ESPN article. Boxing lacks black superstars.

[ExecutiveOutlaw]

its not just black folk its americans period. look at boxing right now in terms of how popular it is. can you blame someone for wanting to play basketball/football instead and make 10+ millions more rather than gettin brain damage for chump change?

american boxing will remain the way it is untill it becomes as popular/lucrative as it was in the past

[Flawless.]

There is more money in NFL and the NBA. To become a top boxer is a lot harder than to make an NFL and NBA team with less chance of long term injury after boxing. Doesn’t matter if they black, white or purple as long they are American. But what we do need is a American boxing superstar to catch the worlds imagination.

[kayjay]

unbelievable

[LondonRingRules]

its not just black folk its americans period. look at boxing right now in terms of how popular it is. can you blame someone for wanting to play basketball/football instead and make 10+ millions more rather than gettin brain damage for chump change?

american boxing will remain the way it is untill it becomes as popular/lucrative as it was in the past

** Thank you, BUT..............

All this NFL/NBA stuff is just nonsense. All those guys would be in the heavy division. Vast majority of boxing is below heavy.

NFL is the most brutal sport in the world next to bull riding or skiing down Mt Everest. Baseball a much easier sport physically with much longer careers than basketball and football. But as previously noted, Americans slumping there as Caribbean and South American Latinos have taken over close to the majority of starting positions.

At any rate, MLB/NFL/NBA just a fractional per cent of the population of eligible males.

American culture has gone soft. Maybe guys who used be boxers to escape the farm or heavy industry have regular corporate jobs or own their own business. Their sports are rock climbing exotic places, triathalons. The underclass left behind is handicapped by the hiphop culture of posing rather than doing. Drug dealers have the bling and flash the cash, the ho's and of course computers and their games. Damned kiddie boxing games have ruined utube searchs for matches.

The few that might be interested that remain have modern short attention spans, so UFC/MMA is where they gravitate if they are interested in fistic/martial arts. Guys are built more like them, think more like them and get them stirred up to watch or participate.

Boxing's become a old folks' sport. Guys like Sugar, Merchant, Lampley, ect. Kids don't want to listen to grey haired gramps waxing on about old guy's stuff. Boxing gets an infusion of youth now and again, Ali, Leonard, Tyson, Oscar, now Manny, but it's still the Marquis of Queensbury.

Become a big star in boxing, and you do make your millions. Thing is, amateur boxing has killed pro boxing. No self respecting American wants to watch popcorn popping for 6 mins in fluffy headgear. The transition from amateur to pro is greater than ever. I consider american amateur boxing dead, and the international game a joke being held together by eastern Euros and Cubans.

My humble suggestion to counter thie old folks perception is to create the London Prize Ring Rules org to bring boxing back to it's spectator roots. It'd counter MMA/UFC and give some historical exotic cachet to a dying sport, especially if they wore the period tights and the face off was some old time posing in classic stances in a tiebreaker competition to prevent draws.

Except for the ground game and kicks which don't thrill MMA/UFC fans as much as the straight up fisticuffs, LPRR is very similar with chokes, throws, trips allowed. Of course newer techniques could be used in the actual fighting. More importantly, many of the boxers wouldn't always be able to cross over as it's a completely different fight, so maybe those who had no niche in modern boxing would find a spot in LPRR.

If nothing else, it'd at least attract some public press and it's better than circling the drain and doing nothing but getting dizzy.

[MJ406]

"All this NFL/NBA stuff is just nonsense. All those guys would be in the heavy division. Vast majority of boxing is below heavy."

How is it nonsense? If we are staying topic reliant, look how many African American's are currently in the NFL and NBA. and so what if it would just be the heavy division. It's still a good # of African Americans who play pro foot and basketball.

"NFL is the most brutal sport in the world next to bull riding or skiing down Mt Everest. Baseball a much easier sport physically with much longer careers than basketball and football. But as previously noted, Americans slumping there as Caribbean and South American Latinos have taken over close to the majority of starting positions."

NFL might very well be the most brutal, but still I'd have to say boxing is up there, as far as injury risk. And agreed there was an article I read about baseball a while back that said 60 or 70% of the League is either Dominican or going to be, which kinda says what everyone else is saying, that American Pro MLB players are shrinking.

"At any rate, MLB/NFL/NBA just a fractional per cent of the population of eligible males."

yeah it's a percentage, but still do you watch any of those sports you named? Majority of the big time players are African American such as Kobe, Chris Paul, Garnett, Iverson, Jeter, Carmelo, McNabb, LeBron, Wade, Moss, Chad Johnson, Owens

didn't name many baseball but still look more closely at the sports your talking about, sure it's only 3 sports, but if you look at the NFL and NBA that's still a lotta athletes to consider, African American or not ... each of those leagues respectively has probably close to 300 athletes in each one.

Boxing suffers IMO because of the perception of it, (how you said it's an old folks thing) and on top of it, I think it's a very hard sport to market who wants to be the next Muhammad Ali when you can be the next Michael Jordan and make 3x the money.

open ended question but how can HBO and Showtime expand there audiences to get boxing to back where it was "in the old days" such as the 1980's or so.

"the underclass left behind is handicapped by the hip hop culture of posing rather than doing. Drug dealers have the bling and flash the cash, the ho's and of course computers and their games. Damned kiddie boxing games have ruined youtube search for matches."

it's an image thing, your more likely to see a baseball, football, basketball even hockey star in a commercial before a Boxer. which relates to what you say about hip hop culture, drug dealing and ho's. Boxing isn't regarded as an "in" thing to do.

maybe your right about American culture being soft, but it's much easier and less painful to throw around a foot/baseball or shoot hoops then get punched in the face, but that's just me

"Become a big star in boxing, and you do make your millions. Thing is, amateur boxing has killed pro boxing."

yeah sure any big star in any sport would make millions, but it's more likely to be done in pro Basketball or football .. especially consider that some pro ballers can go pro right out of high school. No going through the amateur system, high school to pro.

and if successful (Garnett, Kobe, LeBron) a star at 19 or 20 years old. How many big time boxers were Star's at that young an age, granted I can can only think of 2 off the top of my head, but feel free to name more.

good stuff, very thought provoking

[kayjay]

This same argument works in reverse: if more whites, especially Eastern Europeans, played football and basketball, you could as well say they'd dominate that in addition to boxing. Oh yeah . . . . . . .


Let the best individuals win. Don't make up excuses as to why those are never black anymore.

[peewee1460]

me personally, I'd rather watch a roy jones or a ray leonard or a james toney, than klitchko or pavlik, they just have more style they're a more enjoyable boxing experience to behold than some stand up, turtle shell arthur abraham.

[ExecutiveOutlaw]

This same argument works in reverse: if more whites, especially Eastern Europeans, played football and basketball, you could as well say they'd dominate that in addition to boxing. Oh yeah . . . . . . .


Let the best individuals win. Don't make up excuses as to why those are never black anymore.

the same argument does not work in reverse cause eastern europeans have never dominated football and basketball in the first place

and lets not say the best individuals "are never black anymore". because last time i checked tiger woods and the williams sisters took a dump on two sports that were almost completely white. the nfl/nba are mostly black and the best pound for pound fighter right now is #1 cause a black man retired

[Flawless.]

Boxing is not lacking Black superstars, but we are lacking superstars.

[reptar]

the same argument does not work in reverse cause eastern europeans have never dominated football and basketball in the first place

and lets not say the best individuals "are never black anymore". because last time i checked tiger woods and the williams sisters took a dump on two sports that were almost completely white. the nfl/nba are mostly black and the best pound for pound fighter right now is #1 cause a black man retired

eurpeans will never dominate nfl or basketball because basketball is a girls game and nfl is rugby for *******.
As for blacks in boxing, who gives a **** what colour a boxer is. The British don't discriminate against a boxer because of his colour. America does not produce many great boxers any more considering it's size. Also it will not be long b4 the best American boxers are fighting in Britain more regulary as they will get the opportunity to fight in front of big enthusiastic crowds and earn big bucks