Most of the Soviet Union is in Asia. Most Russians I know do not consider themselves "European". :-( Are French, English, Irish, Italian considered "Slavic"? :-(
Most of the former Soviet Union may be in Asia, but most of the heavyweights we are specifically talking about come from the parts that are in Europe.
Well its a shame because never in the history of boxing has the Heavy Weight division looked this bad. LOL Instead of an accomplishment for Europe it should be a shame.
The best American hopefull (arreola) came in at 258lbs, and if you saw that fight you saw how out of shape is was. For some reason American heavyweights can not stay ontop of their conditioning.
Thats a very good point that rarely gets mentioned by the boxing press. Most writers are lazy and just use the "big Americans go into the NBA/NFL" arguement and completely ignore the fact that a lot of eastern Europeans never turned pro pre 90's.
Most of the Soviet Union is in Asia, but the majority of the fighters from those countries fight in the EU. Hence our friend getting confused.
the other sport arguement is not the whole answer, but it is one of the reasons. Basically its a combination of many factors, NFL,NBA playstation generation, lack of boxing exposure so kids are not inspired to become boxers and fellow their heroes because they hardly see any boxing on free TV, think how the greats were inspired by other greats. and it goes in cicles
There seems to be a correlation with the rise of the European Heavyweights and the decline of exciting fights in the division. There is a reason why the Heavyweight division is the laughing stock in boxing. There is nobody worth watching. I dont even know who holds the belts nowadays. And ive been following boxing for a good 20 years.
Ruskies from the far eastern part look chinese because there asians the western ones look european cause there european :yep Rusia play in the european football championships Also in the uefa champions league and uefa cup :deal quite confusing atsch
the only dominant euro is Wlad. the rest of the euros (valuev, chagaev being the best) are contenders like the americans - see those two's close fights with John Ruiz for proof. there are probably a couple more euro contenders (than us) but not many. Now if Vitaly is somehow back close to form than there will likely be two 'dominant' euros (arguably). Also, the US will pick up again no doubt.
I didn't realize linebackers, defensive linemen, need to be fat? Was Lawrence Taylor fat? How about Reggie White (R.I.P)? Offensive lineman sometimes do but the majority of them are white and did not grow up with any kind of boxing program in school so they would never have gravitated toward boxing anyway. Black neighborhoods in the USA do have boxing programs as an option at a young age why are they all of a sudden giving up on boxing now? Because their worried about being fat? Sounds pretty slim to me. The NFL has been around for many decades. Sounds more like an excuse to me. Russians are exposed to boxing at an early age and have a much better work ethic which is why you see the current domination of Slavic (as opposed to "Euro") boxers in the HW division.