Why Are The US Heavweights So Poor Now?

no it's really fricken serious. If you're a 6+ foot athlete in highschool, there's a slim chance you're going to box. If my son comes out and is 6'6 and is coordinator, fast and is strong, I'm sure not going to let him box. His ass is playing basketball or football.

Just look at the heavyweights we have
Seth Mitchell (former football player who quit and took up boxing in his 20's)
Wilder (same as Mitchell)
Arrolea (lol if you think he's one of the best athletes in America then just say so)
Eddie Chambers (skilled fighter, but he's not in the best shape either and really should be fighting at a lower weight class)
Jennings (former bball player with only 17 amateur fights)

Does this not tell you anything?

 

Hence the other parst of my post- the pussified culture and the lack of amatuer programs.

No offense to you. I understand that you are just talking about parents being parents. Meanwhile, somewhere in Russia the choice is box or the cole mines.

 

boxing was the most popular sport in America in the 60's with baseball. They even let highschools have boxing teams then.
Just look at the fighters we have now. You don't need to compare them to the Euros, you can even compare them to the 90's American HW's like Tyson, Holyfield, Mercer, Morrison etc.

 

well there you go. The option there is to box or coal mines.
Here the option is to box or play another sport with less corruption, less brain damage and more money and fame

 

is that have anything to do with other sports or just the state of this sport

 

You've got Haye, Price and Fury, all 3 would likely beat Povetkin, well, Haye and Price would do easily.

 

i mean the appeal is that the other sports offer scholarships and the chance to go to college for and education (more than athletics alone) but this isnt new to this generation, scholarships and opportunities have been there

i think gyms and knowledge have either decreased or been equaled by foreign comp

 

both. Football wasn't as popular back then, but now it's easily the most popular sport in america. Every year the Super Bowl consistently gets around 40-50 million households with a lot of those being SB parties.

Companies pay an average of 5 million dollars just to put a 30 second commercial on during the Superbowl.

and I don't doubt that the Eastern Europeans are a factor. But when I evaluate the current American HW scene, I'm not looking at their accomplishments today against the rest of the world. I'm just comparing their skills, technique, athleticism to the heavyweights in the past.

 

yeah but i think someone like Arreola or Chambers would have held a title maybe even Thompson

Wlad has been champ since 06 and Vitali since 08, subtract them a few US guys would have held in between

minus the big pay day would Haye have moved up? maybe he woulda capitalized on an empty division but who knows

 

Football has been pretty popular since the 80's its not like football is this new phenomenon, probably the leading sport here since the 80's or 90's

I think our issues with boxing are due to our issues with boxing

great big athletes have played in other sports for decades like Kareem or Wilt its not like big men werent around in other sports b4

 

football was popular in the 80's, but it has grown a lot in popularity since then. And Wilt averaged 50 points in one season and broke many rebounding and points records, yet he's not regarded as the GOAT.
The reason for that is because of the competition he was going against then.

 

I think Wilt could be the GOAT minus Jordan

 

I do not recall the NFL and NBA thing being throw around nearly as much, if at all, when Lennox Lewis took over.

 

Uhhh...only one country in the world rules Heavyweight Boxing. Where's the British Heavyweight scene is dead? Canadian? Jamaican? Australian? Every country on Earth but The Ukraine.

 

The popularity of football, basketball and even soccer has skyrocketed in the last 20-25 while the popularity of boxing has declined. Kids want to play what they see on tv every week and be like the athletes in commercials. Therefore its really common sense the majority of talent goes into other sports. I'm not trying to ifer ALL the talent goes elsewhere, but it doesn't help when your amatuer program is in shambles either.