Does being physically fit give European heavyweights an advantage over Americans?

[werewolf]

Of course being fit gives one an advantage in an athletic contest.

[dans]

By smaller divisions, I'm also referring to the weight divisions up to 175, where the fighters are too small for pro basketball and pro football.

Americans used to dominate 154 to 175, although never the very small divisions like flyweight and bantamweight. But there are fewer and fewer American titleholders in those weight divisions, as the titles are now held by Sturm, Abraham, Dzinziruk, Kessler, Bute, Balszay, Froch, Erdei, Garay, Diaconu, ect.

They still do well in the middleweights. America has the middleweight champion, the LMW chamion, and the #1 LHW, that's 3 out of four. All those paper champions listed above doesn't prove anything. Abraham, Dzinziruk, Kessler, and Froch are the only legit title holders.

[Left Hook Tua]

Why would Europeans want to be a heavyweight, for the same reasons?

The "they're playing basketball and football" is just an excuse. Those other sports were around back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It requires a different kind of athleticism to be an elite boxer than a basketball or football player.

Americans have fewer champions at the smaller weight divisions too - those guys are too small for pro football and basketball, so that excuse can't be used.

Look at the results of last year's Olympics: the US won ONE medal in boxing, a bronze at heavyweight. And the top fighter overall in the Olympics was a Ukrainian featherweight, Vasyl Lomachenko.

there's not that many gyms around anymore.

the ams also ain't what it use to.

it's no coincidence that some of the best american fighters kinda grew up into it like floyd , roy , shane , oscar , etc.

kids just don't grow up wanting to be boxers. just like kids in europe grow up wanting to be football (soccer) players.

[Left Hook Tua]

Sorry I guess I missed all the Ukrainians at the all star weekend. They don't play basketball, football, and baseball like we do. Those are OUR sports, therefore our best athletes are there.

baseball is suffering the same thing boxing is.

kids are playing it less and less.

basketball and football are so easy to play compared to other sports.

get a basketball and go to a court or football and go to the park that's it.

[Left Hook Tua]

Again, there are many fighters and athletes in general that don't look shreded but are in phenomenal shape, it's genetics.

I'm not saying that Toney isn't lazy because I mentioned he's the exception but a guy like Arreola could be in better shape but he will never look like a Holyfield or Vlad because of his genetics.

i feel you.

huge muscles and being ripped are not really needed in boxing.

but there's a difference between being in shape and just not cut or ripped and just being flabby.

take fat tua for example.

in his 225 lb. days he wasn't ripped. he was thick and maybe a little baby fat but you can tell he was in shape.

big difference between that tua and the 250 lb. porkchop later on.

yes tua's not the kind of guy that'll get ripped but you can still tell the difference between in shape and not so in shape.

[dans]

By smaller divisions, I'm also referring to the weight divisions up to 175, where the fighters are too small for pro basketball and pro football.

Americans used to dominate 154 to 175, although never the very small divisions like flyweight and bantamweight. But there are fewer and fewer American titleholders in those weight divisions, as the titles are now held by Sturm, Abraham, Dzinziruk, Kessler, Bute, Balszay, Froch, Erdei, Garay, Diaconu, ect.

I actually did a little research for you on 154-175. I looked up the Boxrec rankings. Not those silly alphabet soup titles.

At 154 - America has 5 out of the top 10. Europe has 1.
At 160 - America is weak. Only 1 out of the top ten. The one happens to be the undisputed middleweight champion. Europe has 7.
At 168 - America has 3 out of 10. Europe has 5.
At 175 - America has 4. Europe has 3.

Europe population - 730 million
USA population - 300 million

So honestly I don't know what you're talking about. America is still strong in the middle weights.

[dans]

baseball is suffering the same thing boxing is.

kids are playing it less and less.

basketball and football are so easy to play compared to other sports.

get a basketball and go to a court or football and go to the park that's it.

I agree, it's why youth soccer is so big in America. All you need is some cleats and shin guards.

[Ben_London.]

I actually did a little research for you on 154-175. I looked up the Boxrec rankings. Not those silly alphabet soup titles.

At 154 - America has 5 out of the top 10. Europe has 1.
At 160 - America is weak. Only 1 out of the top ten. The one happens to be the undisputed middleweight champion. Europe has 7.
At 168 - America has 3 out of 10. Europe has 5.
At 175 - America has 4. Europe has 3.

Europe population - 730 million
USA population - 300 million

So honestly I don't know what you're talking about. America is still strong in the middle weights.

Most people don't take those BoxRec ratings as seriously as you do.

Why is Bob Arum afraid to put Pavlik in with Abraham?

[Ben_London.]

Of course being fit gives one an advantage in an athletic contest.

Seems obvious to me too.

[BattlingNelson]

I actually did a little research for you on 154-175. I looked up the Boxrec rankings. Not those silly alphabet soup titles.

At 154 - America has 5 out of the top 10. Europe has 1.
At 160 - America is weak. Only 1 out of the top ten. The one happens to be the undisputed middleweight champion. Europe has 7.
At 168 - America has 3 out of 10. Europe has 5.
At 175 - America has 4. Europe has 3.

Europe population - 730 million
USA population - 300 million

So honestly I don't know what you're talking about. America is still strong in the middle weights.

Nice research. But you need the compare those rankings to similar rankings 10, 20 or 30 years ago. At that time America was dominating I would think.

Still I'm surprised at how low Europe actually scored. did you remember to count Britain with Europe and how did you score US-based foreigners?