What happened to the great American Heavyweight?

It's not, but how many times do you see people talking about lower divisions and using this excuse? I know people don't wanna hear it, and would roll their eyes at it. I know the thread is about HWs, but nobody from other countries tries to make the same point for other divisions, ever... really. Only when the US is attacked is this argument brought up. It's a little funny. And HW's don't have to be huge anyway. They don't all have to be 6'5 250, but yeah that's not my main point.

 

Ray Lewis is playing linebacker for the Ravensatsch

 

The difference is in countries like UK and other Euro countries, boxing is a reasonable alternative to whatever is the dominant sport in that country (soccer/football I guess in this case).

In the US, that is not the case any more. It used to be. People who did not participate in Am football or basketball would consider boxing. American youths of today don't.

And regarding boxing as a poor mans sport - there are also far fewer boxing gyms now in America. And football and basketball are FAR cheaper to play than boxing since balls are cheaper and free public fields are often walking distance from some ones home. Now even martial arts studio offers MMA training while no dedicated boxing classes.

That is the sad state of American boxing. Hopefully, it will change a bit with Pac and PBF's popularity.

 

Holy Jesus, you're dumb! This thread is about heavyweight boxers? Can you grasp that? And heavyweight boxers do not have the option of becoming footballers, not in America, or Europe or fantasy land. They are too big! Get it? Boxing is the best, most lucrative option for big men in Europe. That is not true in the States? DO YOU UN DER STA ND?

 

The reason thats its brought up is that for most of the history of boxing, the US has dominated the division. Why not now. The NFL is an american game exclusively, so its Americans who play it, then boxing loses these great athletes.

 

Well they could just go into other sports... even if not too successful. It's like the MUST go into boxing, where is this coming from? Or they just completely forget about sports.

It's like saying smaller guys in the US that wouldn't do well in the NBA or NFL are mostly boxing... so US has the best in the lower divisions while the other countries don't because they are mostly playing soccer. That's just... ehh.

 

Bless you. Someone finally graps what I am saying. For some reason, posters on this site tend to get lost in petty name calling and bickering rather than thinking about simple ideas and solutions.

 

Its also a bigger long shot to get the great paydays in boxing. In most cases world class boxers have to start from an early age. There are not alot of gyms around any more.

 

Yes because Alonzo Highsmith, Mark Gastinaeu, and Ed 'Too Tall' Jones had such great Boxing careers. It is an excuse. Period. I can buy the part about the American amatuer system it is a joke but all the other crap about the NBA, NFL, etc is a farce. Those leagues have been around 75 plus years.

 

:huh

 

If one other nation had dominated a division and lost that dominance and a thread was started that asked why, I wouldn't really have a problem with the answers I'd get .....provided they made sense. I think the answers here do.

Also, I didn't view the thread as an attack, but it does seem that some of the counter arguments to the responses are.

Either way, I think it is a combination of lack of interest/opportunity and easier availability and potential success at other sports that keeps young HW's from pursuing boxing. No media coverage in comparison, no youth infrastructure, no scholarships. High risk/ low reward.

 

Because the US doesn't have to make excuses for the lower ranks. We have as many champions below cruiserweight as any other nation, which is the point of the thread...ie. the US once had dominant heavyweights...what happened? And what happened was that other sports became more popular in this country, while heavyweight boxing became more popular and lucrative in Europe. Duh!

 

Nope. Because boxing isn't our national game...It's baseball. Baseball is every bit as popular as soccer/football is in Europe. So...nope!

 

For years they didnt allow black players & it was the last 30 years where guys started making Millions for riding the bench alone. The average NFL linebacker is 260 and runs a 4.4 40 yrd dash. If a guy like that boxed his whole like hed be a potentaily great fighter.

 

In general boxing is not a choice anymore. American youths that turned to boxing (no matter their size and height) was likely by luck since the opportunity to play other sports for fun or competitively is far greater than boxing. Every Am house hold has a baseball glove, basketball or football - even if they rarely play those sports. I know probably 2 people with boxing gloves in the house, but they actually participate locally.

American sports culture and business is dominated by the three big leagues - NFL, MLB and NBA. NHL is a distant 4th. Hell even golf, stock car racing, tennis, etc probably attract more youths - and those are VERY expensive sports. So even if you fail or do not enjoy one of the 3 big sports, there are much more reasonable alternatives - including the other 2 major sports.