why have U.S. boxers always had slicker styles than the rest of the world?

the former soviet teams brought in cuban coaches to learn from. as far as amateur boxing is concerned, none are better than the cubans.

as for americans and the "slick" style....that's been decades in the making and it's not all black. go back and look at footage of fighters from the old days and you'll see shoulder rolling, slipping, side stepping and countering from white fighters. guys like willie pep and benny leonard.

***********.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrAs0Tyo5g

 

Wrong. The USSR won numerous Olympic gold medals long before Cuba won its first.

From that film, Leonard just looks like a boxer-mover, no one would call him slick today.

 

Because they are runners

 

WRONG

The russians did in fact win golds before cuba...but from the 60's onwards they brought in cuban trainers to train their boxers.

Wrong on your 2nd point as well...
americans adopted a slick pro-style type of fighting long before the rest of the world....pro boxing was born here. We were hosting big time professional matches decades before everyone else. Naturally our style is decades ahead of the competition.
Klitschko and abraham dont look any different than their predecessors from 40 yrs ago...

 

Pro boxing was born here? if you're from the UK, then you're right. but if not, then you're WRONG.

 

I would say amatuer scoring benefits the slick fighter, thus why so many slick fighters come out of the United states.

Hard punching stand your ground fighters dont benefit you in amatuer scoring and in the US more than any country, young teens in boxing gyms aspire for olympic glory more than in any other country.
At least thats the way I look at it.

 

You dumb son of a *****, it was the other way around. Teofilo Stevenson's trainer was Andrei Chervonenko, who came to Cuba from the Soviet Union.

What's my 2nd point? What does Leonard do in that film that's slick? Nothing. Also, Klitschko and Abraham have very different styles. If you don't see that, you need to find another sport to watch.

 

I'd agree about Leonard, he was'nt slick, he just moved alot without doing much of punching while on the move.
One of the worst things that ever happened to boxing is that other fighters like DLH tried to emulate that with the mindset that what they were doing was boxing.

Moving around a ring and standing your ground for 15 seconds of it to throw punches is not my definition of slick.

 

The stupidity of some of the posters on this site is unbelievable. The Cuban school of boxing was founded by Soviet trainers like Evgeniy Ogurenkov, Viktor Bystrov, Andrei Chervonenko, and Vasiliy Romanov.

 

Indeed - though to be fair it's often simple ignorance rather than stupidity.

While of course there were cuban boxers pre-revolution (the original Kid Chocolate for one) - the mighty cuban amateur tradition was founded with a lot of assistance from soviet trainers. I have no idea if the cubans returned the favour in later years, but despite the fierce rivallry it seems entirely plausible that top cuban trainers would be asked in to assist the Soviet team.

 

Except if the ams benefited the slicksters from the US then surely the US ams would achieve greater success. A quick glance down the world champs and Olympic medals tables shows that the US amateur record is actually pretty poor, especially in comparison with the US population and resources.

********en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Amateur_Boxing_Championships

********en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_boxing

In fact the Soviet and Cuban schools were basically designed to maximise amateur success. So technical Ex-soviet and Cuban styles actually seem to be better for scoring in the ams.

 

We ****ing invented the sport, had the most champions, and have the all around better program from youth to pro period. USA is just better, except for the random, oddball period of time where a person from another country gets the title. Who did pacman end up training with? Yeah, nuff said.

But don't get all butthurt you eurpoeans, south americans, etc.. You kick our ass when it comes to soccer.

 

Do you actually believe that ?