State Of Emergency? A Reason Why The Heavyweight Division Isn’t At Its Best

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This upcoming Saturday represents not only the fate of who will hold the heavyweight championship of the world, but it also signifies the first marquee heavyweight clash since June 21, 2003 (Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko). So on July 2 in Germany when David Haye and Wladimir Klistchko step inside the ring and look each other eye to eye as the bell sounds, it will be a very big treat for

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fans who have long yearned for a major heavyweight showdown.
The excitement may be short-lived however as no matter who wins this Saturday, it will not be enough to totally rejuvenate heavyweight boxing (especially if Haye wins then goes on to retire later this year as he plans to). So the main question is this… what happened to heavyweight boxing?
History has clearly shown that the state of the heavyweight division largely determines the popularity of boxing throughout the world. Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson were all international icons as heavyweight champions and took the

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of boxing to such great heights that it was regularly front page sports news and was seen as one of the major (if not THE major) sporting event around.
Today, boxing (especially in North America) is rarely mentioned in the sports pages and it is largely kept together by online websites such as this one in providing fans detailed coverage of the happenings of the sport. It is clear that the lack of a dominant and exciting heavyweight king is a root cause of why exposure of boxing to the general sports public has significantly reduced from prior years, decades and generations.
Many people place blame on the Klitschko brothers for dominating the heavyweight scene in less than spectacular fashion and not exciting fans across the globe. To be fair, the Ukrainian brothers have beaten everyone in their path including recently Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev, Sultan Ibragimov, Odlanier Solis and Chris Arreola. It seems the only major challenges for them left are British David Haye and Polish Thomas Adamek, who they will be tackling this year.
The fact that (besides Haye) there is no explosive and dynamic fighter on the scene that can beat or even challenge these two “boring” boxers is very, very troublesome. Especially when you look at the fact that there is virtually no American heavyweight on the horizon that will capture the imagination of fight fans across the globe. Dempsey, Louis, Ali and Tyson were all shining US heavyweights who became world icons and some of the biggest draws the sport has ever seen.
So why is there not another dominant American heavyweight to be found lurking around the heavyweight landscape or waiting in the wings? I believe the reasons for this are deeper than summarizing it to the Klitschkos dominating the division with boring styles.
Boxing is a sport, and like any other sport it requires top athletes to participate in it to take it to the full potential. In the 80’s and early 90’s Michael Jordan took

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and the NBA to a whole new level with his dominance. Football and the NFL also took off throughout the years with its marquee Super Bowl event and entertaining previews of their season/games. Both of these sports require skilled big men in order for the competition to be at its highest. This has led to kids in as early as high school and even in junior high school to be sought after by those affiliated with these sports in the US.
With the major focus and persuasion of basketball and football development in the States during the critical early years of a big and strong athlete, it makes it very tough for an American heavyweight prospect to come up as the talent is being spread into the other areas more so than before due to the huge emergence in the last couple decades of these other sports.
The lure of these vastly popular sports in America to go along with not having to worry about getting punched in the face or having to deal with of corrupt promoters and immense disorganization with sanctioning bodies poses a big, big problem for boxing and the chances of a solid heavyweight prospect coming up.
After speaking to many family and friends in the States it has been confirmed that boxing development programs for younger athletes are now almost a joke and boxing (and its violence) is not focused on much at all during the important early years for a big sized athlete. This leads to a possible future heavyweight champion into becoming a menacing linebacker in football or a star power forward in basketball.
The lower divisions in boxing are thankfully relatively free of this issue as their size is not a major factor, thus they can focus on boxing without pressure of getting into the other sports by eager coaches, trainers and recruiters during their teen years; hence why the welterweight and other lighter weight divisions are rich with talent while the bigger divisions are not.
Boxing can only go so far as a sport without an exciting heavyweight champion, and unless there can be a major focus in North America on the growth of young, big athletic kids in boxing then the prospects of boxing having another US boxing heavyweight icon will remain very low and leave fans waiting a long time for the next big thing.