hi Frank, nice to hear from you. hope the weather is more hospitable in the british isles at this time, but, then again, you are never there! you are such a social butterfly, you sly guy you!! what an omission on my part...Mexico! i guess i was focusing on the caribbean. and thank you Manhattanhite: john ruiz is the name of the boring, snoring, puerto rican heavyweight.

Actually, Mike, I’m in south west Florida right now, gearing up for my civic hajj to the Dr. Election time is not my favorite time to visit , but hey ;sometimes you have to take the good with the bad

I also forgot the mexicanos! Mexico is the most ever-present in boxing in terms of Latin America and the Caribbean. They along with the southeast asians (Manny Pacquiao) are usually in the flyweight to the lightweight category. For such a small land area, and only about 30 or so million people, you can probably safely say that the Caribbean produces the most top-notch athletes in the world in respect to its size. About the MMA thing, it can be possible seeing as LA countries such as Mexico, Argentina, but most notably Brazil, have produced star fighters (Anderson Silva for example). If there was enough interest, the Caribbean could potentially become a MMA hotspot.

Innercity Boxing? For along time its been viewed as a way to keep the kids off the streets. Most Venues are ran by the local law enforcement. A Police shed a little light on me the other day he said the real reason they started these programs to see who the most aggressive youth is because theres a 75% chance they're going to be the problem kids on the streets. Thats straight from the horse's mouth....the pig's mouth rather lol. Probally could haveand still can turn out a lot more great boxers from the communities but the heart has to be in the right place to actually train these kids for success and not for looking for future knuckleheads

to Haykickyouintheshin,( listen man, from now on i am just going to call you Shin, unless you strenuously object), i concur with you on the insight that the caribbean and latin america produce more world class athletes on a per capita basis than just about any other region on earth.. over 20% of pro baseball is made up of dominicans. a properly selected, properly focused dominican team has no equal in the world of baseball. puerto rico and mexico continue to give us champion boxers in the lower to middle weight classes, while jamaica gives us the heavier boys such as the late trevor berbick, razor ruddock and lennox lewis. the dr is a little late to the dance in the olympic medal arena, but the 400 meters hurdles and other medals in boxing are ripe for the taking. all said, this area is overrepresented in world sport; haiti, despite its economic straits, has sent teams to the world cup , a tough feat to accomplish. right on, Shin!

Add the West Indies fielding strong teams in international cricket. I don't know if they are still good, but I am told there was an era when the islands were kings of that sport as well.

Just about every Caribbean nation has had some success in the world of sport (virtually all sports). By the way you can call me Shin...everybody on here already has!

Manhattanite, the West Indies are no longer the force they used to be in the 60s and 70s. they are like the whipping boys today. i think there is a shift of focus to other sports, to the detriment of cricket. also, cricket tends to be cyclical..some years you are great, others you plain stink. as an aside, i was watching a track meet held in new york on saturday last, and some guy from jamaica ran the 100 meters in 9.72, setting a new world record in the process, taking the record from his fellow countryman asafa powell, who ran 9.74 last year. must be something in the water they drink there which causes them to produce the best sprinters in the world on a per capita basis...kinda like dominicans and baseball. and thank you, Shin, for permitting me the liberty of curtailing your nom de plume. yes, we do everything here in the caribbean. i was watching the french open at roland garros, and there are a few dominicans entered there. we try everything...puerto rico and jamaica even had bobsled teams, despite the only ice they ever see is in a cocktail.the coconut grapevine tells me that some guy from the caribbean is hard and fast in training for the iditarod dogsled race in the wilds of alaska..another guy who has only seen snow in pictures.we kick ass in this part of the world.