Comments Thread For: Malik Scott Survives Knockdown, Outpoints Thompson

[Drunken Cat]

And boxing has declined because every good athlete is pushed to try other sports as kids. They're playing football and basketball before they are 10. None of them end up in boxing gyms. It's not even about making a pro league for 90% of them. It's the best way for most of the kids in this country to get into college and get a worthwhile education.

If you're really arguing that the decline in American heavyweights has nothing to do with how colossally popular football and basketball have become and the impact they have on American society, then you probably don't live here or don't know what you're talking about. Again, our best heavyweights are failed high school and college football and basketball players.

Uhhh, no, that is not at all why boxing has declined.

I've heard this myth a thousand times.

'There is no good American heavyweight because all the big guys are in the nfl'.

It is pure nonsense.

Just people grasping for excuses to support their jingoistic perspective on sport.

[Drunken Cat]

And boxing has declined because every good athlete is pushed to try other sports as kids. They're playing football and basketball before they are 10. None of them end up in boxing gyms. It's not even about making a pro league for 90% of them. It's the best way for most of the kids in this country to get into college and get a worthwhile education.

If you're really arguing that the decline in American heavyweights has nothing to do with how colossally popular football and basketball have become and the impact they have on American society, then you probably don't live here or don't know what you're talking about. Again, our best heavyweights are failed high school and college football and basketball players.

So you think basketball and football weren't massively popular in the 60s and 70s either?

Boxing has declined, and less people aspire to do it. And, the places where pro athletes come from has expanded, due to transportation, fall of communism, increased opportunity for it, etc.

Boxers have alwYs been from poor backgrounds.

Name me an American heavyweight champion who has come from a comfortable middle class background.

[Drunken Cat]

Boxing also use to be regularly taught in youth groups, even PE and after school clubs, as well as prisons. Mike Tyson got his start in youth prison. Holyfield at a boy's sports center.

Much less of that today.

Can you imagine an after school boxing club at a high school today?

Parents would go insane and call for the coach's head, and may even want to sue the school.

Boxing has generally fell out of favor with the US mainstream public.

Ironically, football is much more dangerous.

But perception is 9/10s of reality, as they say.

[Pigeons]

Name me an American heavyweight champion who has come from a comfortable middle class background.

Muhammad Ali

[Drunken Cat]

Muhammad Ali

Wrong.

I've read his book.

He grew up a ni gger in Jim Crow Louisville, Kentucky under segregation. He came back from the Olympics and was suddenly allowed to mingle with the whites. When his friend was treated like shi t in front of him by the same white folk he threw his gold medal in the river.

He went threw tons of sh it growing up.

Try again.

[doom_specialist]

No they can't sue you. They, as the people who control your career have other ways to destroy your finances. But, fighters also take dives for pay.

Yes, you have obviously never understood the logic.

I believe it was a fix.

So by beating a guy who is not a top attraction, and a guy that most "fans" claim isn't that good anyway, your promoter (who you are not signed to for the rest of your life, mind you) will see this as a reason to cost himself even MORE money by shelving you? That's a ridiculous line of reasoning. I understand if you don't like Wilder, but there wasn't a fix in that fight lol

[Elroy1]

Replies to various comments:

- A guy said it always entails fear or something to take a dive. There is also the reason for money. It is very plausible that when Wilder fought Scott, then the best opponent he had ever faced, that his team wanted to ensure that he won. Therefore paid Scott off. Just a possibility!

- A guy took a jibe at the dive scenario. I am not specifically claiming the Scott fight was a dive, only that it was definitely a strong possibility. MAybe it was legit! In which case as stated, this is a big tick in Wilder's column.

- I also thought that Thompson would win this one fairly comfortably.

- In response to the American's play football and basketball now: SIT YOUR ASS DOWN NUT BAG! Please read the post in the History section about HOFers in the last 15 years- "Nutbaggery defined"

[bojangles1987]

So you think basketball and football weren't massively popular in the 60s and 70s either?

Boxing has declined, and less people aspire to do it. And, the places where pro athletes come from has expanded, due to transportation, fall of communism, increased opportunity for it, etc.

Boxers have alwYs been from poor backgrounds.

Name me an American heavyweight champion who has come from a comfortable middle class background.

Football wasn't nearly as popular, not even close. It was just starting to get popular. Basketball didn't become huge until the 80s.

You're proving my point. All the poor kids with potential play other sports. Its the only chance moat have to get into college. The system is entirely designed to push these kids into football and basketball at incredibly young ages. Football and basketball have become massive American institutions in the last 25 years. Again, if you're denying that this is the biggest reason for boxing's decline in America, then you don't know what you're talking about. And if you try to argue that football and basketball were anywhere near as popular in the 60s and 70s as now, then you have absolutely no clue.

[Drunken Cat]

So by beating a guy who is not a top attraction, and a guy that most "fans" claim isn't that good anyway, your promoter (who you are not signed to for the rest of your life, mind you) will see this as a reason to cost himself even MORE money by shelving you? That's a ridiculous line of reasoning. I understand if you don't like Wilder, but there wasn't a fix in that fight lol

Fixes happen in boxing all the time.

In principle, the winner is not in on the racket.

That would also be self defeating.

I'm not going to argue this point to death.

The fight looked fixed to me.

If you don't understand how fixing a fight and moving a fighter closer to title contention could be beneficial to a promoter or manager of a fighter, you are beyond the help of my reasoning.

[doom_specialist]

Fixes happen in boxing all the time.

In principle, the winner is not in on the racket.

That would also be self defeating.

I'm not going to argue this point to death.

The fight looked fixed to me.

If you don't understand how fixing a fight and moving a fighter closer to title contention could be beneficial to a promoter or manager of a fighter, you are beyond the help of my reasoning.

I wouldn't call your reasoning "help" by any stretch of the imagination. In any case, to each his own. Believe what you like