What boxing ATGs were footballers/basketballers?

[nomadman]

you have seen seven footers // giants in boxing before.

they've mostly been petuitary giants, but they have boxed and enjoyed moderate success.

I know. But none of them were ATGs or approaching ATG level. Carnera was probably the best of the bunch pre modern era and he wasn't an American.

the difference between past giants (of height, reach,) and the men in the NBA is the athletic quality

there have never been men so large with such athletic quality in boxing.

Well exactly.

So where does this argument that all the best American heavyweights are now in the NBA come from? It's all well and good to speculate on what ifs, but so far as I understand the general argument it's that back in the day, from the seventies back, most big athletic American men went into boxing and not basketball or football. Right? Well if that's the case then why did we never see the type of athlete who's now competing in these leagues back then, especially in the NBA? And what basis is there for believing that these guys would have been any good in boxing at all?

It just seems to me that many people here are trying to have their cake and eat it at the same time. Either heavyweight American boxing has become weaker now prior to the seventies as a result of the NBA and NFL, or these leagues are now starting to produce hitherto unheard of athletes who would have eclipsed Ali, Louis, Holmes et al were they competing back in the day. If it's the latter then that's an enormous speculation that really needs hard results to lend it credence.

that's your reason for the HW champions never being so large
there have never been men on this scale size wise in boxing who were premium athletes

the argument, again, is based entirely on the size
you know i respect all of your posts, and your opinions

i urge you to watch the NBA and get a close look at these guys
they are the prototypical boxing talents at HW

fleet, heavy boned guys with long frames that usually dont fill out until the late 20's

I'm perfectly willing to entertain the thought that there might be some potentially very good boxers lurking today in the NBA, just as there might be in any other sport or profession that requires strength, speed, endurance and manual dexterity. But like I said, it's all just speculation. Thus far the only evidence that this might have something more to it is Deontay Wilder, who's not exactly setting the heavyweight division on fire at the moment.

Besides why this constant obsession with athleticism anyway? How many boxing greats of any time were athletic specimens? Frazier? Duran? Locche? Pep? How many times do you hear of boxers having first taken up the gloves because they were small and puny and bullied at school? The last boxing great who got by on mostly athleticism was Roy Jones, and he was a sub six footer.

No boxer in history was ever built in a lab. Their successes can all generally be attributed to hard work, determination, and acquired skills, and the whims of fate that thrust them into a sport that most sane individuals would never think twice about getting into.

Maybe that'll change in the future. But it won't change in the past.

if i were to take my pick of the athletes in the NBA or the NFL to find my next HW champion i'd pick the NBA.
all you're missing is the garantee that they are tough as nails mentally (and more importantly physically,) as you'll find in football
if you dont have a good chin in the NFL you get concussed out of the league and quickly.

And if I were to pick my next champ of any weightclass outside of America I'd go for soccer, due to the sheer mass of numbers, physical diversity and popularity in third world countries that have historically produced great fighters. Those things are more important I think than the more obvious but ultimately surface skills of a top football player or the physical dimensions of a basketball player.

Because despite their general toughness, a hit in the NFL is very different from a punch straight on the jaw; it's more like a full body slam and dependent on physical mass to withstand. And the nature of the sport requires you to excel in a few key areas, depending on your position, with endurance not really one of the most important areas. That's one thing where innate potential plays a part, because great endurance, like great speed, is something that you either have or you don't. It can be improved of course, but the type of guys capable of running ninety minutes (with short bursts of sprinting and jumping) are not likely to be drawn to the League in the first place.

And as for NBA, again there really are no examples of American guys that height doing well in the past. There are at least examples of athletes from those other two sports having decent success.

looking at the posts we are making slightly different arguments

my stance is that anybody with enough experience around the NFL and NBA but with expertise in boxing agrees that the raw talent in the NBA and the NFL (and to lesser degrees the MLB and the NHL) is robbing the american talent pool at HW

Cool. But from the way some people are talking it seems like we'd enter not merely a golden age but by far the greatest heavyweight era there's ever been were these athletes to enter boxing, one which makes Ali's era look like bum of the month club twenty times over. Sorry, but I need more than just fancy stats and idle speculation to be convinced of that.

these sports have never been as popular as they have become in the last 25 years or so

with a focus on the last ten years, where they have SKYROCKETED in popularity, with a focus growing on the schoolastic level.\

in the past, you saw talented big american men heading into boxing
today you have chris arreola and eddie chambers at the top
and NO ONE ELSE

Are you saying that those big American men of the past would now be making millions in the NFL and NBA? This is what I thought we were talking about earlier but your comments above seem to contradict that. I apologise if I'm getting the wrong end of the stick, but so many people seem to be arguing about different things here.

For clarification let me ask you this question: if the best athletes from the NFL and NBA had gone into boxing as youths do you think we would now be looking at by far the greatest heavyweight era in history?

that is the argument
people wouldnt even think a 6'9" 250 HW who runs like a deer is real
guys like that dont box anymore. not from america anyway

I don't quite understand this. When did anyone approaching those dimensions ever box like that? If you're saying that athletes competing in big money sports now have more innate potential than the greats of the past then I suppose a case could be made for that, though again it would involve a hell of a lot of speculation and at least a degree of hard evidence to back it up.

but they are literally common in the NBA
they are a dime a dozen
there are 450 men in the NBA averaging 6'9"

it's no big leap to assume that these men would overhaul HW boxing if they all jumped into boxing as youth

sure, if every footballer (soccer) jumped into boxing the weight classes would improve ten fold
and there would be a few HW there too, and probably some top ten type guys or maybe even champions

if every NBA'er jumped to soccer you'd only have about 50 guys in the weight classes
the rest are all about of the klitschkos. at least. some of these guys would have ten inches of reach on the klitschkos.

who, whether we like to recognize it or not, they benefit most in the formation of their dominant styles from their size. and their athletic quality.
they are big men fighting big. big is an advantage and will continue to be an advantage.

I agree with you here, but as I said in another post it seems that the NBA has only become a factor now after the rise of the dominant foreign superheavyweight has shown that athletic big men can excel in the sport. Suddenly all the great potential heavyweights from the States are in the NBA, despite past greats barely topping the six foot three mark at the most. What if the Klitschkos were both short and fat and addicted to hotdogs? Would we be blaming MLB for the same thing?

[nomadman]

i know the argument sounds ethno//americo-centric

and in a way it is
but it makes sense to me, as a lifelong fan of the NFL and a supporter if not lifelong fan of the NBA.
the NBA and the NFL are the reason you dont see talented american men in boxing. that's not a point to be argued. it's common sense given the culture. these kids are recruited for scholarship(free schooling) by the time they are teenagers.

before these sports reached the level they've hit in the last two decades you saw talented american men in boxing.

the argument that can be made against it is about the assumption that these guys would be good boxers if they trained from youth. i cant prove that they can.
i can only prove that the men in the NFL and the NBA arent boxing and are exclusively the sort of talent that would benefit the american HW scene.
talented HW

I'd say there's plenty of meat for discussion there. I'd also say that there's without doubt a potential load of ATGs not fighting in boxing because they're doing something else, and that there's a high possibility than many of them could be competing in big money sports like the above. But I also don't see why this situation is unique to the US or why other countries couldn't equally claim the same thing were they so inclined.

That's my main objection to this argument. That it supposes that the US is a special case. It isn't.

hell, look at deontay wilder
he's the best prospect we've got at HW in the states.

i dont want to sound vein, brother, but guys like wilder are literally a dime a dozen in college basketball
nevermind the NBA.
he's too small for the NBA. he's not athletic enough. he wouldnt make it.

i am not exxaggerating. his size, athletic quality, the stuff that makes him a remarkable talent and a prospect, is common in the NBA

450 deontay wilders (give or take some talent, and a couple inches either way) wouldnt overhaul boxing if they started boxing as youth?

Sorry but until Wilder starts doing something more than boxing obese truck drivers in the name of experience then he's irrelevant to this discussion as far as I'm concerned. I'm not ruling him out for the future, but here in the present he's not accomplished anything in the pro ranks that deserves talking about.

you know i respect your opinion, lennox
and again, this place wouldnt be fun if we all agreed.

Cool. Likewise, brother.

[nomadman]

Not that I know of, BUT there is truth to the statement.
First off I am not saying take lebron or any one who is currently playing ball or football and throw them into the ring and they would be good, cause that's false.

Its this, and this is the TRUTH.....the culture in the states is alot different sports wise. Its about the Amature system. Big kids are not going to boxing, the culture is pushing them to football and basketball. Both sports have Amature systems that are far greater and more prodominate the boxing, that coupled with the fact that both sports are seen in the media and there stars are plasterd everywhere in TV and in print.
That and the avg PRO footballer and bball player makes alot more then the AVGERAGE boxer.

But where are the big athletic non-American kids going then? Boxing? You've gotta be kidding. Rugby? Some, but not nearly as many as you think. Tennis? See above. Soccer? You know, you might just be onto something there.

Unless you actually live outside the US it's hard to fathom the sheer popularity soccer has as a global sport. Here in the UK it dominates the sports pages of all the major tabloids almost every day. It dominates the sports channels. It dominates schools up and down the country. And we're far from the best in the world. In countries like Brazil and Argentina it approaches something akin to a religion. I'm not joking.

Nearly every kid who wants to be anything in sport gets into soccer at an early age. Some might drop off due to lack of talent, others might seek their calling in another sport, but look at the best players and you'll see they've invariably been playing the sport since they were fresh out of diapers.

And because of that fact you'll find soccer players of all shapes and sizes.

The UK, europeans will be dominating the heavyweights for quite some time. There will be a few Americans from time to time but I don't think it will ever be the same as it was pre 00's, unless something changes in the culture and amature system.

The UK's actually punching above its weight at the moment as far as heavyweights are concerned. But besides Haye, there are very few really big names in the sport. Mention the names Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora to an average Brit and they'll wonder who the fuk you're talking about.

I find that most times the people who question these facts are people outside north America. That's cause some Americans are bashing the euros.......but get over it, there are morons in all country's.
The klit bros and the other non Americans would still be good boxers, I think the kit bros would still be champions, there would just be alot more compition and they may have more loses.

Its true

That's funny, because I find most people who side with this argument tend to be firmly within the confines of the United States and operating under the mistaken belief that boxing is alive and well and tremendously popular everywhere else in the world.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on American sports because I'm not. But you need to get over thinking you're alone in having boxing as a second tier sport. Boxing gets the chaff, wherever you are. We need to appreciate what we've got and not lay the blame on popular sports that, whatever their effect on boxing's talent pool, aren't going to go away any time soon.

[The Future]

But where are the big athletic non-American kids going then? Boxing? You've gotta be kidding. Rugby? Some, but not nearly as many as you think. Tennis? See above. Soccer? You know, you might just be onto something there.

you should have read my whole response.......
im not saying non Americans are going to boxing, it is still second tier in every country in the world. what i am saying is that the Culture in the states is very very different then it used to be. the UK and European Amateur systems are are much more predominate in there country's then they are in the U.S. AND on top of that The U.S amateur systems in both Football and basketball are are insanely predominate in there culture along with the Success of the NBA and the NFL leagues and the predominance of their stars in commercials and print............The Big kids are just not go to boxing as much as they used to.

Unless you actually live outside the US it's hard to fathom the sheer popularity soccer has as a global sport. Here in the UK it dominates the sports pages of all the major tabloids almost every day. It dominates the sports channels. It dominates schools up and down the country. And we're far from the best in the world. In countries like Brazil and Argentina it approaches something akin to a religion. I'm not joking.

Nearly every kid who wants to be anything in sport gets into soccer at an early age. Some might drop off due to lack of talent, others might seek their calling in another sport, but look at the best players and you'll see they've invariably been playing the sport since they were fresh out of diapers.

And because of that fact you'll find soccer players of all shapes and sizes.

ok..........they do play Soccer in the U.S also hey.

Look i am Canadian. our culture is hockey hockey and hockey. Our amateur system is crazy, and that's why there are more Canadian hockey players in the NHL and on the top level.

The UK's actually punching above its weight at the moment as far as heavyweights are concerned. But besides Haye, there are very few really big names in the sport. Mention the names Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora to an average Brit and they'll wonder who the fuk you're talking about.

i would bet you if you asked 50 brits who tyson fury or derek Chisora is at least 5 would say yes. now go ask a American who Eddie Chambers or Tony Thompson is......ZERO would know who they are.

That's funny, because I find most people who side with this argument tend to be firmly within the confines of the United States and operating under the mistaken belief that boxing is alive and well and tremendously popular everywhere else in the world.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on American sports because I'm not. But you need to get over thinking you're alone in having boxing as a second tier sport. Boxing gets the chaff, wherever you are. We need to appreciate what we've got and not lay the blame on popular sports that, whatever their effect on boxing's talent pool, aren't going to go away any time soon.

Im Canadian......i realize boxing is not doing "Great" in other country's. But Heavyweight boxing is extremely dead in the U.S....besides the HW fight on the under-card of Khan-Peterson i really do not remember any HW fight in the states on HBO or Showtime in the last......damn.......of the top of my head last one was a Klitschko vs Sultan Ibragimov in NY in 2008.....thats along time.

the TS asked the question i answered, for those who dont believe this....well you dont believe it. But i deff believe its the truth. i wish is were not but it is.

[Joeyzagz]

That might explain their lack of good heavyweights. But how do you account for their general falling off elsewhere in the sport? Where do all their smaller fighters go? Equestrian racing?

There are two issues at work here:

1. NFL/NBA siphoning the athletic BIGS
2. General disinterest in boxing.

NFL/NBA has no effect on Floyd, Ward, Dawson, Bradley, Peterson because they are too darned small to be recruited in the first place. It has a DIRECT effect on the HWD because they are pulling from the same limited talent pool.

*Only 6% of males are 6'2 and taller.

*Of that 6% a small portion possess Athletic ability.

It is the job of major American Universities to find and recruit this small percentage of the population before they get involved in something else. The ones who slip through the cracks like Ross Puritty, go on to knock out Wladimir Klitschko.



Ross Puritty was a Defensive Tackle for the University of Texas El Paso. He started boxing at age 22, and beat the living sh.t out of WLad who had been doing it since age 12.

[Macks]

Misleading post since there are a combined 244 million people in those countries and 311 million in the United States which means we're sending an enormous amount of talent to much more popular sports.

On top of that, number doesn't dictate where the talent is at. See my Zbikowski post for confirmation.

this thread is basically a "blacks would dominate hw boxing without football"... but let me remind you that even in the nfl, which is predominantly black, blacks are not the strongest athletes.

the record for bench presses at the nfl combine is held by a samoan guy by the name of Stephen Paea.

1 Stephen Paea
2. mitch petrus
3. mike kudla
4. leif larsen

a samoan and 3 whiteboys.

russian and eastern european athletes are known for their immense explosive upper body strength. they dominate anything that has to do with lifting ON A WORLDWIDE SCALE. americans cant even compete with that region in strength.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[Macks]

strongest man in the nfl. wouldnt even qualify for the olympics in powerlifting.

[Macks]

Not sure really. Laziness is the easy answer, but there have always been lazy fighters though never so consistently overweight as these guys. It might be due to the situation of having two fighters who are so head and shoulders above the rest yet so willing to grant title shots that contenders no longer feel the need to challenge themselves or get into the sort of shape that would improve their chances to win. Just my pet theory though.

its simple. there is no motivation right now because all the american hw's are getting beatdown by european fighters.

america needs a solid hw thats winning relevant fights to make a comeback. until then, we will have to put up with these insecure ****wits trying to discredit the whole division.

[Someone88]

To guy talking about Wladimir's first loss what about Lewis getting koed by Rahman by one punch? Rahman was a late starter too Lewis had all that experience, but Lewis won the rematch and proved he is better Wladimir would have avenged his first two losses as well he got a chance to avenge his third loss. Lewis improved Wladimir improved too

[nomadman]

you should have read my whole response.......
im not saying non Americans are going to boxing, it is still second tier in every country in the world. what i am saying is that the Culture in the states is very very different then it used to be. the UK and European Amateur systems are are much more predominate in there country's then they are in the U.S. AND on top of that The U.S amateur systems in both Football and basketball are are insanely predominate in there culture along with the Success of the NBA and the NFL leagues and the predominance of their stars in commercials and print............The Big kids are just not go to boxing as much as they used to.

It's a matter of degrees. The American amateur system is a mess at the moment and this can acount for their relatively poor showings at the last two Olympics. The amateur system over here is better organized but as a sport boxing is still way way down the list of things for kids to go into. In fact I'd even argue that traditionally, as a sport, boxing has enjoyed less popularity over here than in the States. Even now there are way more professional boxers in the States than in the UK.

If you're arguing that the States has fallen off the lofty pedastal from where it once was then I totally agree with you. If you're arguing that the US is now inferior to those other countries vying for boxing dominance and this accounts for its lack of success then I'll have to take umbrage with that. We're on a more even keel now, if anything.

ok..........they do play Soccer in the U.S also hey.

I know. They play American Football and Basketball here in the UK too. But they aren't anywhere near as popular or prevalent in our culture. That's the point, isn't it?

Look i am Canadian. our culture is hockey hockey and hockey. Our amateur system is crazy, and that's why there are more Canadian hockey players in the NHL and on the top level.

And our culture is soccer, soccer, soccer and a bit more soccer for variation. Do you think we have crazy amateur systems for boxers in Europe, I mean on the scale you're talking about? Only in Cuba can I think of something even approaching that.

i would bet you if you asked 50 brits who tyson fury or derek Chisora is at least 5 would say yes. now go ask a American who Eddie Chambers or Tony Thompson is......ZERO would know who they are.

Fury, maybe some would, because he's a gobby shite who gets his (rather memorable) name out there. Chisora? No way. But if we're talking global name recognition then no Brit compares to Mayweather. And what about Pac? When a kid gets inspired to take up a sport they don't generally care about nationality or, in the case of boxing, weightclass. Growing up my favourite British boxer was Eubank, followed by Naz. My favourite international boxer was Tyson. I've spoken to boxers who were inspired by all sorts, not just fighters from their weightclass, obviously because when they're still kids they don't know what weightclass they'll eventually grow into as adults.

Im Canadian......i realize boxing is not doing "Great" in other country's. But Heavyweight boxing is extremely dead in the U.S....
besides the HW fight on the under-card of Khan-Peterson i really do not remember any HW fight in the states on HBO or Showtime in the last......damn.......of the top of my head last one was a Klitschko vs Sultan Ibragimov in NY in 2008.....thats along time.

Yeah, but we're talking about heavyweights now, not heavyweights in the future. The guys fighting today would have seen plenty of HW fights in the eighties and nineties and early 2000s as well as plenty of exciting fights in other weightclasses to inspire them.

I think the drop off in HW boxing on HBO is down to a few things, general disinterest in the Klitschkos from high ups, investment in and subsequent poor showing of American fighters like Arreola, the growing interest in heavyweight fights on German networks. Obviously none of this is good for the future of the US heavyweight, but it doesn't explain the lack of success in the here and now.

Maybe the NFL does. But I'm not convinced, and what's more I find the whole argument a sham. It's nothing more than a thinly veiled excuse to account for lack of success by denigrating other nations and shifting the blame for your own problems onto things that you can do nothing about. It solves nothing.