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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 and here) he made a derogatory comment about Japanese physical features.

Here you can see the whole page. Thank you for your help!

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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? / What is じゃねぇか? What is its original form?)

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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    Previously in the manga, the Cuban boxer made a derogatory comment about Japanese physical features (see here), that's why I thought it could mean puny. Maybe I should add this to the question.
    – Marco
    Commented Sep 20, 2019 at 16:47
  • @Marco おぉ。。Then the 小さい may be modifying サル...?? Now I'm not sure. ^^;
    – chocolate ♦
    Commented Sep 20, 2019 at 16:52
  • I added a link to another page of the manga where he says that asians are not suitable for boxing.
    – Marco
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 0:54
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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}, daimyō, politician of the sengoku period, whose nickname is ”「小{こ}猿{ざる}」 : little monkey", there were the leader whose height is not tall in Japan, "140cm" according to this site.

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, 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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  • Thank you for your answer. I added a link to another page of the manga where he says that asians are not suitable for boxing.
    – Marco
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 0:53
  • @Marco I guess I don't have much to change though, I could replace the sentence in detail : "Even little monkey like you lead the opponents in this island." → "Even little monkey like you dominate the boxing games in this island, but it does not apply among Cuban boxers who was elites in sport in Cuba."
    – kimi Tanaka
    Commented Sep 21, 2019 at 1:03

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