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got a good point, all the real athletes are elswhere,i can imagine young sportsmen if they chose boxing as thier sport could be anothe great american heavyweight but decide that they can do it easier in football.
and im sure most great boxers,regardless of race are extremely poor inner city people thats why they train so hard and get so good because boxing is an escape from trouble and a platform to live safely and happily and make something of thier lives.Comment
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im a white american and i think your a dumbass...probably mad that white people are dominating HW boxing
let me reverse the question on you....did you lose interest in boxing because you would rather play other sports, like you say? or did you lose interest in boxing because you kept getting your ass kicked by white people and now use that as an excuse?Comment
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you're too hooked on size. how many atg super heavies have we seen? lennox, that's it. wlad is borderline and if he carries on in his current fashion he'll probably end up a consensus atg, vitali probably doesn't have time on his side to reach those heights. rid**** probably falls just short.
then you're into the contenders, paper champs, valuev, tony tucker, bonecrusher smith and doofy champs canera and willard.
the problem with the division is a blatant lack of skill. contenders aren't fighting enough and when they do they're more busy padding their records rather than fighting similarly ranked contenders.Last edited by ThePlugInBabies; 04-27-2010, 12:03 PM.Comment
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The difference is that other countries never dominated the heavyweight division and hence no one is asking what happened to the great heavyweights from country x. This excuse wouldn't quite work the same for, say, soccer, since we've never actually proven to be great in this sport. Since there has been a decline in heavyweight talent in the US people are curious as to why this is and hence the reason people are voicing their opinion. So when someone points out that there has been a declining interest in boxing because more of the bigger athletes are being directed into other sports such as basketball and football, it's a perfectly legitimate explanation. Personally I would say this is part of it along with stronger international competition. Even in basketball which has remained strong in the US, foreign countries are catching up to an extent though we still clearly have the best talent.Comment
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Although the original post may not have been worded in the correct manner their are some truths in it albeit not just specific to poverty stricken black american heavy weights! I do agree that boxing is or certainly was a working class/poorer individuals sport and the major world sporting personality was the heavyweight champion in times gone by. But you can't attribute just one reason for the decline in heavyweights because its boxing as a whole that is suffering and there are a billion reasons that it's now no longer considered a mainstream sport (which is why there are less american heavyweights)
I'll list some major reasons boxing will struggle to even be recognised as mainstream going forward.
1. Education - Why chose to become a professional boxer given the increased awareness of potential health implications. Certainly here inthe UK boxing is not even mentioned when it comes to physical education in schools.
2. Money - It's common knowledge that only the elite boxers earn what would be considered just reasonable earnings in comparison to the mainstream sports stars. A absolutely ****e "soccer" player in Scotland can expect to make 100k a year and have a 10-15 year career.
3. Lack of big fights - obvious mega fights so regularly fail to happen and are so few and far between, even when the public want it to happen bad. Compare this to other sports and of course in recent years the obvious comparison being MMA.
4. Lack of a governing body - The only pro sport in the world without any form of central control. Even lawn bowls got that **** together. A complete free-for-all for leeches sorry I mean promoters(not all of course) and clingers on that so often drain the sports limited resourses.
5. The lack of accessable coverage on mainstrean TV and in the media in general. The younger generation just don't have the opertunity to even see boxing here in the UK. - This is a huge one when going forward for boxing because I'd bet at least 70% of sports that people participate or are a fan of in are sports that they played or watched when they were younger, often influenced by your father/mother. There is no coverage whatsoever on non satalite or PPV TV here in the UK, thus rulling out the majority of the population and in paricular the poorer families(going back to the orignal post) On the otherhand there is football on TV nearly everyday, motorsports all weekends, tennis when it's that time of year, cricket in the summer, track and field events regularly even coverage of the Superbowl on mainstream TV but no ****in boxing. How the **** are people going to have the chance tto like the sport if they can't bloody see it (sorry pisses me off)
6. Lack of accessable facilities - It takes a football(soccer), a couple of t-shirts and a patch of grass or concrete to even have a kick about when your a kid and remembering there is no TV coverage how the hell is some kid going to go up to his father and say 'I fancy trying boxing, fancy taking me to the gym 10 miles away' Doesn't happen and thats why so many boxers come from "boxing families". You could argue that other sports require huge resourses like (American) football but the youth leagues and High School football is well established and well funded.
The most intersting thing is when the sport is covered well and there is a public friendly boxing hero the interest in the sport soars. (Hatton, Khan at the olympics, **** that inspired the last mainstream coverage of the sport when they(mainstream TV producers) were able to buy his early pro fights cheap enough. There has been Haye of recent (that is down to that old heavyweight champ of the world thing and the fact he's entertaining to his credit. So despite the barriers that exist we do have a mini revival in recent years but for the long term sustainability of the sport certainly in the UK something has to change.
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