booze

No it isn't

 

An active boxer can't have much of an alcohol problem because it ruins your workouts and recovery. What a lot of boxers, and other athletes for that matter, do seem to have a problem with is cocaine.

 

Not really, I bet if you went to an amateur gym, you would only find a 1 or 2 people max who weren't working class.

 

You're all wrong. Boxing is a sport done by the magnificently Awesome, not the poor.

 

Boxing is traditionally a working class sport, and levels of alcohol abuse are higher in the lower classes. I don’t think this should be taken as evidence that boxers are more likely to have a drink problem than other sports.

Football (soccer) is also traditionally a working class sport and I would say there is a bigger drinking culture within football than in boxing.

If a boxers training has been affected by alcohol, then obviously his performance in the ring will suffer. This would be a lot more noticeable than a football player having a bad performance, as he could go missing for a game and we wouldn’t think as much about it. A boxer’s lone performance is scrutinised to a greater degree, and of course the consequences of underperforming in the ring are far greater.

It is quite common for an athlete who has trained so hard, and stayed so disciplined for so many years to start burning the candle at both ends when they have retired. I personnel know several ex-pros who know have problems with drink and drugs. One in particular who fought at British level has recently had a heart attack after taking cocaine, and it is believed that the drugs just compounded the strain on his heart caused by years of intense training. In other words, it’s possible ex-athletes are more susceptible to heart problems if they take drugs.

As for the mention that boxing is a sport undertaken by the poor, it reminds me of what Brother Nazim said about Mayweather before the Mosley fight. He mentioned that Floyds father and uncles were fighting at a high level when he was growing up so it’s not like he had to want for much. Maybe he is the exception to the rule though. I wonder how many other top level fighters came from reasonably well off backgrounds.

 

i think the thread starter has a point. me personally i feel its more due to having to remain so disciplined. its also why most boxers balloon in weight once their career is done.

 

Berrera was pretty well off, apparently his dad was was a film director.
JJC JR obviously since his dad had made riches from fighting.
James Toney was from a decent background as well apparently, though I think he sold drugs.

 

Thats interesting.

You would of thought Barerra, and Toney were both from some dodgy ghetto wouldnt you.

 

Yeah, Barrera is just a born fighter I guess, won't back down to anyone and a real hot head.

I'm not entirely sure about toney but I have heard that he is from a decent background, which contradicts his whole homedog, bad ass persona.

 

Even though Floyd wasnt poor, he had emotional problems. He admitted himself on 24/7 that his dad went to prison etc so he had an un- happy upbringing so that's what motivated him to train harder and harder.
Normally boxers express their anger in life via training at a younger age and when they become adults, when the money and fame is coming in, they go into partying, women, alcohol and drugs.

 

Barrera could of been born into a family of millionaire ballerinas and he would of still been a ruthless *******.

Yeah Toney probably doesnt like to mention like then. It makes you wonder how many fighters exaggerate their stories of poverty, growing up on the wrong side of the tracks etc.

its not a good look for a fighter to have any privalige before they started fighting in some eyes....doesnt bother me too much, although if they have a good story it does help i suppose

 

I see where you're coming from and agree 100%. Add to that the percentage of boxers who start boxing to battle past "demons", people who go into it with the mindset of, "they won't pick on me anymore," and who can't let **** go and it can add up pretty quick. You hit it right on the head saying we're more predisposed to certain problems than other sports from classier ways of life, just like they're more predisposed to abuses and problems of their own.

 

Exactly, problems like domestic abuse, bullying, drugs and neglect are also no doubt a product of poverty in most cases.

On the subject of middleclass boxers - In the british boxing magazine Boxing News Paul Williams recently said in an interview that he was brought up in a middleclass family. By the sound of it he was lower middleclass at best though.