Is the heavyweight division in America dead?

[QueensburyRules]

Any more suggestions on how it can be revived?

- - Yeah, put some real XY genes in the ring and not these modern American GirlyBoys.

Sadly the Kbros emasculated American Heavies such that they can't draw flies in their own country these days. Maybe if they wore bras, that might tighten them up.

[HandsofIron]

Yup, Heavyweight division is dead and broken.

[11player]

Jared Anderson is the more promising.

There are quite a few prospects under the radar, so maybe someone steps up.

[al-Xander]

In light of recent developments, is Ruiz vs Wilder now possible just to put the heavyweight division back on the US boxing map?

Any way fans can make Wilder the top heavyweight guy in America become more active, instead of waiting for a retirement fight?

[al-Xander]

Jared Anderson is the more promising.

There are quite a few prospects under the radar, so maybe someone steps up.

Any potential for Jared Anderson bringing back the HW division on the American map?

[LA_2_Vegas]

There are only 1,504 rostered players in the NFL, 903 in the NHL, 750 in MLB and 450 in the NBA. Leaving it limited to those 4 sports, thats only 3,607 great athletes that those team sports are "stealing away" from the athlete/fighter talent pool.

With 8,061,550,000 living people, there's bound to be some left over who can fight better than they can play Football.

Moreover, if Marc Gastineau, Budda Paris, Too Tall Jones, Lyle Alzado, Ray Edwards, LaVeon Bell, Adam Braidwood, Tex Hamer, Mike Balogun, Alonzo Highsmith, Eddie Blake, Tony Faeth, Tom Zbikowski, Jack Torrance, Ray Richards, Earl Nolan, Al Nesser, Leif Larsen, Craig Wolfley and George Linberger are any indication of how those guys would do; boxing isn't missing a thing.

In Boxing, being a great athlete is vitally important, but being a great natural fighter matters 10 times more.

A soft, pasty scrapper beating the snots out of a perfect beach physique....if I had a nickel for every time I've seen it.
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Nice post and list - glad to see the bolded name included. . I thought Zbikowski was decent, had some promise if he continued (or chosen boxing instead of football). Definitely the best NFL player I've seen box, but I haven;t seen all the names on that list. I think he finished like 6-0 a CW and had Emanuel Steward in his corner for a couple of those fights if I remember right.

I think he had some amateur experience he built as he played football as a teenager. He fought during a lockout season in the middle of his football career, so he was still relatively young. He was a big hitter as a safety on some of the Ravens defenses led by Ray Lewis, he was legit in the NFL too. He might have had the mentality needed for boxing, but he never full pursued.

Overall, I also take the stance of your first two paragraphs, but I am sure we would be able to find some good fighters among these players. I tend to think we'd find more who are just working some odd job. they come from all walks.
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BTW you can add Greg Hardy to that list as well.

[tomhawq]

Any potential for Jared Anderson bringing back the HW division on the American map?

He's the only one I can think of, but Anderson has been repeatedly saying he's not in it for the long haul. Nobody knows how far he would go, but he's being slowed-tracked by Arum, who have no problem pitting him against established UK fighters. Warren and Arum are buddies.

The other one is Frank Sanchez, who is not even American. But all this guy's have been fighting are leftovers. Wilder is almost retired.

[jqSide]

The Saudi oil money killed the HW division in America.

[Messier 57]

Americans blame it on the better athletes being in other sports...

Like other countries don't have other sports or like the NFL didn't exist in the past.

Really all that happened is Americans dominated pretty much when Soviet fighters weren't in pro boxing. Well Lewis wasn't American but he dominated a bit before the first real wave of ex Soviets entered pro bro boxing, and they dominated after that for a while, until Fury come along and since it's been dominated by Brit's and Eastern europeans

Just like the cruiserweight division has been pretty much dominated by Eastern euros

Light heavyweight even more so.

The truth is the higher weight classes only made Americans look good because there was less competition

If that’s the case then why does all of Eastern Europe(293m population) only has 3 champs while America(333m) has 9? America has more champs and p4p fighters than all of Eastern Europe according to The Ring.

Slavs, Cossacks etc are simply tougher people than Americans. Especially in the heavier weight classes where real men fight, not so much small weight classes where they are all the size of teenage girls.

This doesn’t make sense. The average height in Russia and Ukraine 5.8ft/176cm. But hey I guess you needed an excuse as to why Eastern Europe isn’t really relevant below light heavyweight. Also different sports but America has dominated World Athletics Championships and Olympics for decades while Eastern Europe has mostly been a non factor. So reading that they’re “tougher” and “real men” is hilarious.

[WBC WBA IBF]

What exactly is the reason why Wilder vs Ruiz didn't materialize?

Deontay Wilder is #1 in the WBC and #1 in the WBA.

Jared Anderson is #2 in the WBO.

The Americans are well positioned for the future.