The Great Black Hope

[WLAD OWNS]

Chazz Witherspoon is the future of the heavyweight division.

Please tell me you're kidding...Witherspoon is a bum and he will never amount to anything in the heavyweight division. I saw him on Friday Night Fights and I was unimpressed, he is ****.

[Tobi.G]

who is Juan Carlos Gomez.

A verry skilled fighter and an underarchiever.

[Darkstar]

Boxing hasnt been mainstream for a long time. I dont think boxing is any less popular now than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

[Banderivets]

I dont live in Ukraine, so Im not going to pretend my voice is fact or anything, but Im going to assume that your boxing is more a part of your culture than in the US. Im only assuming that because Vitali is supposedly very popular in Ukraine. He even ran for Mayor of Kiev, even if he lost. Also I remember the Klitschko brothers doing a commercial for a candy bar or something, but that may have been a German commercial, I cant remember positively.
But one thing is for sure, right now in the US, you never see boxers in commercials, no boxer is universally well known through the country, and as far as I know there have been no attempts whatsoever that a boxer had the public support to think he could be elected to a major political position.

And even if yall dont have a ton of boxing gyms, a lot of the time Eastern Europeans go over to Germany and other areas that have a lot of gyms.

and boxing in the US is more or less discouraged, for the reasons I dont feel like rewriting but are in my last post in this topic.

but a lot of this is guesswork, so correct me if I'm wrong.

THe argument here is that the guys who do make it to Germany are already decent enough to make a career out of boxing, its not your average kids who fly to Germany just cause they want to box.

But on amature, young kids level boxing is no bigger then it is say here in Toronto, where there are quite a few gyms.

Sure Klitschko was in some beer commercials, but to be honest, he is the only boxer to do that. I travel to Ukraine on regular basis, your average ukrainian does not know who Dimitrenko and Virchis are. They are known, on a local level, like everyone knows Pavlic in Youngstown. Newspapers dont cover their fights...Ukraine is fortunate enough to have many atheletes that compete on a world level, and the latest Tennis news overshadow any boxing activity. Formula 1 gets 5x the coverage boxing does.

Right now basketball is more popular, its so popular that we have Americans playing on our teams. BC Kyiv has 3 African-Americans starting lol (its a basketball team) Rugby is getting some mention too (big guys are more interested in that now).

I'm not arguing that your average american kid will not lean more towards football than boxing, afterall all the big stars today are in football.

But the situation is not that much different in Ukraine. There are at least 4 other sports to consider, with much higher success rate before boxing there aswel.

Everyone knows Wlad and Vitali in Ukraine like everyone knows Oscar in USA.

Is boxing more popular in Ukraine than US? Ill admit it is, but no where near the level that the western press thinks it is.

There are higher chances of big men playing hockey in Ukraine than boxing, and man, hockey really is not popular.

[Steak]

THe argument here is that the guys who do make it to Germany are already decent enough to make a career out of boxing, its not your average kids who fly to Germany just cause they want to box.

But on amature, young kids level boxing is no bigger then it is say here in Toronto, where there are quite a few gyms.

Sure Klitschko was in some beer commercials, but to be honest, he is the only boxer to do that. I travel to Ukraine on regular basis, your average ukrainian does not know who Dimitrenko and Virchis are. They are known, on a local level, like everyone knows Pavlic in Youngstown. Newspapers dont cover their fights...Ukraine is fortunate enough to have many atheletes that compete on a world level, and the latest Tennis news overshadow any boxing activity. Formula 1 gets 5x the coverage boxing does.

Right now basketball is more popular, its so popular that we have Americans playing on our teams. BC Kyiv has 3 African-Americans starting lol (its a basketball team) Rugby is getting some mention too (big guys are more interested in that now).

I'm not arguing that your average american kid will lean towards football now more than boxing, afterall all the big stars today are in football.

But the situation is not that much different in Ukraine. There are at least 4 other sports to consider, with much higher success rate before boxing there aswel.

Everyone knows Wlad and Vitali in Ukraine like everyone knows Oscar in USA.

Is boxing more popular in Ukraine than US? Ill admit it is, but no where near the level that the western press thinks it is.

There are higher chances of big men playing hockey in Ukraine than boxing, and man, hockey really is not popular.

fair enough. everything sounds reasonable there.

it really is next to impossible to get into boxing in the US though. Ive tried to get started at a few gyms, but I have no idea where to even start even if I look it up, and the gyms are always extremely spread apart and offer ridiculous prices for you to train there. way too expensive.
boxing used to be a 'poor persons' type of sport, at least in the US. its kind of irritating that the only people that can really afford to go into boxing are people that have no reason to go into boxing.

[Derranged]

Danny Williams.

[Banderivets]

My take is that the HW Division has simply changed.

It's a VERY big mans sport now, its not about "guts and glory" blah blah blah. Its more professional now, very straight forward, guys jabbing and going to work.

No more rumble in the jungle, emotions all over the place, Ali like trash talk, who can take the biggest punch...no more Cinderella Man stories.

THe sport simply changed.

Its robotic and thought out. People say "division is terrible", well its just not what it used to be. The "characters" are gone, its guys in suits now.

[bdevils]

Typical response from an American regarding the heavyweight division, the heavyweight division is fine, we have a big unification bout coming up between Wlad and Sultan...the fight will live up to expectations and Wlad will produce another exciting KO/TKO.

Other than Wlad (which i'm a big fan of) the HW division is terrible. Your kidding yourself to think otherwise.

[Banderivets]

fair enough. everything sounds reasonable there.

it really is next to impossible to get into boxing in the US though. Ive tried to get started at a few gyms, but I have no idea where to even start even if I look it up, and the gyms are always extremely spread apart and offer ridiculous prices for you to train there. way too expensive.
boxing used to be a 'poor persons' type of sport, at least in the US. its kind of irritating that the only people that can really afford to go into boxing are people that have no reason to go into boxing.

I hear you man, and that sucks BTW its tough to join gyms in Ukraine too. Best way is to join in the military, and thats the only way for the "poor" to get involved.

Becaues boxing gym fees are through the roof there See in the Soviet union athletes were drafted into special schools, so there were no dedicated boxing gyms.

Every single boxing gym in ukraine is modern because of that, and man the prices are too much.

[Brother Blues]

Excuses,Excuses,Excuses....SHUT THE **** UP

I am sick of hearing Americans use the football excuse, football has been around for a long time so stop with that bull**** excuse. Don't even get me started on basketball players, those guys are punk ass ******* and they can't fight for ****.

Eastern Europeans will be dominating for a very long time, get used to it.

Exactly what does that do for you,Wlad Blows?...

More jocks to sniff???

And yes,I wish there were some quality American heavyweights...but since there isn't,it will not change the quality of my life one iota.