The argument that American Heavies are "in other sports"

It's a lame excuse to say American athletes are in other sports now. Boxing always got the leftover athletes who weren't very good at other sports. A few were like Marciano. Boxing always gets the leftovers and the best athletes always go to football baseball and basketball. LT, Juliuos Erving, Barry Sanders, Kobe, Shaq, Bonds, Jeter, Dave Parker, McGwire, Larry Bird, Magic.

It's just another cheap, weak excuse to discredit the success of the Klitschkos.

 

No star footballer or rugby player is going to leave their sport in their prime to be a ****ing kicker in the NFL. Obviously if Beckham or Wilkinson went to the NFL they would be the best kickers in the game but why the **** would they?

 

I don't disagree that it's not just and American issue, as I think the same may be able to be said about other nations as well. That being said, the lack of television coverage in the US, the lack of main stream media attention, the perceptions of former champions being damaged, lunatics, and/or lower class relative to other athletes also plays a role in this. I personally love the glamor and pagentry of boxing, many don't get to see this, and if they do don't fully appreciate it because they simply don't get the exposure that other sports get. So naturally the "best" athletes do other things, there are no school boxing teams/clubs, there are no youth programs per se', there are sparse gyms where "troubled kids" go, but your elite types aren't guided toward boxing and that is an undisputable fact in America. I don't necessarily dispute it's this way in other places as well and if so that is probably an indicator as to why the Heavyweight division is in the shape it's in. Action movie stars, Professional Wresting, MMA, Football, basketball, baseball are all "going big". There isn't a lot of demand for smallish athletes in other arenas hence you see the lower weight classes being overly populated, relative to the highest. There is a premium on the big, strong, fast, well coordinated world class athlete so naturally it is an issue.

 

every athletic teenager are wise to the prostitution that boxing does to fighters. before it was a way of proving your worst to everybody. but fame form boxing is dwindling and the money you get is also not acceptable in comparison to the damage you receive in a ring....even in sparring you can be beaten down.

and this is for peanuts.
also you actually get a proper wage in other sports. your protected in a ton of ways. boxing doesn't have an actual union so you have to carve your living out of a very murky business. i don't know seems like too much trouble for so little return considering.

also a load of professional athletes who get injured turn to boxing as a way of leaning back on something. which shows that it's a back seat sport.
audley Harrison was a decent footballer before his ankle gave way, there was that hockey dude in canada i believe who turned to boxing after a ban and was undefeated in the ring before he returned the ice rink, curtis woodhouse turned to boxing pretty late and even though lost 2 times to good journeymen he is still considered (very mildly) as a prospect.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Category:Boxers_who_played_pro_sports
even boxrec has a whole page to boxers who played other pro sports.

it's not new but it's changed from being a young mans sport to a sport you can turn to...also most turncoats are heavy's or cruisers which also leads to this theory. i don't buy it completely but it's intertwined.



i'm doing sociology in uni if i do a free essay i might do this. it's pretty interesting

 

Diverting it how? By pointing out you were wrong to say Rocca was a rugby player? And by pointing out he was at the end of his career? If your point is, is that he's a bad kicker, then you should acknowledge these facts, because you're wrong.

Any rugby player could do it. Why? Because it's much, much harder to be a successful kicker in rugby. Fact.

 

Of course they can do it right. They do is every single week - Like you said, if a "guy can kick, he can kick" so where does this assumption come from that you need years of training? A short time to adjust is enough.

There is no fundamental difference in kicking in rugby or the NFL.


...Except in rugby it's 10x as hard and you need 10x as much kicking technique.

 

You're dumber than I thought , you don't actually think that's true do you?

 

I don't pretend to know alot about Rugby , although I do think it's a good sport... You need to stop pretending like you know anything about the NFL. You don't know one ****ing thing about it

 

You don't even know who Sav Rocca is.

 

There has been four Australia kickers in the NFL I believe (not sure all started) and all of them have had to adjust - once they have though they have done pretty well.

 

The stats don't support your assertion that any rugby player could do it.

AFL players are specialist kicks and even they have had to adapt. It is just nonsense to suggest that any rugby player could kick at NFL level.

You put Beckham and an AFL player in the kick off and ask them to kick to a set place. First play Beckham might land it where you want but there would be no second kick - he would get absolutely flattened by the opposing team offense.

 

You are out of your mind.

Boxing was the #1 sport in America until CABLE and PPV.

The Klits fought fighters from the previous era because actually that is where they belong. What happened? They got their asses kicked.

 

If they got offered 10x what they get now, theyd leave in a heartbeat. However, does anyone know the average salaries of say, NFL compared with UK Rugby? Or MLB and Rugby? I know the average wage in the NHL a few years back was over 1 million dollars a season, and that was just for practice roster and minor leaguers. I think minimum wage at that time in the NHL was around a half million.

Maybe its like comparing an elite boxers wage with that of an elite UFC'er. roughly 10 times difference.

 

Cachi,

There are a LOT of tryouts for heavy. No argument there.

They just aren't the athletic heavyweights who are drawn to more financially rewarding sports. They are the toughman variety. Overweight, slow, skill less and willing to take punishment to get money out of you.

These guys would have been the feeding trough for the heavyweights of the 30s thru 70s.

 

you're a moron. Rugby punting is far different then NFL punting. NFL punting you have to take into account hang time and field position. As to why the form used in rugby and football are completely different. There are some guys in College who do rugby punts, but its not as effective in the NFL as a real punt.

Honestly you know nothing about sports it seems.