Sports are part of history in every way. They involve bravery and the determination to maintain doing hard work in order to get somewhere. Some athletes share their lives to tell us how insane it was to be where they are now. Some try to have their name clean and stay with a good reputation as an athlete and as a person. Others throw their life away because they were able to achieve money and fame. These are all things we have seen over the years. If there’s a sport that we can see all of the above occur it has to be boxing.

Boxing originally comes from Europe. Some of the countries that have become famous for their incredible champions have been the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Over the years, the number of champions has increased for each one of these countries.

For the United States, you can’t forget it’s historical heavyweight fighters like Muhammad Ali, “Iron” Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Rocky Marciano. Along with these great fighters, there have also been others in other weight divisions. Some could be Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Ray Robinson, and a Mexican American fighter like Oscar de la Hoya. Each one with a different period of time when it comes to their careers of course.

Mexico has been known for being the country with the “Never giving up” boxers. They had their first world champion in the year 1897. Overall, Mexico has registered a total of 200 world champions in their history. There are unforgettable names in this list like Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez (Who just knocked out Manny Pacquiao on December 8), Salvador Sanchez, who died at age 23 in a car crash, Marco Antonio Barrera, Ricardo Lopez, Rafael Marquez (Juan Manuel Marquez’s younger brother), and now making his own career, Saul Alvarez.

Puerto Rico, the enchanted island, registered their first world champion in 1934. Some of the names you would hear when it came to Puerto Rican boxing icons would be Hector Camacho (RIP), Eric Morel, Ivan Calderon, Juan Manuel Lopez, Felix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, and the biggest one of all, Wilfredo Gomez.

As well as any other sport, boxing has changed over time. In the early and mid 1900’s it was the most normal thing to see a boxer go into the ring with a black or white and robe with some black or white trunks and a pair of either black or brown gloves. It wasn’t until the 1970’s when the first red gloves were seen in the ring, and also a different color of trunks. Since then the classic color of gloves has always been red ones.

Weight divisions have been something else that’s changed also. Before there were only eight different divisions, which were Flyweight (112 lbs), Bantamweight (118 lbs), Featherweight (126 lbs), Lightweight (135 lbs), Welterweight (147 lbs), Middleweight (160 lbs), Light Heavyweight ( 175 lbs), and Heavyweight (200 lbs and above). Over the years they added some weight divisions so it would be easier for the boxers to make it to another division and also to have more competition. The weight divisions added were Mini Flyweight (105 lbs), Junior Flyweight (108 lbs), Super Flyweight (115 lbs), Super Bantamweight (122 lbs), Super Featherweight (130 lbs), Junior Welterweight (140 lbs), Super Welterweight (154 lbs), Super Middleweight (168 lbs), and Cruiserweight (200 lbs).

There are many legendary nights in the history of this great sport. Some recent ones could be Cotto VS Margarito (2 fights), Marquez VS Pacquiao (4 fights), Brandon Rios VS Mike Alvarado, and many more.

Everything else leaves, like the years that stay behind. Some matches will be remembered ages to come. There’s no doubt that the events you live one day will only be a memory for tomorrow.