In most countries, boxing champions are more than athletes. They’re national treasures. They’re symbols of pride, struggle, and identity. They’re honored, decorated, and celebrated no matter what happens in the ring.
In Mexico, Julio César Chávez Sr. is still revered as a national hero, almost untouchable in status decades after his prime. Canelo Álvarez may divide opinion, but the country never turns its back on him. Presidents shake their hands, and entire arenas erupt in chants of their names.
In the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao wasn’t just cheered. He was elected senator, given the highest honors of the nation, and embraced in both victory and defeat.
In the UK, Anthony Joshua received an OBE, Tyson Fury drew hundreds of thousands to parades, and Ricky Hatton had whole cities singing his name in unison.
In Japan, Naoya Inoue fights at 9 in the morning and still sells out arenas. Government officials and corporations alike line up to celebrate him as a symbol of national excellence.
In Ukraine, Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk became living symbols of defiance during war, tied directly to national pride and military courage.
But in the United States, it’s different.
America, the Exception
The U.S. doesn’t rally around its champions. Too often, it tears them down. Local fighters get booed, while foreign opponents get cheered like adopted heroes.
Floyd Mayweather was one of the greatest defensive geniuses the sport has ever seen. Yet in America, he was booed, called boring, and forced to embrace the villain role just to sell tickets.
Deontay Wilder was a knockout machine, a heavyweight with one-punch nuclear power, but he never got the same embrace Anthony Joshua enjoyed in Britain. In U.S. arenas, Wilder often looked like the visitor, drowned out by traveling British fans.
Andre Ward was everything fans claim to want — an Olympic gold medalist, undefeated champion, soft-spoken, family man, and a role model outside the ring. Still, he was underappreciated and undersold, his brilliance dismissed as “dull.”
Terence Crawford has been flawless, destructive in the ring, humble and respectful outside of it. Yet Omaha is the only place where he is treated like the champion he is; nationally, he has never received the platform or the love he deserves.
Even Shakur Stevenson, a young, unbeaten technician, was booed in his own backyard of Newark for being “too technical.”
The lesson? In America, it doesn’t matter who you are or how you fight.
If you’re slick and defensive, you’re “boring.”
If you’re a KO artist, you’re “one-dimensional.”
If you’re brash, you’re “arrogant.”
If you’re humble, you’re “dull.”
There is no winning formula.
The British Contrast
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, loyalty is unconditional.
Golovkin learned this the hard way. When he fought Kell Brook in London, he was the undefeated middleweight terror of the sport. But when the walkouts started, it was Brook who got cheered to the rafters, and Golovkin who got booed. The message was simple: in Britain, you back your man, no matter the odds.
That same loyalty is why Ricky Hatton was carried like a king even in defeat, and why Tyson Fury, despite scandals and setbacks, still fills arenas with voices that never turn against him.
The Olympic Clue
Even at the Olympics, the difference is obvious.
In Cuba, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine, medalists are celebrated like national treasures.
In the U.S., Olympic boxers return home unnoticed, often turning professional without the fanfare their medals should bring.
The Question That Hangs
Other nations celebrate their fighters because they are theirs.
In America, champions get booed whether they’re offensive or defensive, humble or brash, knockout artists or pure boxers.
So when champions are hated no matter what they do, what’s left to explain?
Other nations celebrate their fighters as national treasures.
Why is America the only place where boos drown out the flag?