Stats that prove the direct link of the NFL to Heavyweight Boxing.

[Larry the boss]

Just because you are big does not mean you can fight or even have the talent to be a great fighter..this is stupid..the heavyweight division sucks in America becaue they are fat lazy and are not dedicated to their craft..most are at heavy because they are to damn lazy to train right and could be at cruiserweight

[Larry the boss]

aka "oooh look at all those stong black dudes they must be able to fight". if only we could have access to more black dudes and boxing would be back on the map.lmao. stop it son, sad new man more boxers have regular jobs than are in the nfl. numbers game. deal with it.

this logic people wouldnt consider jj watt as legit even if he did make it to be a boxer.

Great way to bring up race for no reason

[Ray Corso]

A young man with sport abilities with a family intact is more likely to go for a "full ride" agreement with a university with aspirations of a pro career following the amateur stint.
Young men enter boxing to escape misfortune and hard times, they want to prove themselves by themselves and usually have a social dilemma or two that needs to be corrected by discipline and very hard work.

The so-called American boxers remember are from all cultures the Germans, Italians, Irish, Jews, Africans are replaced by Serbians, Russians and Cubans who are now the "new" refugees in America.
The sport itself has taken a tremendous social hit because of the violence.
Sports like Football (NFL) are under fire because of retired players showing brain injuries at a relatively young age.
There really aren't brutal fighters developed anymore, most are decedents
from the 70 & 80s amateur style and form. No infighting and very little power punching is seen now. Yet family and friends are not encouraging youth to participate.
There is always a need for boxing gyms in the inner cities but theres much fewer interest in all the dedicated hard work needed to ascend the ladder
where financial success can be attained.
Boxing is very much a "life style" your not a boxer for 10 hours a day or 5 days a week its 24/7 or you don't make it!!!

Funny why the little people from little countries try to put America down but when their in crisis with another country they sure are happy there is an America! Remember Russia and "all of Europe" could be the Eastern USA if we decided not to give it back to you and help rebuild it too!!!!
Then theres the "Far Far East of USA that remains known as Japan!

The Toughest Kickass Country in the World!!

I've traveled to every continent in the world with Australia being the exception. I enjoyed everywhere I went and the people I met were outstanding.
However theres no place like my home the USA!

Ray Corso

[YOU WILL LOSE]

Great way to bring up race for no reason

it's implied. how come he's not saying man we sure are losing a lot of boxers to customer service jobs. u know why

[Larry the boss]

it's implied. how come he's not saying man we sure are losing a lot of boxers to customer service jobs. u know why

wtf does that mean??? a lot of black men work customer service..hell i did for 15 years

[1g5a22]

You cant but a HW champion you ****ing idiot....

[Wuckoo]

Just because you are big does not mean you can fight or even have the talent to be a great fighter..this is stupid..the heavyweight division sucks in America becaue they are fat lazy and are not dedicated to their craft..most are at heavy because they are to damn lazy to train right and could be at cruiserweight

Exactly. There are lots of American heavyweights who don't make it because they aren't able to trim down to their ideal weight like heavyweights of the past did. There is also a decline in the technical side of boxing. A lot of heavyweights seem more obsessed with power when really any heavyweight can hit hard with the right technique. That's why Tony Thompson has done pretty well for himself. He is more technical than most.

But I would say that this is the case for heavyweights all over the world too. Here in the UK it's a little more technical but very few seem to trim down to an ideal weight. Some would actually make good cruiser weights if they bothered to make the weight.

In America I think you could make a case for nfl and basketball causing a decline in boxing as a whole, not just for heavyweights. As a kid in America you are more likely to take part in basketball or football than boxing. There are scholarships associated with those sports and on the whole it is perceived to be safer (even though football has way more injuries than boxing). And you're likely to earn more money than you would from boxing, where only the champs earn big money.

However to a small extent it is used as a bit of a cop out to explain the decline in american heavyweights. Eastern Europeans weren't pro in the 80s and the 90s and have certainly become a strong force in boxing similar to how the Italians and Irish did in the early 20th century. Look at it this way. If you have the skill and dedication you can work your way up. There's definitely a decline in interest in boxing in the us in terms of participants but it doesn't change the fact that some American heavyweights just haven't progressed well enough to be well known.

[-Kev-]

I don't know why this is even an argument. If you know the history of boxing in the United States, you would know that what happened was that people started actually having more equality and more options. Boxing was built by immigrants and Black people in the U.S. Because they didn't have much of a choice. Blacks were treated unfairly and they were unwanted in sports like Baseball, etc. because of racism until Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers.

What happened today is a good thing. Sure HW Boxing in America is dead, but that's because African American's now have a choice. They don't have to beat eachother's heads in for the entertainment of the white man. That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The key phrase is that people have a choice now. Live with it. If the next Evander Holyfield prefers to make millions in the NBA as a point guard, with a great pension plan, then let him be.

I admit the only reason I ever boxed was because I grew up in poverty and hung in the streets too much. Boxing is a poor man's sport. A sport for dirt poor kids like Manny Pacquiao and Lamont Peterson.

[glenn mcrory]

Well it's really ****ing simple.

An athlete can only dedicate his life to one sport. You can't fight for titles on weekdays, play in the NFL on weekends and play in the NBA on wednesdays.

There is only a limited pool of extraordinary level athletic talent, and boxing is not the number 1 sport in America, so many of the best american athletes don't go into boxing, they dedicate themselves to other sports.

If you can't grasp your head around that concept then the bottom line is you're a ****ing moron.

Yep because that's the end-all be-all for boxing. Ooo, look at those muscles, he can move really quickly for about 5 seconds... Poor man's sport is just an excuse, Marquez and Barrera we're well off, so why did they fight? Some people just have the fight in them, some don't. Seth Mitchell, that's your average football player in a ring. Likes to hit stuff until he gets hit back. Fake tough guys. Oooh, he's big and has muscles...If that's all it took, Mariusz Pudzianowski would be the greatest fighter on Earth for all time, but he's not, not even close.