No focused american heavyweights

[Steelhammer2011]

That's a weak excuse.

We had football and basketball back in the 60s 70s 80s and 90s.

Of the 150,000,000 men in the USA there are at least 10,000,000 big young men. Only a tiny fraction of those 10 million are in the NFL and NBA.

The real reasons:

1. The high-sodium fast food in the USA is ruining athletes bodies and reducing their stamina. Years ago men had nutritious meals prepared by their mothers and wives.

2. Most people are unwilling to do what they need to stay as fit as the great boxers of the past. I've read Muhammed Ali worked exceptionally hard and he kept himself in top shape 12 months of the year, like the Klitschkos do.

3. East Europeans especially the Klitschkos are strong, intelligent fighters who are more suited to the pros than amateurs.

Excellent post.

[RimmyDelicious]

Perhaps if there were no Iron Curtain from the mid 40's until nearly 1990, there would have been Eastern Europeans dominating the heavyweights much sooner. Of course, had that happened, people would have said that Tyson, Holyfield, Holmes, Ali etc. were nothing but bums, and the best athletes then were playing football, basketball and baseball.

[RimmyDelicious]

Sometimes American fight fans embarrass me with their ignorance toward other countries. It's as if they are under the impression that only America has other sports besides boxing.

[Steak]

Perhaps if there were no Iron Curtain from the mid 40's until nearly 1990, there would have been Eastern Europeans dominating the heavyweights much sooner. Of course, had that happened, people would have said that Tyson, Holyfield, Holmes, Ali etc. were nothing but bums, and the best athletes then were playing football, basketball and baseball.

sigh, this^^ card people play is irritating. The Soviets were prevented from turning pro...but they werent prevented from fighting in the amateurs/Olympics in particular.

If you didnt know, George Foreman, when he was like 19 years old, knocked out the best Russian HW in the world, Ionas Chepulis, in the Finals. Likewise a young Joe Frazier was the gold medalist in 1964 at HW(meaning he was better than the best Soviet HW at that time), and Pete Rademacher KOed the best Soviet boxer Lev Mukhin(Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR) by KO in the first round in 1956, Tyrell Biggs winning gold in 1984, Rid**** Bowe beating Soviet Aleksandr Miroshnichenko in 1988, etc.

I think there would have been a few Soviets in the HW division worth of note, but a lot of their best guys were beaten by young version of the 70s HWs.

[BrooklynBomber]

sigh, this^^ card people play is irritating. The Soviets were prevented from turning pro...but they werent prevented from fighting in the amateurs/Olympics in particular.

If you didnt know, George Foreman, when he was like 19 years old, knocked out the best Russian HW in the world, Ionas Chepulis, in the Finals. Likewise a young Joe Frazier was the gold medalist in 1964 at HW(meaning he was better than the best Soviet HW at that time), and Pete Rademacher KOed the best Soviet boxer Lev Mukhin(Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR) by KO in the first round in 1956, Tyrell Biggs winning gold in 1984, Rid**** Bowe beating Soviet Aleksandr Miroshnichenko in 1988, etc.

I think there would have been a few Soviets in the HW division worth of note, but a lot of their best guys were beaten by young version of the 70s HWs.

I think it's a pretty weak argument. Boxing was never the most important of the sports in Soviet Union, I would say the people who were not smart enough or good enough in other sports like hockey, basketball, gymnastics, etc. went into boxing. If there was a professional boxing in USSR, we would see plenty of very good athletes as it would have much more interest.

[RimmyDelicious]

sigh, this^^ card people play is irritating. The Soviets were prevented from turning pro...but they werent prevented from fighting in the amateurs/Olympics in particular.

If you didnt know, George Foreman, when he was like 19 years old, knocked out the best Russian HW in the world, Ionas Chepulis, in the Finals. Likewise a young Joe Frazier was the gold medalist in 1964 at HW(meaning he was better than the best Soviet HW at that time), and Pete Rademacher KOed the best Soviet boxer Lev Mukhin(Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR) by KO in the first round in 1956, Tyrell Biggs winning gold in 1984, Rid**** Bowe beating Soviet Aleksandr Miroshnichenko in 1988, etc.

I think there would have been a few Soviets in the HW division worth of note, but a lot of their best guys were beaten by young version of the 70s HWs.

Pshhhh....everyone knows the best Eastern European boxers were busy playing Hockey back then.

[Steelhammer2011]

sigh, this^^ card people play is irritating. The Soviets were prevented from turning pro...but they werent prevented from fighting in the amateurs/Olympics in particular.

If you didnt know, George Foreman, when he was like 19 years old, knocked out the best Russian HW in the world, Ionas Chepulis, in the Finals. Likewise a young Joe Frazier was the gold medalist in 1964 at HW(meaning he was better than the best Soviet HW at that time), and Pete Rademacher KOed the best Soviet boxer Lev Mukhin(Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR) by KO in the first round in 1956, Tyrell Biggs winning gold in 1984, Rid**** Bowe beating Soviet Aleksandr Miroshnichenko in 1988, etc.

I think there would have been a few Soviets in the HW division worth of note, but a lot of their best guys were beaten by young version of the 70s HWs.

The Soviets didn't have the money/funds to develop the amatuer system during the cold war. All of the big strong athletic Soviets were forced to go into the military.

Ali, Foreman, Frazier, etc weren't even real world champions because they never competed against the best Soviet athletes.

[Steak]

well what do you expect? if a country's #1 sport is boxing, then obviously theyll have a lot of champions.

In theory if every guy in India loved boxing and trained it since they were kids, there would be a huge amount of Indian champions.

These 'what if's and excuses are mind numbing. 'If the USSR focused more on boxing it would have been better in boxing', well no ****. that could be said of any country anywhere.

and I mean that for American HWs too. 'If HW size Americans werent in football/basketball and trained for boxing at an early age instead' isnt an excuse. Its just an explanation.

it just irritates me when people say stuff like 'if the Soviets could have turned pro they would have ruled the division like today'. thats baloney. the best Soviet HWs fighting at the time lost in the Olympics to guys like Frazier, Foreman, Biggs, Rademacher, and Bowe, and this is before they even turned pro.

[-GDS-]

well what do you expect? if a country's #1 sport is boxing, then obviously theyll have a lot of champions.

In theory if every guy in India loved boxing and trained it since they were kids, there would be a huge amount of Indian champions.

These 'what if's and excuses are mind numbing. 'If the USSR focused more on boxing it would have been better in boxing', well no ****. that could be said of any country anywhere.

and I mean that for American HWs too. 'If HW size Americans werent in football/basketball and trained for boxing at an early age instead' isnt an excuse. Its just an explanation.

it just irritates me when people say stuff like 'if the Soviets could have turned pro they would have ruled the division like today'. thats baloney. the best Soviet HWs fighting at the time lost in the Olympics to guys like Frazier, Foreman, Biggs, Rademacher, and Bowe, and this is before they even turned pro.

It's ok to point out how much American Heavies suck, but people get offended when you offer explanations for the obvious.

[RimmyDelicious]

It's ok to point out how much American Heavies suck, but people get offended when you offer explanations for the obvious.

Only America offers sports besides boxing. I can't believe that, I was under the impression that the rest of the world played all different kinds of sports too. Bizzare that only America's best potential boxers end up playing different sports.