Why Do The Best Boxers Nearly Always Come From Childhood Poverty?

[The D3vil]

Which one of those Mexican fighters came from an upper class family?

Was it Marquez or Barrera?

One of them was like going to be a lawyer & fell into boxing

[Rockin']

It;s been my experience that nobody much likes being punched in the head.

Believe me, you get used to it.

You eat the shot and say funk (in your mind) while firing back or getting your face out of the way of the follow up shot................Rockin'

[jaded]

Which one of those Mexican fighters came from an upper class family?

Was it Marquez or Barrera?

One of them was like going to be a lawyer & fell into boxing

Barrera, and I'd imagine that Tim Tszyu grew up with money.

[max baer]

this guy nicky piper was an academic type possibly middle class and he got to a high level. But as we watched this fight as a kid we all felt that he wasn't rough enough to win the fight as if being middle class made a person too soft and not dangerous enough.
But honestly I cannot bring to mind anyone hardly who was a successful boxer from outside the poorer working class. Amazing really that is.

[max baer]

thinking about it now i missed out the klitschko brothers i think they had a middle class academic education and are doctors after getting degrees in sports science. I suppose the class system was not in any way the same in communist countries though.

[N/A]

Maybe not always, but very often indeed. But this is for many sports because the sport a person chooses often saves him from some kind of gang life and gives him a purpose. Then the kid realizes this will also promise him a better life which boosts his motivation. The hunger and the misery really are serious ones, plus the fact you won't be mocked and bullied, but rather respected. I mean, it's a mixture of factors. Also, very often, a sport is the only thing the children can do aside from doing literally nothing in their hard life and practising it for hours, day after day, often in harsh conditions a training itself.

[Ivich]

Believe me, you get used to it.

You eat the shot and say funk (in your mind) while firing back or getting your face out of the way of the follow up shot................Rockin'

I boxed off and on for nearly 20 years.
I always operated on the principle ,"it's better to give than to receive".

[Slugfester]

Well, IMO usually because they have no meaningful education in the first place, along with almost all their fellows who didn't make it big. That rules out nuclear physicist. That is traditionally par for kids in poverty. I believe ring IQ is only marginally associated with real IQ anyway. Good pure boxers usually seem a little brighter in interviews than brawlers, plus they have the sense to try and box without getting smashed up, so there is that. I would really be interested in knowing whether any boxers positively had a genius IQ. Other sports have them. Reggie Jackson's IQ is reported to be 160. That puts him right beside Stephen Hawking and Einstein.

I forgot Bobby Czyz. He is reported as having a genius IQ, Slugfester, and he had the verbal abilities to at least suggest it. Maybe there are a few others your friends know about. But exceptions do not disprove a generality, they just present exceptions to the rule. Most pro basketball and football players have to go to college to achieve their goals, boxers come right off the streets or out of incarceration because there are no meaningful boxing programs at college level that I know of. That is the only reason most of them went to college. But guess what? They don't appear any smarter than boxers because they are not. College was a place to play football, not study, and college can barley nudge an IQ up a point or two anyway. You are pretty much stuck with your IQ, whatever it is, unless your sport is boxing or football. I don't think Ali had the same IQ he started out with. But it always amazes me that some boxers retain verbal fluidity after the poundings they took over long careers.. Basilio, Lamotta and Marciano being "pronounced" examples.

What does it come down to? Lack of opportunity. Uneducated people do not have the same opportunities as the educated. Why is that? Their parents did not prepare them correctly, maybe did not have enough food on the table, did not take a personal interest themselves. Why? Maybe they didn't give a shit, maybe they were too busy trying to put food on the table, maybe they figured they could leave it to the teachers. Maybe the teachers didn't care. It all adds up to less opportunity.

[Rockin']

Well, IMO usually because they have no meaningful education in the first place, along with almost all their fellows who didn't make it big. That rules out nuclear physicist. That is traditionally par for kids in poverty. I believe ring IQ is only marginally associated with real IQ anyway. Good pure boxers usually seem a little brighter in interviews than brawlers, plus they have the sense to try and box without getting smashed up, so there is that. I would really be interested in knowing whether any boxers positively had a genius IQ. Other sports have them. Reggie Jackson's IQ is reported to be 160. That puts him right beside Stephen Hawking and Einstein.

I forgot Bobby Czyz. He is reported as having a genius IQ, Slugfester, and he had the verbal abilities to at least suggest it. Maybe there are a few others your friends know about. But exceptions do not disprove a generality, they just present exceptions to the rule. Most pro basketball and football players have to go to college to achieve their goals, boxers come right off the streets or out of incarceration because there are no meaningful boxing programs at college level that I know of. That is the only reason most of them went to college. But guess what? They don't appear any smarter than boxers because they are not. College was a place to play football, not study, and college can barley nudge an IQ up a point or two anyway. You are pretty much stuck with your IQ, whatever it is, unless your sport is boxing or football. I don't think Ali had the same IQ he started out with. But it always amazes me that some boxers retain verbal fluidity after the poundings they took over long careers.. Basilio, Lamotta and Marciano being "pronounced" examples.

What does it come down to? Lack of opportunity. Uneducated people do not have the same opportunities as the educated. Why is that? Their parents did not prepare them correctly, maybe did not have enough food on the table, did not take a personal interest themselves. Why? Maybe they didn't give a shit, maybe they were too busy trying to put food on the table, maybe they figured they could leave it to the teachers. Maybe the teachers didn't care. It all adds up to less opportunity.

There actually was a program up at Northern Michigan University that boxers used to get scholarships for. You go to school and box/train at the Olympic Training Center that's up there. My coach told me to sign and send in the application and he told me that they'd except me.

But I was in love with that girl and she told me that she didn't want me to go, so I didn't. What a dumb ass move, what the funk was I thinking. I let a huge opportunity like that slide right on by me.

Moral of the story, never let a beatch step in between you and your dreams. If she does, dump her and send me a thank you pm or something. Man, I was a dumbass, thinking with only my deek.

The moral of the story, if you have a dream follow that sheet with everything that you've got in ya.

I really should have kicked that beatch to the curb and gone up there..................Rockin'

[max baer]

Well, IMO usually because they have no meaningful education in the first place, along with almost all their fellows who didn't make it big. That rules out nuclear physicist. That is traditionally par for kids in poverty. I believe ring IQ is only marginally associated with real IQ anyway. Good pure boxers usually seem a little brighter in interviews than brawlers, plus they have the sense to try and box without getting smashed up, so there is that. I would really be interested in knowing whether any boxers positively had a genius IQ. Other sports have them. Reggie Jackson's IQ is reported to be 160. That puts him right beside Stephen Hawking and Einstein.

I forgot Bobby Czyz. He is reported as having a genius IQ, Slugfester, and he had the verbal abilities to at least suggest it. Maybe there are a few others your friends know about. But exceptions do not disprove a generality, they just present exceptions to the rule. Most pro basketball and football players have to go to college to achieve their goals, boxers come right off the streets or out of incarceration because there are no meaningful boxing programs at college level that I know of. That is the only reason most of them went to college. But guess what? They don't appear any smarter than boxers because they are not. College was a place to play football, not study, and college can barley nudge an IQ up a point or two anyway. You are pretty much stuck with your IQ, whatever it is, unless your sport is boxing or football. I don't think Ali had the same IQ he started out with. But it always amazes me that some boxers retain verbal fluidity after the poundings they took over long careers.. Basilio, Lamotta and Marciano being "pronounced" examples.

What does it come down to? Lack of opportunity. Uneducated people do not have the same opportunities as the educated. Why is that? Their parents did not prepare them correctly, maybe did not have enough food on the table, did not take a personal interest themselves. Why? Maybe they didn't give a shit, maybe they were too busy trying to put food on the table, maybe they figured they could leave it to the teachers. Maybe the teachers didn't care. It all adds up to less opportunity.

that's some good writing slug i agree with you. some men like marciano was and fury now definately is training as kids at boxing and nothing else their eggs are all in one basket and it is all or nothing.
that is hard pressure they put on themselves as it is all **** or bust and if they fail they have nothing else to fall back on. the champions nearly always are highly intelligent men. really sharp men.
less opportunity is absolutely true that is why great champions devote their whole lives to become the best. i admire that, that takes some serious self belief and hard work.