What makes boxing in the Philippines so popular?

Answer 1

manny pacquiao and many other filipino fighters

a BIG ROLE model to the filipino people because NOT

only do they fight for them selves and there family they also

FIGHT and STAND for there country THE PHILIPINE ISLANDS

even the americanized FILIPINO fighters in America STILL REPRESENT

THE filipino culture. PINOY PARIN MUBUHAY ANG PILIPINAS

means ( Still filipino, long live the Philippines. )

Answer 2

Same thing that makes Bullfighting popular in Spain; human arrogance.

How bullfighting is tied to human arrogance; Spaniards take pride in the fact that they have been civilized for 2,000 years, longer than other Europeans except of course Italians and Greeks.

In Latin America there is an expression inherited from Spain, it goes;

"!Que barbaro!" Literally translated it means "what a barbarian!" Now, the expression is not meant as an insult, so much as an expression of shock whenever someone behaves in a rude or impolite manner, e.g. like a "barbarian."

The expression "!Que Barbaro!" was inherited from the Romans, the ancient Romans used a Latin version of it.

From the ancient Romans, Spain inherited the idea of the Coliseum, Bullfighting is said to have originated with the Coliseums originally built by the Romans in the Iberian peninsula. The Coliseum existed for one reason, and only for one reason; to make a political statement. Said political statement was "Rome is powerful and civilized, and it can control and dominate savagery." The idea of a savage event taking place within a well engineered building, was symbolic of civilization controlling the "savage world."

That is why I said, Bullfighting is rooted in human arrogance; the idea that a man, through gracefulness, skill and intelligence can down a bull, with a clean stab to its spine, has its roots with the Roman Empire.

Boxing is popular for similar reasons; the British high class made the argument, that their civility, intelligence, and good manners, was superior to the rampaging brutishness of the working class, and to prove it, a proper British gentleman, had to be a good boxer and topple the most savage, hulkingly muscular working class cockney he could find.

In the world of boxing, in the bare knuckle era there were only two breeds; the gentleman, and the rampaging brawler. Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhamad Ali, their style at least, could be defined as the "gentleman" breed. The likes of Dempsey, Lamotta, Marciano and Tyson would all be classified as "rampaging." The English upper class snobs held the belief that "the proper gentleman, will always prevail with grace, finesse, and science."

Although I rarely use him, my favorite character in the video game "Street Fighter III" is Dudley, because, the Japanese basically took a bare knuckle era British snob, and exagerated to death ALL the stereotypes the way only the Japanese can. The end result is uproariously funny, my favorite quotes from Dudley are "lets fight... like GENTLEMEN" and the other one being "gutter trash...."

Dudley is such a snob, but he's a lovable snob because he's "cute." I hope that in the next version of Street Fighter IV, we get to see Dudley fighting Balrog.

THAT is a match I want to see.

I read in history books though that English "gentleman boxers" REALLY WERE every bit as snobbish as the character Dudley.

The person who is credited as the "father of scientific boxing," and the defacto inventor of the sport as we know it today, the man who invented things such as the jab, the slip, rolling with punches and using the ring, was a Sephardic Jew named Daniel Mendoza. Like it or not, modern boxing was invented by a Jew. The reason Mendoza got the attention of the then King of England, was because he gracefully dodged or parried oncomming blows from rampaging brutes.

You need to understand that European snob types have always been big on the idea of "gracefulness" and "finesse" because these are qualities of "high refinement." I'll give you a few seconds to stop rolling your eyes.

Now that you have; I am not making this up, the British upper class, really was, and probably still is, that arrogant. The last TRUE "gentleman boxer" was Gene Tunney, who was more liked in Britain, than he ever was here in America. Tunney was, I believe, of all things a Harvard graduate, Harvard, or some other Ivy league school. He also came from a Mayflower family that had ties to British nobility.

Needless to say, in the predominantly working class atmosphere of American boxing, he wasn't well liked as a champion, and everyone was hoping Dempsey would drop him. As we all know it never happened, nevertheless people were angry over the infamous 14 second count. Why was Tunney the last TRUE "gentleman boxer?"

Well for one he held a Bachelor's degree, can't remember what subject, in the early 20th century, getting into ANY college or university was far more difficult than it is now. Even within the Ivy league system, if you go to say, City University of New York and you work REALLY hard, and make it to the Honors program of the school, you may have a shot at transfering to some Ivy league school if you get someone's attention. At the discretion of the administration, although chances are slim, a modern day working class person has better odds than they did in Tunney's time. See to get into school in those days you pretty much had to spend the day studying, the life of a New Englander like Tunney, was studying and sports, and nothing in between.

In his whole career, Tunney was knocked down only twice, and the times he was beaten he was outpointed for not being aggressive enough, but at no point was he ever knocked out. He always parried, out maneuvered, or outboxed his opponents, but he never rampaged in the ring. His style of fighting was well respected in Britain, especially among the upper classes who were still into boxing, but it was loathed here in America. For all intents and purposes, Gene Tunney DOES have one distinction at least, in that he was the last TRUE "gentleman fighter." The Dempsey/Tunney rivalry, is one of the most memorable in sports; you had Dempsey who was basically a rampaging beast, really gruff looking and just plain ugly, not to mention a former hobo, one of those people who jumps trains, those homeless people. Tunney, was a New England snob.

I mean, in the whole history of modern boxing, there has been no sharper contrast between two fighters, as between those two, they were as different as night and day. I will have to go with Dempsey supporters on this one though; Dempsey won that "long count" fight. Tunney made a calculation error and, well he was floored. Dempsey was not informed of the new rules either, so in a way he was cheated.

IT DOES MATTER; it shows that the upper class can only win by rigging the system!!!!!

Go Dempsey.

Answer 3

It isn't. It is moderately popular, but overall, the most popular sport is soccer (football).

See related questions for further details.

Answer 4

Korea spent a lot of money funding schools throughout the world. Taekwondo is popular in most of the world.