Hungry Men Best

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31320, 16 March 1967, Page 19

Hungry Men Best

(Bg Out Boxing Reporter) Poverty makes the best boxers —that is why most of the world champions today are coloured persons. That is the opinion of Dr. C. Western, of Kingston, trainer-manager of the Jamaican light - weight, Bunny Grant, who defended his Empire title against Manuel Santos in Wellington last evening. "Grant owns his own house, has his own car, and has investments including several acres of industrial land in Kingston. "He lives comfortably off boxing. He has a wife and three children, and another on the way,” said Dr. Western. "If he was not a champion boxer, he would be a labourer, lucky to earn £4 a week. He could well be unemployed, because the unemployment rate is very high in Jamaica.” Dr. Western, who has a medical practice in Kingston, said that coloured persons had longer arms and thicker skulls than Europeans and were natural athletes. "However, I don’t think this has anything to do with it In the twenties and thirties, in the slumps and bad times, all the best boxers in Europe and America were poor. "Many of them were Jewish immigrants. Mow it is the coloured person who comprises the major part of the poverty-stricken population. “A hungry fighter is good fighter.”

Dr. Western, a London Universities and hospitals amateur light heavyweight champion in the 1950’5, said he was training a 19-year-old Jamaican welder, Barry Foster. Foster was 6ft, weighed 9st 91b, and was growing stronger all the time. “He has a punch like the kick of a horse, has had seven fights for six wins, all by knock-outs. The real point is that Foster is unemployed, but he knows that if he can get to the top in boxing he will live as well as Grant. “That is the incentive. The best boxers come from depressed areas, and periods of world-wide depression bring a boom in boxing. “Grant would defend his title three times a year, but the opponents, and money are just not there,” Dr. Western said.