A Japanese boxer that has never been beaten in Japan is fighting against a
Cuban boxer in his first match against a foreigner. After easily taking the
lead of the match, the Cuban boxer says:

> この **小せェサル** の島国にはいなかっただろう テメェを支配出来るボクサーは

I know that サル is used as an offensive word meaning "idiot, hick", but used
together with 小せェ could it be an offensive way to say "puny"? Please consider
that previously in the manga (see [here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NBWV6.jpg)
and [here](https://i.imgur.com/RZtDUw7.jpg)) he made a derogatory comment
about Japanese physical features.

[Here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dMQXF.jpg) you can see the whole page. Thank
you for your help!
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2019-09-20T16:07:46.483
71956
2019-09-21T00:51:11.360
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question
katakana adjectives sports offensive-words
Meaning of 小せェサル in the following sentence
I think it's not 小せェサル but [小]{ちい}せェ(サルの)島国.

ちい **せぇ** is a rough, slangy pronunciation of ちい **さい**.  
(See: [What does こまけー mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3746/9831) /
[What is じゃねぇか? What is its original
form?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/18458/9831))

> この + 小さい + サルの島国  
>  this little island of monkeys

小さい describes （サルの）島国. It's probably referring to Japan.

I think サル here is used as an offensive/derogatory word for Japanese people.
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2019-09-20T16:34:25.743
71957
2019-09-20T16:45:58.127
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answer
> この **小せェサル** の島国にはいなかっただろう テメェを支配出来るボクサーは

I have nothing to add the explanation for the grammar of 「小せぇサル」 in
Chocolate's answer.

But I think 「 **小せぇサル** 」 is kind of metaphor implying the person who leads
the group. Since
[豊臣{とよとみ}秀吉{ひでよし}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi), daimyō,
politician of the sengoku period, whose nickname is
”「[小{こ}猿{ざる}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi#Names)」 :
little monkey", there were the leader whose height is not tall in Japan,
"140cm" according to [this site](https://machi-log.net/?p=46626).

Whereas basically athletes in Cuba basically compete only in amateur league
and play in a national team. Therefore, the athletes should respect the
leader, and the leader in Cuba was [Fidel
Castro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro), a tall person : "191cm"
by google search.

It is not clear if the author wants to imply the average height of Japanese
athletes is relatively small comparing to that of Cuban. But I guess probably
the author tried to use some contrast in the page or the author had an images
of the leaders to some extent.

So, I think the sentence from Cuban boxer is saying _"Even little monkey like
you lead the opponents in this island."_. And probably in Cuba, which is also
the country of an island, the situation is different.
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71969
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answer