How come sons of great boxers are hardly ever as good as their fathers?

It's mainly genetics.

I've got 2 sons, 10 and 11.

The 10 year old's half the size of the elder 1 but crushes me with hooks to the shoulder.

The 11 year old pushes his punches and even his clean ones are mainly powder puffs.

There's rarer traits needed in boxing/combat sports compared to team sports. Like the weird natural punch power, chin, heart, recovery etc. They don't always pass down.

 

My first thought was biology. They are not clones of their father. The mother probably wasn't an elite sportswoman.

 

Sounds like the Inoue brothers.

 

Chavez Jr was a world champ he didn’t suck

 

The sons of giants are dwarfs

 

Yeah, waking at 5AM in the morning for a 5 mile run and beasting about in the gym is hard when you're sleeping on silk sheets.

 

The thing is, you don't get punched in the face in the other sports. The rich sons and daughters of great, famous sports people, get a leg up, everywhere and in every way.
I mean in terms of coaching, accessibility etc. Yeah, sure Pacquiaos son would have access to world class training, facilities, you name it in boxing but in the end, he's still gotta fight.

 

But Sr. was not great.

 

Floyd Mayweather?

The reason is that their athletic genes are adulterated.

 

Boxing has too many variables. You could inherit your dad's strength, speed, height etc but if you don't have a chin you won't make it very far. It's also one of the few sports where having money doesn't really help you because the trainng is pretty affordable. Unlike golf, tennis, hockey etc where mostly rich people succeed, growing up poor might actually be to your benefit. I know once I had a comfortable life I was less motivated to fight.

 

Good thread, combination of all these things..
1) The father is an elite boxer with elite genetics, the mother has model good looks but not a muscle in her body (and two left feet)
2) It's hard getting up to run 6miles in the morning at 5am.... when you woke up in silk sheets
3) boxing is a different sport than all the others, punching power and punch resistance are just all together different things than other athletic traits (assuming you have all the other athletic traits too!)

 

It can't be expected that offspring will closely mimic the talent of a parent. It happens but not too often.

 

I mean, Laila Ali was an ATG women's boxer if that counts.

Then there's Tyson Fury who's father Paul Fury is this supposed bare knuckle gypsy legend or whatever.

I think Cory Spinks was better than his father Leon Spinks although I wouldn't consider Leon great, but he did leave his mark in boxing history. Cory was the undisputed 147 champion as well as a two time 154 champ.

Floyd Patterson adopted a son Tracy Harris Patterson and he became a two time Super Bantamweight champion.

 

I feel besides the genetics part, boxing is a poor mans sport in general. Pacquiao's struggle made his hunger. His kids (thankfully) will never have that since they dont need to face the adversity that many greats have.
Of you have a millionaire son in silk sheets, you get him to something else for a living than blows to the head.
You saw with Chavez jr he didnt have his fathera heart/grit either.
It makes it difficult to raise a rich kid without spoiling them.

 

You cannot teach hunger and discipline.

My kids will probably never have the same drive and determination as me because they have never seen any hard times in their lives.

They may excel in other area though.