What happened to the great American Heavyweight?

Beckham,the most overrated and overhyped footie player in the history of the sport,is in the US because the LA Galaxy (and various endorsed companies)are stupid enough to pay him upwards of $20 million a year in salary.He could not command anywhere near that type of salary in Europe because as far as footie is concerned,the Europeans know how useless he is.Milan are just selling his jerseys,like the other Euro powers that had him.If he were great,he'd be paid accordingly in Europe.

 

Limited media coverage would play a part.

 

Right now the Klitchko's domate heavyweight boxing it is not as if there is just a gap in American heavyweights. There is a gap in all heavyweights and the Brothers Klitchko. When they retire we will see the reamergance of the American Heavyweight as well as heavyweights from the rest of the world.

 

It is just not like football and baseball, 2 sports Americans love. How many dads raise their kids to be boxers? Not many, only if they are boxers, themselves. And, even, then, how many fathers want their kids to be hit for a living? Not many.

 

As far as fanaticl support go, most European, Asian, African, hell even South American kids dream of becoming soccer players. Those siphoned off by the NFL and NBL in America is nothing compared to what siphoned off by soccer.

Other countries have the same problems with competing sports. For America they dont have many good HW boxers now because 1) international competition and 2) lazy.

 

Rugby is very popular in europe and would take a lot of big guys, i think weightlifting and basketball are very popular in eastern europe too

 

I don't believe so. I think it's the rest of the world catching up.
You mention the NBA...look at it. 30-years ago what percentage of the players were American? And Today? Huge disparity in the numbers.

 

there are plenty of gyms in boston....

 

I actually wrote a piece about this a couple years back and it is a combination of things.

NBA/NFL: LeBron James can make a ton of money shooting a ball for the next 15 years and appearance fees, endorsement deals, etc. after that without a huge chance of brain damage, which one would you choose?

Not many gyms, take a look at google maps and search for a boxing gym in different cities, especially mid sized and small cities(250K down to 30K) and you will find there aren't many boxing gyms around. so kids aren't exposed to it.

Lack of boxing on TV: You have ESPN and Versus for boxing on regular tv, and very low chance of catching the golden gloves on MSG. There needs to be a resurgence of both pro and amateur boxing on TV before kids will begin to want to take part.

Lack of Support: The nation isn't behind boxing like it was for Ali, Frazier, Foreman, hell even Tyson. The USA rather watch American Idol and Survivor than get behind a boxer.

This trend will keep up unless something drastic changes, the one nation I would begin to watch become a dominant power in boxing is China, they have developed a deep amateur pool and that will help those boxers once they turn pro.

 

All these things are also happening in other countries, but instead of:
NFL/NBL = replace it with Soccer/Rugby.

 

:heyI heard that Tye Fields was training hard for huge comeback.