"Americans are playing other sports" is nonsense

With all the career ending injuries in the NFL, you would think that maybe there would be more big Americans entering the boxing ring...so you're right.

 

They're all in the nfl and basketball...
but then again...this begs the question....why do they get owned in basketball euro/fiba competitions ? and lose at the olympics ? against nobodies ? ( vs the greeks for example)...

Ok , we can have the excuse of "this and that" player was not there..(such as kobe or whatever) but then again , we're talking about basketball...in other words , a sport they're supposed to dominate like no other to begin with...we're also talking about players who are paid millions...

it would be the equivalent of having the american soccer team winning the world cup....absurd.

as for the nfl...well , since the rest of the planet ain't playing this game. No wonder they're dominating like no other. after all , it's called "american" football for a good reason. Soccer on the other hand , is watched by billions.

 

I see where your going with this....you are right to a certain extent, but also completely wrong. The fact remains that the best and most athletic big men in the US are in other sports. I agree that the bigger problem is that boxing is NOWHERE to be found for youth.....but you kill your own argument by saying that because then guess where the youth go!?

 

no. MMA while having far less reward has a far less risk factor, and in addition has a much smaller talent pool than boxing. you don't have to start training at a very young age or be an athletic freak of nature to compete at the highest level of MMA. you do for boxing.

(and a large portion of MMA's talent pool comes out of the wrestling system here in America, and they're still mostly weekend warriors.)

 

The fall of the iron curtain is the reason American fighters are not on top anymore.

 

Again, it's the fall of the iron curtain. Eastern European fighters are now allowed to go pro.

 

But some boxers are.

 

You failed to address a single point, and yes - those who get into MMA are usually weekend warriors. They wrestled during HS and college, got a degree and a career. Look at Chuck Liddell - he was an accountant before he made it big in the UFC. Rich Franklin was a teacher. And so on and so on.

You can't say the same for boxing. The talent pool in boxing is MUCH larger than MMA's. People train their whole lives to make it big in boxing. That's not really the case with MMA. It's more of something that happened and suddenly allowed wrestlers and other martial artists to transition into.

 

It is completely true that there is basically no youth boxing anymore. I certainly didn't have the option when I was younger, and guess what: my dad and grandpa were gold glove boxers! It was nowhere to be found, and I certainly would have started boxing when I was younger if it was available. It's funny too because in high school me and my buddies always said we would join INSTANTLY if there was a boxing team, or even lessons. Instead we played football.....it shows how far boxing has fallen as a sport. Hopefully on the rise again soon though

 

My personal opinion on this is that there is a large, sustained effort to recruit and train young athletes in the former Soviet block countries and turn them into boxers. What I mean by this is a commited effort by a government (financially and otherwise) to identify and train athletes in an amateur program that is critical to success as a future professional.

The only other countries that do this sort of thing (and place a huge emphasis on succeeding in athletics) is Cuba, China, and North Korea. I don't think the Chinese or North Koreans give a **** -all about boxing.

In America (and other countries), the kid has to basically walk in off the street. This is certainly one advantage that will probably dissapear over time as these large, pre cold war institutions in the eastern euro countrieis close up and dissapear (which will happen as they become more capitalistic)

The other thing is that only since the late 60's and 70's, has college been an option for black kids, therefore they haven't had the avenues to get into professional sports. Now that those barriers are gone (and that any kid who can 'ball' can get a scholarship whether he deserves one or not) more black kids are opting for basketball, football, and sometimes baseball. Any American kid will likely opt for one of those before going into boxing which isn't taught at any high school or college (as far as I know). Plus, if your supremely gifted you can make more money in those sports too. (I don't think Shaquille O'Neil ever considered boxing for a second!)

Having said all that, I do think that some of the people in America who used to be 'hungry' aren't as hungry as they once were. Many kids (all American kids) are soft, regardless of wether they come from the ghetto or not. Nobody in America is 'starving', many of these kids are 'spiritually' poor more than financially poor. Spiritualy poor kids don't make tough, hungry athletes looking to prove a point. They are phony-tough, trying to car-jack people.

 

Too lazy to train.

 

Everything is interrelated. The boxing program is not in the school, therefore primary school students do not get it in school, and if they are interested in sports, they have a choice of any of the non-combat sports.

If they are over 6' and 200#s they are probably either going to go into basketball or football, and often times even a student that is not particularly interested in either sport, but is very large will be 'recruited' at a young age(middle school for instance) to play for the school team,

that is if they didn't already grow up thinking how sweet it would be to play proffesionally for either of those sports

If a student wants to train as a boxer he has to do it on his own time and his own dime