Boxing is getting worse, not better!

I'm not sure I fully understand the question?

 

i meant to quote seamus's respone, it went badly.

 

Seamus, ok nice response.

I think we're getting our wires crossed a bit though. My point about athletes in ball sports is that if they had never taken up any particular sport, then quite a few of these athletes would have the requisite raw materials to box.
I totally agree that boxing tends to make very different demands on the mental and physical capabilities of the athlete than ball sports, but at the same time, provided said athlete does have the required intangibles to go along with their physical gifts, then why could they not make decent pros?

Maybe I worded it badly, but I didn't mean to suggest literally taking quarterbacks out of the NFL. Some players have tried to make the transition and it's always ended badly, as you know.
What I meant to say was if we took big athletic guys who, instead of taking up ball sports, were to box instead (from a young age) then we could have a lot more decent pros in the division.
Wlad in a way, points to it. He could have probably done well in a number of different sports, but he chose boxing. I don't think he is a natural fighter like Vitali, but he did make the grade as a pro.

Whether or not the NBA and NFL are popular outside the US or not is a bit of a moot point.
The point I was trying to make is that they are proactively seeking new talent from other parts of the world, and trying to get a culture of football or basketball going outside of their established markets. They are trying to make the sports grow, despite already being very popular sports in their homeland.
Is boxing doing the same?

 

you didn't word it badly, it was obvious what you meant, seamus wants to have crossed wires so he can keep on saying things like no footballer could take a punch, with zero evidence, since they are footballers not boxers,

sergio martinez was a good quality soccer player and cyclist, but not quite enough to go pro(and he could have been a pro cyclist but except for the top guys they get peanuts), he then turned to boxing at a later age. which according to seamus makes him either a **** boxer who cant take being punched, or a complete freak who has the nearly impossible ability to do 3 totally different sports to a high level.

what about seth mitchell. he wont be world champion but for an ex football player he looks to me like has the heart to be a boxer(albeit not the chin)

 

Unfortunately I don't think Seth is going to go any further and may wind up as an 'opponent' if he keeps going. I agree he has the heart and tenacity, but blowout losses to Banks and now Arreola have pretty much curtailed his career, imo.
He just can't seem to take a punch.

 

i agree he cant take a punch, but a few years back he was just a football player, with zero boxing experience. He's fighting for purely economic reasons and has shown enough heart to invalidate seamus's statement that no athletes in other sports have the heart to take punches and continue with the career.

I am saying that just because a future athlete choses one sport does not mean they would be no good at the rest of them, and that physical attributes like lung size and hand eye co-ordination and toughness are important in many sports, and having these attributes gives the potential to be a pro in more than 1 sport.

The popularity of boxing is more important than many in this thread are saying imo. A potential HW champion may not quite have the ability to be an NFL pro, but if he spends his youth playing football he will never become a boxer at all.(assuming he is capable of being employed for his £££, and if he isn't you only have a 20+ year old who hasn't boxed before, rather than a 13 year old to train proplerly)
Another example (although 1 less aplicable to HW's) is sports like skateboarding and bmx, ive seen many wiry athletic kids in skateparks who maybe have the physical ability to be boxers(and are strong and motivated enough to keep bouncing off the concrete, often already injured, for a sport that has no economic future for them), but there is no gym culture, or their friends dont go there, but go to the sk8park instead, then get older and get a job or go on benifits.

 

I don't agree with the 'leftovers' theory either.

But I think you're making an error too.
Several of the best potential boxers might well go in to other sports, and end up being mediocre athletes in other sports, guys you've never heard of, failures. Simply because that's the fashion, that's the culture, the trend. Boxing's a mug's game, it makes you brain damaged and it's just not fashionable, it's antiquated. Not many kids want to be boxers. In years gone by more of them did, and fist-fighting prowess was revered more.

Generally, people do not settle in the occupation that they are best suited for, in terms of latent potential abilities.
More young men, unqualified for much else, who might consider sport as a profession these days will probably be less inclined to consider boxing even as a second or third option than would have been the case in the past.

 

You´re a kid living in a very poor neighborhood (they exist outside USA, in much harsher conditions than US ever had tbh), and you´re good at boxing...you think that boxing being "antiquated" is going to be a issue for him if he sees a chance to get money with boxing ? Course not.

There is quite a few of projects in my country, one in particular is very very good in one of the most problematic favelas in Rio......Esquiva Falcão, the silver medal in London last year comes from there, there are projects like those in the whole Latin America.
The only issue is that many of the talents end up in the wrong side of the life, end up being criminals.....

 

or mma fighters/martial artists? i'm not saying u wrong(your right about good boxers not caring, its the stage before they know they are good boxers i'm asking about), I don't know how much the sports and gyms cross over in brazil, would a kid in an mma gym be guided into boxing if it suited him better?

 

I've always wondered Vic, why boxing is not bigger in Brazil?

 

I don´t know either, tbh......it´s just not part of the culture of the country...

Football/Soccer is going to be bigger than anything around here because it´s part of the culture, the culture of you supporting your team and etc...
Boxing is known, I mean, everybody knew Freitas around here when he was fighting.....Éder Jofre still is a known name. I would say boxing is as popular as tennis around here....maybe tennis is a bit bigger because we had a great player not too long ago in Gustavo Kuerten...

 

Tbh, man, MMA is not as big in Brazil as it might look from the outside.
Yes, the popularity grew in the last 2 years, and regular people know the best brazilian fighters like Anderson Silva....but it´s NOT a sport that people talk routinely among themselves...I´m sure I don´t hear.
A brazilian fought for the HW title last weekend and I didn´t hear a person talking about it so far (it was not showed in regular tv, only in a cable extra paid channel).

In the past (not too long ago, 10 or 20 years ago), jiu-jitsu was not a thing for poor people, far from it.....it changed, but still it can be a bit more expensive for a poor kid to train something like jiu-jitsu than boxing.

ps- I´m having a hard time trying to remember a brazilian mma fighter who came from a favela......while many were not rich, or not even middle class when they were growing up, they were not exactly poor for a latin american country standards...

There is jiu-jitsu projects in poor neighborhoods as well though,today... just like the boxing ones....

 

thanks, thats very interesting, especially the bit I bolded, which is against the logic i was using, (if their not from a favella they likely had education and some prospect outside fighting?)

Although more of my posts have been for the op, it is not a discussion I can fully come down on one side or the other, too many variables.

your post brings back the point that poverty hasn't gone from boxing countries worldwide, just in Euro and N.america, but thats the traditional heartland of boxing and where the best trainers are(were?)

 

Marketers and promoters have become the big stars and the bull**** TV execs have contributed to this nonsense.The boxers have become pawns in a game they can't possibly win.
Only the promoters and TV Corporations truly profit with the assistance of the Boxing Organisations.
It's ALL about money!
Do you really believe these sharks care about Mayweather and Pacman,other than giving them huge ratings and PPV revenues?:deal