Is America too rich to produce a hungry HW?

[King_]

You don't understand, do you live in America? If you do you should know that nearly EVERY single child in America at age 11-12 is allowed to play school sports which range from Soccer, football, basketball, swimming, wrestling, tennis, baseball, track and field etc. for FREE.

These kids don't know any better, hell at age 13 I even thought I could play in the NBA one day.

A single football roster will consist of around 40 players. Right now in America there are at least 10.8 million 18 year olds playing football, that's not counting all the children, nor the other sports.


Boxing isn't even in the top 10 most popular sports in America.

You act as if boxing is the number one sport throughout Europe and every kid is some Eastern European refugee in which boxing/fighting is their only option to make money. Boxing is well behind soccer (which as I've said takes most of the athletes) soccer is HUGE in Europe, bigger then the NFL/NBA combined... And your average soccer player makes MORE then your average NBA/NFL player. All the 18 year olds are playing soccer so again: you say the reason America doesn't have any good heavyweights is because they all grow up and choose to play NBA/NFL because of the money...why is there Europeans in lower weight classes like Ricky burns who is a title holder, yet comes from a rich country in which another sport is the top sport and is 1000x more lucrative? It's the same thing and going by that logic, I can say it's safe for me to say that if soccer wasn't so popular in Europe, Europeans would dominate the lower weight classes.... And as we've already said, even with soccer being the number one and being Europes perfect comparison to Americas NBA/NFL argument....there's STILL a number of highly rated/title holders in the lower weight divisions from Europe.

So I don't buy this other sport theory. To each his own ( no hate)

[King_]

Soccer's a girls sport. Bottom line.

Poet

Okay, I'll bite..... Even if that was true.... The topic of discussion is if those soccer players grew up BOXING and never playing soccer just how if the American NFL/NBA players grew up boxing and never playing their sport. So even if soccer was a pansy sport, they would of never played and would of been boxers. Judging by your posts though, I wouldn't be surprised if you reply and say that those soccer- hypothetical European boxers would be predisposed genetical pansies anyway because in reality they did infact choose and play soccer.

[Tom Cruise]

Okay, I'll bite..... Even if that was true.... The topic of discussion is if those soccer players grew up BOXING and never playing soccer just how if the American NFL/NBA players grew up boxing and never playing their sport. So even if soccer was a pansy sport, they would of never played and would of been boxers. Judging by your posts though, I wouldn't be surprised if you reply and say that those soccer- hypothetical European boxers would be predisposed genetical pansies anyway because in reality they did infact choose and play soccer.

haha i resisted, perhaps a wiser choice...

[Motofan]

It is known that people that works hard from their childhood has far stronger bone structure, they will be tougher.

Not at all. Heavy lifting and over exerting yourself stunts growth in all capacities. Which is why kids aren't supposed to lift weights. The argument has zero proof or scientific merit. Sorry to burst your bubble. A kid who is well fed and nurtured and participates in athletics has a leg up on a kid who eats next to nothing and is overworked. One gets strong while the others body is malnourished.

[ROSS CALIFORNIA]

The klitschkos dont come from a hard background and are very successful

They also didn't have the opportunities Americans have.

[Cutthroat]

You act as if boxing is the number one sport throughout Europe and every kid is some Eastern European refugee in which boxing/fighting is their only option to make money. Boxing is well behind soccer (which as I've said takes most of the athletes) soccer is HUGE in Europe, bigger then the NFL/NBA combined... And your average soccer player makes MORE then your average NBA/NFL player. All the 18 year olds are playing soccer so again: you say the reason America doesn't have any good heavyweights is because they all grow up and choose to play NBA/NFL because of the money...why is there Europeans in lower weight classes like Ricky burns who is a title holder, yet comes from a rich country in which another sport is the top sport and is 1000x more lucrative? It's the same thing and going by that logic, I can say it's safe for me to say that if soccer wasn't so popular in Europe, Europeans would dominate the lower weight classes.... And as we've already said, even with soccer being the number one and being Europes perfect comparison to Americas NBA/NFL argument....there's STILL a number of highly rated/title holders in the lower weight divisions from Europe.

So I don't buy this other sport theory. To each his own ( no hate)

We've never seen Europe owning the lower weight divisions though, we have seen the US own the HW division producing guys like Louis, Holyfield, Tyson, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, etc. I think you get the point.

They went from those great fighters to Arreola/Chambers, do you really think that's the best they could produce? Even though the US is still producing great fighters in the lower divisions they aren't close to the talent of guys like RJJ, Toney, SRR, SRL, Hearns, Hagler etc. or even guys from other countries. The whole sport is pretty weak aside of a handful of guys.

It's no coincidence that the time the HW division started declining as well as other divisions that salaries jumped for both the NFL/NBA. The average salary jumped from an average of around $30,000 in 1975, to around $300,000 in 1980, to 1 million in 1990, to 2 million is the 2000's. To say this is just a coincidence is laughable.

[King_]

We've never seen Europe owning the lower weight divisions though, we have seen the US own the HW division producing guys like Louis, Holyfield, Tyson, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, etc. I think you get the point.

They went from those great fighters to Arreola/Chambers, do you really think that's the best they could produce? Even though the US is still producing great fighters in the lower divisions they aren't close to the talent of guys like RJJ, Toney, SRR, SRL, Hearns, Hagler etc. or even guys from other countries. The whole sport is pretty weak aside of a handful of guys.

It's no coincidence that the time the HW division started declining as well as other divisions that salaries jumped for both the NFL/NBA. The average salary jumped from an average of around $30,000 in 1975, to around $300,000 in 1980, to 1 million in 1990, to 2 million is the 2000's. To say this is just a coincidence is laughable.

Never seen Europe own the lower weight divisions? Exactly... Wanna know why? Based on your logic; because all of the best lower weight European athletes were soccer players, where money was ALWAYS bigger! And how about this, America owned the heavyweight division at one point.... But let's not forget tjay Eastern Europeans weren't even allowed to compete until the 90s..... When it just so happens that Americas "dominance" In the division starting fading away.... Interestingly enough, that's when the average salary of a boxer started going down and in the NBA/NFL going up, as you've said...

To say that's a coincidence is laughable as well, no?

[Greg House]

Anybody pansy assed enough to go into soccer would never make it in boxing so sorry soccer is NOT draining Euros of boxing talent.

Poet

Sergio Martinez tried to be a professional football player at first but failed. He picked up boxing at the age of 20. He is been the #1 middleweight of the world for several years now.

[ELHURACAN58]

Might be just that, with all the fat f**ks the US has, it might be time to starve some people.

[ShoulderRoll]

Europe doesn't have a history of dominating the lower weight classes.

The US dominated the heavyweight division for close to 100 years. How do you explain the drastic dropoff that has happened all of a sudden?