Great Britain vs USA the facts.

[hardmanbrit]

actually to be honest no kids want to be boxers in the usa everybody wants to be a basketbll player or a football player i know boxing is way more pop.
in britain than in usa

No way man.

The only thing 99% of male kids wants to be here in the UK is a football player, or a soccer player as the Americans call it.

That is it. It is like a religion here! haha

Even the really crap football teams like Manchester City get over 40 000 fans every game.

[FRKO]

Firstly I must state I am neither British nor American.

I see a lot of threads on this forum about how British boxing is a joke, has no real fighters etc. Rather than partake in the name calling, unverified general claims and insult slinging I've decided to study the list of current world champions and find out what nation is actually ahead in terms of championship belts.

Note: Many people have different opinions on the value of respective belts, but I am being subjective, I leave the discussion as to the worth of alphabet titles up to you.

Two things worth remembering.

Great Britain has a population of 57,100,000.

United States of America has a population of 303,833,000.


Current World Champions: USA

Heavyweight: none

Cruiserweight: Steve Cunningham IBF

Light Heavyweight: Chad Dawson WBC Antonio Tarver IBF Bernard Hopkins The Ring

Super Middle Weight: none

Middleweight: Kelly Pavlik WBC WBO The Ring

Junior Middleweight: Vernon Forrest WBC Verno Phillips IBF

Welterweight: Floyd Mayweather Jr. WBC The Ring

Junior Welterweight: Paul Malignaggi IBF

Lightweight: Nate Campbell WBA (interm) WBO IBF David Díaz WBC

Super featherweight: none

Featherweight: Robert Guerrero IBF Steven Luevano WBO

Super bantamweight: none

Bantamweight: none

Super flyweight: none

Flyweight: none

Light flyweight: none

Strawweight: none


Current World Champions Great Britain

Heavyweight: none

Cruiserweight: David Haye WBA WBO WBC The Ring

Light Heavyweight: none

Super Middle Weight: Joe Calzaghe WBA WBC WBO The Ring

Middleweight: none

Junior Middleweight:

Welterweight: none

Junior Welterweight: Junior Witter WBC Ricky Hatton The Ring

Lightweight:

Super featherweight: Alex Arthur WBO (interm)

Featherweight: none

Super bantamweight: none

Bantamweight: none

Super flyweight: none

Flyweight: none

Light flyweight: none

Strawweight: none

USA Fighters: 13 Titles: 17

Great Britain Fighters: 5 Titles: 11

USA are ahead by a clear margin in the amount of fighters who hold titles, which was to be expected given the difference in population.

USA also lead in the amount of titles held but by only 6 belts. Which is not a huge difference when population is considered.

Please point out any mistakes or oversights I may have made

England does pretty well, considering the country is about the size of Kansas.

[CraigM]

If think its about as equally popular in both countries, the main difference being is more people go to the event in the UK and in the USA its more about PPV buys.

But thats because we can get to most of the matches if needs be

[Naps]

Hopefully there will be more of this.

[squealpiggy]

It's not insignificant, but it's clear that you're doing anything possible to discredit Bernard Hopkins, which is a sad, sad thing, considering pretty much everyone in the world of boxing thinks the exact opposite. You should be ashamed. Weight is not the absolute deciding factor in a fight. Can you think of any examples of fighters out of their regular weight class winning a fight against someone in their regular weight class?

Of course I can, the history of boxing is littered with examples. But there is a reason why fighters who can win titles at several divisions above their best weight are lauded for such achievements and it's the same reason that explains why defeating a smaller fighter attempting to do just that is less of an achievement. The point isn't that sometimes small guys can beat bigger guys, the point is that they usually don't.

Even the really crap football teams like Manchester City get over 40 000 fans every game.

Steady on, son.

[hardmanbrit]

Of course I can, the history of boxing is littered with examples. But there is a reason why fighters who can win titles at several divisions above their best weight are lauded for such achievements and it's the same reason that explains why defeating a smaller fighter attempting to do just that is less of an achievement. The point isn't that sometimes small guys can beat bigger guys, the point is that they usually don't.



Steady on, son.

Sorry mate!

You have to admit it, though.

[Mizzou]

It is like comparing the city of Liverpool to London in terms of sporting achievements.

One has an extremely small land-mass and therefore a small population (900 000) and the other one is just huge, with millions and millions of people.

It is simply a ludicrous comparison.

Why not compare Great Britain with Spain, or the USA with China? That would at least be fair anyway.

Yeah China would whup us in Ping Pong.

[xfiles]

Please point out any mistakes or oversights I may have made

OK, This is a debate about history. The history of boxing and the history of the US British rivalries. It's not about current Champions. It's about the overall picture.

[Technical_Skill]

=
Secondly Kessler beats Tarver six days a week and twice on Sunday and a pre-Calzaghe Lacy would be pick 'em. Thirdly while there is noone on Calzaghe's resume as good as a prime Roy Jones you have to remember that Bernard LOST. You can't use a name to prove legendhood if the alleged "legend" lost the fight! Joe Bugner was a legend, why he fought Muhammad Ali!

Seriously now

Kessler is not more skilled than Antonio tarver. Tarver was the first man to beat roy jones jr properly, Kessler beat libero andrade, we are talking different leagues of skill here

Yeah the reason bernard lost was because Unlike calzaghe, he actually got in the ring with a legendary fighter. One of the uunderlying reasons calzaghe has the record he does is because one way or another he didnt make it into the ring with any prime legendary or great fighters of his era.

You dont think hopkins would be unbeaten if he defended his title against 20 evans ashira's?

[FRKO]

Seriously now

Kessler is not more skilled than Antonio tarver. Tarver was the first man to beat roy jones jr properly, Kessler beat libero andrade, we are talking different leagues of skill here

Yeah the reason bernard lost was because Unlike calzaghe, he actually got in the ring with a legendary fighter. One of the uunderlying reasons calzaghe has the record he does is because one way or another he didnt make it into the ring with any prime legendary or great fighters of his era.

You dont think hopkins would be unbeaten if he defended his title against 20 evans ashira's?

The thing is, Warren at least TRIED to make fights for Calzaghe with Hopkins and Jones, and neither of them wanted anything to do with him. The tables are now turned and Jones wants Calzaghe, but if I was Joe I'd tell him where to go. As we know, Hopkins dodged out of a fight with Joe already, way back in something like 2002. Instead, Hops decided to fight a couple of nobodies for LESS MONEY than he was offered to fight Joe.

It's not like Joe hasn't wanted to get in the ring with these dudes, it's just that they turned down the opportunity. Blame Hopkins and blame Jones, not Joe.