Why did America lose heavyweight dominance

I dont think that is the case there were always other sports, boxing is a very tough sport and game and although some have made mega-bucks, others flounder. It is hard to stay in condition and unlike team sports larger mental challenge and then you have the MMA. We also have a larger pool of big men that are now allowed to fight Pro from Eastern Europe and not as many gyms and teachers. With guys like Ali, Quarry, Frazier, Norton,and Hearns and other stars who have shown signs of Brain damage from ring wars the sport is less appealing. In my era we did everything wrong these days they know a lot more of cause and effect.

Would you want your son to be a boxer?

 

It is more like boxing has simply fallen off the radar than just guys choosing other sports.

The type of grass roots interest there used to be isn't there any more.

As for athletes in other sports, impossible to say. Charlie Powell was one of the better all-around athlete's of the 1950's, playing pro football and also being a track star. He looks like just another big guy in the boxing ring and had a fair, but hardly outstanding, career.

 

I agree with the other sports choice. Apparently GOOD big guys can earn astronomical sums in American football, and Basketball these days, and admittedly without the same amount of risk of long term brain damage.

 

America had been losing heavyweights to other sports since WWII ended.

The primary difference is that the rest of the world wasn't in a place to capitalize on it. The 60's and 70's are remembered as the "golden age" because of star power at the top, but from a participation standpoint, the depth had already been gutted from what it was 20-40 years prior.

 

Hardly any of them makes what Wlad does but the security for the second level performers is better than in boxing. Football is now known to be very debilitating to both brain and body. We will see what effect that renders. And remember, football didn't become popular in 1998. It was a huge sport on the pro level from the late 60's on. I like to put this question on its head and ask, Did heavyweight boxing, in its heyday of the late 60's thru late 80's, deprive football or basketball from talent? Looking at who was champion in those years only guys like Foreman and Bonecrusher Smith even come to mind as guys who had the particular talents for either of those sports. Not Ali or Frazier or Holmes or Tyson or Bowe. Those were boxing talents.

Another serious factor is the emergence of the Eastern Bloc fighters who were previously not allowed to go pro. And Great Britain has really stepped up as a player. The boxing market is global. The 1990's saw the real emergence of heavy earners from Latin America, even at the lightest weights. The Eastern Bloc guys, tho not overly popular in the US, earn quite a bit internationally. It's a moving target.

 

As far as sprinting, he was slow as molasses. This has been been repeated anecdotally and proven in his abysmal performance in the SuperStars competition.

 

Or Ray Lewis or Larry Johnson or half the WWE... but the reality is that fairly docile looking guys like Chris Byrd or James Toney would kick their asses seven ways to Sunday. Getting hit in the face and returning favor is just a different sort of business.

 

You can't be serious. I would love to see Ali in the 60's sprint. He would be so fast.

 

In the 1960 Olympics, he challenged Wilma Rudolph to a sprint and got dusted badly. Judging by this he was probably a 12-13 second 100 meter guy on his best day.

 

Simply because American kids, would rather try to make the NFL, or Major League Baseball, i would throw in the NBA but if your not at least 6-4, or 6-5 scouts won't even waste their time, and lets face it very few kids are that tall:-(

Those sports don't damage the body as much, and can last many more years, Boxers don't last too long, guy's like De La Hoya - Sugar Ray could fight for many years but were 1 in a million...

Boxing also has a sleazy reputation, people get away with to much Bull****, MLB, NFL, NBA, all have strict guidelines, regulations, they don't **** around, they run a tight ship, and people like organization, security, boxing obviously falls far short of that:-(