peoples do, they don't really look down on anything that might earn them a buck, even if others do. Strong sense of duty which I guess comes from some sort of older ways of the country. They also are a major home of martial arts, some would say the home of martial arts. India? We had this convo before and some poster went nuts so who needs that again, I said my piece. I still think china may catch afire but it's not happening as fast as I thought, why? I don't know. One reason would have to be a lack of good teachers. Martial Arts as most of the older styles taught it, were as Bruce said, "99 percent baloney" which was an exaggeration in some ways but not in others. Physical contact changes everything and most martial artists are simply delusional. In fact, many mma'rs are too, not in the fact that they can't fight but they are grandiose about everything. Always some weird shit going on with them guys. boxing has never been like that in my experience, boxing people are generally salt of the earth, no mysticism and even though they may talk bad about each other, particularly trainers, there wasn't that bizarre need for someone to worship someone else that was rampant in mma and martial arts. In other words, china would have to get rid of some of that bullshit before they can really dig in to the sport.

 

[zapataxiv]

@DeJulez I think it has a lot more to do with historical reasons, than just a dude dying in the ring. It’s a fairly complex scene but it is very nationistic and still very amateur based here. Many of the best fighters never go pro or compete internationally for non boxing reasons. One of my coaches never competed internationally even though she was better than the girl who was chosen because my coach could not speak English.. like at all.

They're just predisposed to succeeding in fields based on intellect and technological advancement instead of getting beat to shit in a ring for the blood money in a fight purse.

Prizefighting probably strikes many Chinese ppl as a waste of a brain for dishonorable money.
I hadn't thought about it before. This post is my 'on the spot' best guess, Interesting question DeJulez.

You are making big generalizations for a country of over a billion people. Chill a bit on that front. But you are right on it not being a priority for common people but it’s more complex than boxing being considered “dishonorable”

All the other countries mentioned strike me as a spec on the radar compared to China.

People are saying China will be the no. 1 kickboxing nation in the world soon. So that seems to be their focus.

They are also going through a “UFC 1” moment where Praying Mantis Kung Fu guys are getting exposed so that might have something to do with it as well.

I don’t know about the kickboxing stuff, I do know most of my boxing buddies have varying levels of Sanda training or competition experience.

I can understand why people draw comparisons between the charlatan instructors getting beatdown and UFC 1.. but it is not a one to one comparison. The guys who are getting beatdown are also unknown dudes with no clout or pull on the larger population outside of their niche circles. By in large most people consider TMAs to not be a real viable combat training like boxing, Sanda, MMA etc..

Actually the hero who gets looked up to the most in my experience,, is Bruce lee and mike Tyson.

i thought china would have taken over by now, I really did. Couple reasons, capitalism has arrived, and most importantly, they have the numbers and the attitude in terms of work. They work hard and they do it without the complaining that a lot of other peoples do, they don't really look down on anything that might earn them a buck, even if others do. Strong sense of duty which I guess comes from some sort of older ways of the country. They also are a major home of martial arts, some would say the home of martial arts. India? We had this convo before and some poster went nuts so who needs that again, I said my piece. I still think china may catch afire but it's not happening as fast as I thought, why? I don't know. One reason would have to be a lack of good teachers. Martial Arts as most of the older styles taught it, were as Bruce said, "99 percent baloney" which was an exaggeration in some ways but not in others. Physical contact changes everything and most martial artists are simply delusional. In fact, many mma'rs are too, not in the fact that they can't fight but they are grandiose about everything. Always some weird shit going on with them guys. boxing has never been like that in my experience, boxing people are generally salt of the earth, no mysticism and even though they may talk bad about each other, particularly trainers, there wasn't that bizarre need for someone to worship someone else that was rampant in mma and martial arts. In other words, china would have to get rid of some of that bullshit before they can really dig in to the sport.

You are not far off for various reasons. But the infrastructure for pro scene like we have in the USA doesn’t exist currently. There is a well developed training system in relation to the amateur scene in the national schools. The national schools have dedicated coaches, training systems, etc.. they also have international input with coaches from all over the world being imported.
The cultural component for a pro scene just wasn’t here. People didn’t grow up with access to big fights on TV and an inclusion in the world of boxing. There wasn’t readily available information in Chinese accesible and available or marketed to the larger population. That’s changing now due to the connectivity of the internet world.. but still the international boxing scene is still not marketed well or easily accessible in Chinese.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

@zapataxiv I said it outright that I wouldn't know, and went with my first thought anyhow. I'm sure with that many ppl, there's a multitude of factors. I sincerely was doing my best to not generalize or make baseless claims. DeJulez asked a good question, and if you don't mind, I'd be very interested in the complexities should you find some time to clarify what I am mistaken about.
Thanks in advance

 

[svmVR2097]

I think for a bit this year Puerto Rico had 0 champions until Mendez won the minimum weight title, which at least in recent history is kind of a shocker.


I believe India has never had a male world champion, could be wrong on that

 

[Yacob]

I believe India has never had a male world champion, could be wrong on that

They should be due to produce a mutant 8 foot tall heavyweight who's about to squash everyone any day now

 

[Mr2urbo]

Im surprised there arent many Slavadorean or Guatemalan boxers

 

[ironfist05]

Im surprised there arent many Slavadorean or Guatemalan boxers

yeah actually that's a good point. Nicaragua has some big names but nothing from those two.

 

[Woldog]

Australia, every so often we have a world champ, but they don't last long.

India and China are really letting the team down population to Champ ratio wise.

 

[zapataxiv]

@zapataxiv I said it outright that I wouldn't know, and went with my first thought anyhow. I'm sure with that many ppl, there's a multitude of factors. I sincerely was doing my best to not generalize or make baseless claims. DeJulez asked a good question, and if you don't mind, I'd be very interested in the complexities should you find some time to clarify what I am mistaken about.
Thanks in advance

Well simply pro boxing is not part of the culture like it is in the rest of the world. That is changing with the interconnectedness that comes with the internet and technology. Now boxing is becoming more popular and most gyms will have a boxing trainer and boxing gyms are becoming more popular and ex amateur stars who were part of the govt sponsored schools are now branching out and doing their own things opening public gyms. And hosting events like gym to gym fights and white collar boxing events etc..

The reason it’s not part of the culture here, is more due to historical reasons. Not saying anything was outright against boxing, but the state ran the media and boxing was never an important part. Bqefore the internet really the only way to get knowledge in Chinese about boxing would have been pretty hard. As a result pro-boxing didn’t have the chance to really get a foothold here like it did in Japan or Korea.

It’s not that boxing is considered negative it’s just that there was other shit going on. And it never had the penetration and proliferation to become the “poor people’s” sport like it did throughout the west.

 

[DeJulez]

I think for a bit this year Puerto Rico had 0 champions until Mendez won the minimum weight title, which at least in recent history is kind of a shocker.


I believe India has never had a male world champion, could be wrong on that

Puerto Rico had Emmanuel Rodriguez who had the IBF Bantam title until he lost it to Inoue earlier this year.
@MMALOPEZ is in PR and said its going through a dark period right now in the sport

 

[DeJulez]

Japan is 3rd for most World Champions after the U.S and Mexico. Britain is 4th