The NFL/Boxing Theory have some real weight behind it.

[Tom Cruise]

Did the UK go from dominating the heavyweight boxing scene for 100 years to all of a sudden having 0 viable contenders?

That's the difference.

Actually same as America we dominated when no one else did it. Then other countries started taking part then we stopped dominating.

For a long time the number of Americans in pro boxing dwarfed other countries, barring some south/central american countries who for a few factors tend to produce more lower weight fighters. Now a few extra hundred million people can be pro boxers if they choose, it'd be silly to deny that wouldnt have an effect. These states will only grow as 'pro boxing nations' as more see the financial possibilities of pro boxing (seeing the k-bros on free tv helps with this).

Thats not to say the state of American Heavyweight boxing hasnt declined but ive already posted on that. Everyone seems to be arguing single reasons for this when in reality, like most things in history, there are lots of interlinking factors.

[Hougigo]

Actually same as America we dominated when no one else did it. Then other countries started taking part then we stopped dominating.

For a long time the number of Americans in pro boxing dwarfed other countries, barring some south/central american countries who for a few factors tend to produce more lower weight fighters. Now a few extra hundred million people can be pro boxers if they choose, it'd be silly to deny that wouldnt have an effect. These states will only grow as 'pro boxing nations' as more see the financial possibilities of pro boxing (seeing the k-bros on free tv helps with this).

Thats not to say the state of American Heavyweight boxing hasnt declined but ive already posted on that. Everyone seems to be arguing single reasons for this when in reality, like most things in history, there are lots of interlinking factors.

Which goes into the NFL theory... hell even NBA.
You can make far more money faster doing those two sports than boxing.

[Skittlez]

It could also be a era thing.

Let's be honest. The Klitschkos era didn't produce many elite fighters. It produced 2+ David Haye. That's it.

And David Haye is not even elite, he just look like he have the 'abilities' to be elite.


The Klitschkos era simply filled the B Level fighters with International talent instead of American. But even if guys like .Ruslan.Sultan.Mormeck were all American.. they still won't be considered Elite.

[Tom Cruise]

Which goes into the NFL theory... hell even NBA.
You can make far more money faster doing those two sports than boxing.

See i dont deny that has some effect, but i would agree more if there was loads of pro NBA and NFL players who grew up boxing as well as doing the other sports and then chose against it. But there seems to be only a handful of examples of this.

I'd say a bigger reason that Lebron James doesnt box and plays Basketball is because he hasnt ever stepped foot in a boxing gym. The decision to follow the money comes later. Looking at why he hasnt stepped into a gym is the bigger question for me...

[Skittlez]

See i dont deny that has some effect, but i would agree more if there was loads of pro NBA and NFL players who grew up boxing as well as doing the other sports and then chose against it. But there seems to be only a handful of examples of this.

I'd say a bigger reason that Lebron James doesnt box and plays Basketball is because he hasnt ever stepped foot in a boxing gym. The decision to follow the money comes later. Looking at why he hasnt stepped into a gym is the bigger question for me...

The 60's 70's80's and 90's glorified the heavyweight division. It don't now.


Ten's of thousands of kids wanted to be Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. Muhammad Ali took it to a whole new level. Guys like Foreman was a house hold name...

In the first half of the 80's.. Holmes vs Cooney was like a super bowl event. Maybe even bigger.

Eddie Murphy was cracking jokes about Larry Holmes on his comedy show and EVERYONE got the jokes... this is just the casual audience.

Even in the 90's.. with PPV. The heavyweights were house hold names. Holyfield on Fresh Prince.. Bowe on the world tour. Lewis got a massive amount of publicity and he was the LEAST popular heavyweight.

In fact you can say in the EARLY 90'S as many people know about Lennox Lewis in America as they do now about the Klitschkos..

Remember the early 90's Lewis was still a up and comer....

[The Gambler1981]

Looking at people who started in football or basketball at a young age and focused their efforts on that, of course those guys would not make good boxers. They trained their life for another pursuit and boxing is not a simple sport to pick up it takes a ton of time to get the nuances even if a guy is a natural.


Those guys are all top notch athletes though, starting with better raw material leads to better end results. Goes for boxing just like anything else~

[Tom Cruise]

The 60's 70's80's and 90's glorified the heavyweight division. It don't now.


Ten's of thousands of kids wanted to be Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. Muhammad Ali took it to a whole new level. Guys like Foreman was a house hold name...

In the first half of the 80's.. Holmes vs Cooney was like a super bowl event. Maybe even bigger.

Eddie Murphy was cracking jokes about Larry Holmes on his comedy show and EVERYONE got the jokes... this is just the casual audience.

Even in the 90's.. with PPV. The heavyweights were house hold names. Holyfield on Fresh Prince.. Bowe on the world tour. Lewis got a massive amount of publicity and he was the LEAST popular heavyweight.

In fact you can say in the EARLY 90'S as many people know about Lennox Lewis in America as they do now about the Klitschkos..

Remember the early 90's Lewis was still a up and comer....

So a lot of athletes today grew up in a time when boxers were household names, why didnt that translate into them wanting to be the next Tyson, the next Holyfield, or the next Lewis?

[Hougigo]

See i dont deny that has some effect, but i would agree more if there was loads of pro NBA and NFL players who grew up boxing as well as doing the other sports and then chose against it. But there seems to be only a handful of examples of this.

I'd say a bigger reason that Lebron James doesnt box and plays Basketball is because he hasnt ever stepped foot in a boxing gym. The decision to follow the money comes later. Looking at why he hasnt stepped into a gym is the bigger question for me...

Not a lot of them step into a boxing gym at a young age unless someone associated with them brings them or influences them into going.
Before kids are 10 here, they're already into basketball, playing in community centers and intramural teams if their schools have one. By middle school they're already playing for their school.
I wouldn't say the decision for money comes later because a lot of people's reasons for going pro is to get out of their bad neighborhood and bring their family with them.... basketball and football is a lot faster than boxing

[Cutthroat]

So a lot of athletes today grew up in a time when boxers were household names, why didnt that translate into them wanting to be the next Tyson, the next Holyfield, or the next Lewis?

Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Mercer, Bowe etc. were born in the 60's and grew up in the 70's when boxing was still very popular. When in 1975 the average salary for both sports was just $50,000. Basketball and football exploded in the 80's, especially basketball thanks to guys like Magic, Bird, and especially Jordan who is even more famous in America than Ali. By 1990 the average salary was around $1 mill for both sports.

Not only did these sports get much more popular professionaly but collegiately as well, leading all the way down to kids playing the sports in school like never before.

[Tom Cruise]

Not a lot of them step into a boxing gym at a young age unless someone associated with them brings them or influences them into going.
Before kids are 10 here, they're already into basketball, playing in community centers and intramural teams if their schools have one. By middle school they're already playing for their school.
I wouldn't say the decision for money comes later because a lot of people's reasons for going pro is to get out of their bad neighborhood and bring their family with them.... basketball and football is a lot faster than boxing

See although, like i say, i agree most of the things being brought up are fair points, this is the one which i think had the biggest effect.

The sheer lack of boxing boxing gyms in America means if a kid watches a fight now, tells his parents he wants to go to the gym to be the next Floyd Mayweather, where are they going to go? For me i think the people in boxing who are making millions off the sport, the promoters, the sanctioning organisations etc, need to put far more money into grassroots boxing. The Football Association in the England spreads millions of pounds around to train coaches and provide playing fields for football, each Premier League club spends millions of pounds scouting naturally gifted youngsters before they are even 10, then provides them with state of the art academies to train in. All this and Britains scouting and youth development system is no where near the level of places like Spain or Germany.

As far as i can gather similar things happen with NFL NBA, except they use the school system to scout for them.

This should be no different for boxing. Instead of Bob Arum and GBP sitting and waiting for talent to drop into their hands maybe they should be looking at investing in the future, scouting and developing talent. It also brings up another factor which we are all familiar with which is the lack of a single sanctioning body in boxing which could act in the same way the FA does for football in this country.