In the United States, prizefighting carries deep-seated meanings as an
ethnically and racially delineated, class-based and
gendered practice. At present, the sport is
characterized by its ongoing ‘latinization’ corresponding to
Latinos’ integration endeavors in urban USA. This article examines
boxing as a locus for identity formations. Based on four
years of ethnographic fieldwork with a community of
Latino prizefighters in Austin, TX between 2000 and 2004, the
research draws on life-story interviews conducted with the boxers,
while their experiences are situated within a
theoretical framework of the body in space and place.
The fieldwork brings the research ‘onto the ground’ to
the actual sites-such as the boxing gym, the weigh-in and the
competition venue-where the athletes conduct their
occupation on a daily basis. As professional boxing
determines these worker-athletes’ physical prowess, it also shapes
their identities, day-to-day survival and their very mode of
being in the world.