Can we get ANY two guys to sign a decent heavyweight fight?

I guess a big part of the problem is just how thin the division is right now - it's caught between eras a little bit...

And where exciting prospects should be pushing hard to get some noise building through the division they're mostly not - Itauma is sticking with journeymen and corpses, Anderson doesn't look interested, Torrez has obvious limitations.

The top guys are all waiting for a chance to lose to Usyk - understandable on some level but a bit silly on another - but why aren't the rest trying to grab at attention when there's so little competition for it?! Bizarre

 

And they are not moving until Usyk does etc etc

 

I blame the promoters and managers for the inactivity, although there are a very few exceptions like Anderson who hasn't fought since February, but probably doesn't want to fight.

Many heavyweight boxers like Joseph Parker are saying they want to fight, but their promoters and managers seem lazy. Wardley has fought only once this year, why does he have nothing scheduled? Bakole says he's ready for anyone. Many like Ajagba, Xhoxhaj, Arutyunyan, Vykhryst, Myronets, Zakhozhyi, Prenga and Shaw want to fight but are poorly promoted.

 

Today's world with day before weigh in, Holyfield would fight at light heavy and never move up. ****, he'd give Bivol, Beterbiev, and Benavidez hell.

Tyson, yeah, his only route for sports would have been boxing. Or perhaps pro bodybuilding.

But still. NFL and NBA are sapping away a ton of the talent that would be there for boxing. Again, it's why we have good smaller guys. What would be Bam's route in professional sports without weight classed combat sports? Maybe take up horse riding, be a jockey? How about Virgil Ortiz? I guess he's big enough to be a baseball player? Maybe?

 

boxing is long dead here. no one watches it, no one cares about it. i don't know a single person other than myself who has watched boxing in over a decade.

 

No he wouldn't. They started day beofre weigh in before Holyfield even went pro. Michael Moorer literally moved up to heavyweight because he got too big for light heavyweight, Holyfield would do the same thing

 

Yeah I was going to say how many Americans actually play NBA/NFL, like 2000? That should leave them with a huge pool of potential talent, I mean wasn't Wilder a failed basketball player? And he did pretty well considering, there must be tonnes of guys like that around.

Looking at Oceania a similar amount of big athletes play professional rugby/AFL/NRL as NFL/NBA in the US, a lot more when we consider the relative populations sizes, and Oceania is doing decent in the higher weight classes. Parker, Opetaia, Huni, Teremoana etc all wanted to play rugby or league when they were kids and ended up as boxers. And that is without the huge amounts of boxing infrastructure they have in the US.

 

They did? Did I get my years wrong?

Checked it... ****. You're right.

Pardon my bad post.

 

Either way, it is a regrettable state. Boxing is missing out on some great talent from the US. It also has to be connected to how kods get in contact to the sport. From what I hear, similar to europe, kids used to be allowed to do anything as long as they came home at a certain time while today parents watch out for their children more and more (not realy a bad thing). Also the culture is more and more against physical conflict while I assume it was more accepted back in the day? The countries got richer?

My problem with all these explanations is that I don't see the big difference between england and the us in all these regards. The big difference is a big amateur boxing program. Maybe american promoters should have invested in something like that or at least advertised it instead of just reaping the talent the grassroots provided? It's like fishing an area dry to extinction maybe?

Culturally I would expect boxing to perfectly match the US mentality. It's a sport where you shine as an individual and many make it from rags to riches. It's organisation is as capitalist as it can be compared to the nba or nfl with pay caps, behavior rules or whatever (not that I have much of an idea) and being forced to go along with a lot of stuff. In boxing you can promote yourself and earn loads of money as kind of a one man show.

I am not an american and just speaking from a foreign impression so by all means correct me if I am wrong.

 

Its not just about the sports popularity. In the US education is inaccessible so athletes use their sport to "get a scholarship". College doesn't have boxing anymore. So anyone whose good at boxing and other sports is going to pick the other sport. Even if its a minor sport no one watches they can get their education paid for. But not boxing.

You ever wonder why theres so many American MMA fighters when professional MMA pays so much worse then boxing? Its because wrestling is a NCAA sport.

 

Top Rank, PBC both do not have TV deals anymore. PBC has an Amazon deal which doesn't seem to pay them anything near what they had in the past. Top Rank just lost their multi million dollar TV deal and their guys are kind of in limbo. Boxxer lost their TV deal.

Now why the DAZN guys (warren, hearn, ODLH) aren't making fights I have no idea. Maybe waiting on Turki and his war chest to make a move. Just because Usyk fights once-twice a year there is no reason for these other guys to sit on the sidelines, they should be fighting and in a better world each other.

 

I agree with this but then you look at Parker who constantly beats the best big name available and he gets frozen out of a title shot. Perhaps if it was worth it for the contenders to fight each other then everyone wouldn't be so reluctant.

 

Exactly

 

Welcome to modern day boxing where the best rarely fight one another until it’s over baked, dry and often tasteless.