I have pics from that night, too...I'm gonna have to look for them though but stay tuned..

USADR I would say it is a matter of support and/or audience. For a country to generate boxing champs they have to either have a well supported amateur program like Cuba and ex-USSR, and/or a healthy audience for the local pro game so there is serious incentive for a man to take this dangerous route. From what I read the US amateur programs have fallen a long way, and the US audience is stable but not as large as it could be. Meanwhile we are already seeing the rising dominance of European fighters, some from ex-USSR amateur programs, and most supported by the die hard Brit audience or the growing German/Eastern Europe audience.

Another big issue is the total absence of grimy, dirt cheap boxing gyms where you can pay a couple of bucks to hit a bag while some old, knowledgeable asshole explains how wrong you are doing it. I don't know if this is the case in DR but it is a problem in US. My good friend from UK says these sorts of gyms litter the UK. In the past they use to be all over inner cities. Well now they have been replaced by expensive designer gyms where you'd be lucky to find a punching bag at all, much less cheap instruction. This is a double negative for boxing...one it shrinks the pool of talent. Also it shrinks the audience; a lot of people really have no idea how to watch and enjoy a fight because they never even learned the basic punches.

http://www.secondsout.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=30604


Great to hear the guy will recover. Brain swelling is a scary thing.

anyone old enough to remember Emille Griffith and Benny "kid" Paret fights that was a tragedy that keeps happening :