Comments Thread For: Malik Scott Survives Knockdown, Outpoints Thompson

[Drunken Cat]

Sad but true man, boxing has got guys who didnt make it in the Nfl or got injured. Getting punched in the face doesnt seem to appeal to most athletes these days. I coach high school wrestling and while the numbers have dropped in the last decade it also may have the same affect with boxing. Kids would rather play video games or fall into drugs then get involved in sports.

Yes, but heavyweight boxing is wide open these days. Not too many ex-football players (Breazle) and ex-basketball players (Wilder) would so easily transition into boxing in the older eras.

Boxing as a whole has declined.

Football is more dangerous than boxing, both in terms of concussions, and in terms of other injuries; as well, there are fatalities from broken necks.

But it is the most popular sport in the US, and has organized teams at almost every Jr. high school, high school, and college/university in the US.

Boxing was historically largely an inner-city sport. The inner-city boxing gyms were (and are) the pillars of the sport. The decline of the popularity of boxing generally (one effect of which is no doubt the decline not only of those who want to be boxers but also of those who want to/are able to teach it) is probably one of the major factors behind the general decline of boxing. There are surely a number of other reasons. Many gyms have probably closed due to financial reasons, owing to cost of real estate (in some cases gentrification having a factor), and falling participation.

The US still produces some good boxers, especially in the weights south of HW, but not like in past years.

Mexico is the real land of boxing.

There has been a decline of boxing in the US, it is really quite undeniable. The notion that would-be American heavyweight champions are busy playing football is pure hogsnot. It is just an excuse for wishful thinkers who pine for an American heavyweight champ, for their own jingoistic reasons.

The reality is that boxing has declined in the US, and big men from the former communist countries, who were trained in boxing in sophisticated sports academies, have taken over the heavyweight division, and it is too much for some jingoistic types to take.

So, they nostalgically search for 'The Next American Hype'.

That's where a guy like Wilder comes in.

Why do you think they are so very obviously ducking Povetkin?

Deontay is marketable as the "American heavyweight champion" to those gullible enough to buy into the farce (though I don't think many people are buying it any longer).

Personally, I couldn't care less where a fighter is from, I just like to see good fights with fighters whose styles I appreciate.

I wrestled in high school, keep up the good work.

[Elroy1]

Bo Jangles...

5th generation pedigree Nut Bag!

No other sportsman has ever or will ever be as adept at the sport as somebody who has trained in boxing all their life. OBVIOUSLY!

Here's the news!

If the now dominant powers in boxing, suddenly decided to play basketball or American football instead, before very long, ALL American athletes in those sports would ALSO be toppled!

That is a pure fact!

And it is linked directly to American weakness.

The only way American can ever be a dominant power in any sport now is by concentrating on more or less American only sports (basketball largely, grid iron basically exclusively).

This can even be seen in their new boxing regime too. Totally uncompetitive globally now, so what did they do? Organise an American-only "world title" (The WBC).

Case closed!

[Tobi.G]

At one time Thompson did actually have some skills now he looks old fat slow and tired because he is old fat slow and tired. .

Thank you for this verry insightfull comment. Thompson is old and tired, he should fight no more. Thats not the same guy who destroyed Price a few years ago.

[doom_specialist]

I know the meanings fine. You derailed the thread because you were apparently too illiterate to understand a comment I made. Now it is time to shut up and move on.

No, you derailed the thread by attempting to question my proficiency with the English language, only to try and invent a colloquialism, and then totally goof on the meaning of the word colloquial. You could have let it go with me not considering your reasoning "help," but here you are trying to tell me to move on, in an attempt to gloss over your **** up lol. Perhaps you should stop replying to me, since it's time to move on?

We know you will reply though. Your troll backfired, and now you're just feeding me lol. lmao @ colloquial meaning "not literal" but "I know the meanings fine" lolololol

[Strive 4 Truth]

Yes, but heavyweight boxing is wide open these days. Not too many ex-football players (Breazle) and ex-basketball players (Wilder) would so easily transition into boxing in the older eras.

Boxing as a whole has declined.

Football is more dangerous than boxing, both in terms of concussions, and in terms of other injuries; as well, there are fatalities from broken necks.

But it is the most popular sport in the US, and has organized teams at almost every Jr. high school, high school, and college/university in the US.

Boxing was historically largely an inner-city sport. The inner-city boxing gyms were (and are) the pillars of the sport. The decline of the popularity of boxing generally (one effect of which is no doubt the decline not only of those who want to be boxers but also of those who want to/are able to teach it) is probably one of the major factors behind the general decline of boxing. There are surely a number of other reasons. Many gyms have probably closed due to financial reasons, owing to cost of real estate (in some cases gentrification having a factor), and falling participation.

The US still produces some good boxers, especially in the weights south of HW, but not like in past years.

Mexico is the real land of boxing.

There has been a decline of boxing in the US, it is really quite undeniable. The notion that would-be American heavyweight champions are busy playing football is pure hogsnot. It is just an excuse for wishful thinkers who pine for an American heavyweight champ, for their own jingoistic reasons.

The reality is that boxing has declined in the US, and big men from the former communist countries, who were trained in boxing in sophisticated sports academies, have taken over the heavyweight division, and it is too much for some jingoistic types to take.

So, they nostalgically search for 'The Next American Hype'.

That's where a guy like Wilder comes in.

Why do you think they are so very obviously ducking Povetkin?

Deontay is marketable as the "American heavyweight champion" to those gullible enough to buy into the farce (though I don't think many people are buying it any longer).

Personally, I couldn't care less where a fighter is from, I just like to see good fights with fighters whose styles I appreciate.

I wrestled in high school, keep up the good work.

I agree with you 100%. Wilder is just a shell and will only last so long. People have a hard time adjusting to the change of eras. Those fighters in those soviet countries are on another level right now. Viktor Postol really stamped it against Matthysee.

[Ravens Fan]

Yes, but heavyweight boxing is wide open these days. Not too many ex-football players (Breazle) and ex-basketball players (Wilder) would so easily transition into boxing in the older eras.

Boxing as a whole has declined.

Football is more dangerous than boxing, both in terms of concussions, and in terms of other injuries; as well, there are fatalities from broken necks.

But it is the most popular sport in the US, and has organized teams at almost every Jr. high school, high school, and college/university in the US.

Boxing was historically largely an inner-city sport. The inner-city boxing gyms were (and are) the pillars of the sport. The decline of the popularity of boxing generally (one effect of which is no doubt the decline not only of those who want to be boxers but also of those who want to/are able to teach it) is probably one of the major factors behind the general decline of boxing. There are surely a number of other reasons. Many gyms have probably closed due to financial reasons, owing to cost of real estate (in some cases gentrification having a factor), and falling participation.

The US still produces some good boxers, especially in the weights south of HW, but not like in past years.

Mexico is the real land of boxing.

There has been a decline of boxing in the US, it is really quite undeniable. The notion that would-be American heavyweight champions are busy playing football is pure hogsnot. It is just an excuse for wishful thinkers who pine for an American heavyweight champ, for their own jingoistic reasons.

The reality is that boxing has declined in the US, and big men from the former communist countries, who were trained in boxing in sophisticated sports academies, have taken over the heavyweight division, and it is too much for some jingoistic types to take.

So, they nostalgically search for 'The Next American Hype'.

That's where a guy like Wilder comes in.

Why do you think they are so very obviously ducking Povetkin?

Deontay is marketable as the "American heavyweight champion" to those gullible enough to buy into the farce (though I don't think many people are buying it any longer).

Personally, I couldn't care less where a fighter is from, I just like to see good fights with fighters whose styles I appreciate.

I wrestled in high school, keep up the good work.

All of this and and yet no mention of MMA? You also keep using big words and no one is impressed and you want to know why? Because this is a little word only site and therefore no one knows what hell you are talking about. I also doubt that they even care.

[Drunken Cat]

All of this and and yet no mention of MMA? You also keep using big words and no one is impressed and you want to know why? Because this is a little word only site and therefore no one knows what hell you are talking about. I also doubt that they even care.

You sound like a monumental douchbag extraordinaire.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone, I was just writing how I write.

Sorry if your 8th grade reading level isn't up to snuff, though not my problem.

No, no mention of MMA. I don't think MMA is relevant to the conversation one bit.

[Cutthroat]

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

Nothing like today, they both increased in popularity exponentially in the 70's and it was due to a variety of factors.

-One of those factors was the spread of TV and cable service. In 1952 there were just 6 million TV sets in the USA with just 14,000 cable subscribers. In 1962 that number jumped to 60 million with 850,000 subscribers.

-As TV's became more popular, cable networks starting popping up, this threatened local tv stations. In the early 60's the FCC stepped in and placed strict regulations which halted cable's development in major markets, this'd continue to the early 1970's.
In the early 1970s, the FCC continued its restrictive policies by enacting regulations that limited the ability of cable operators to offer movies, sporting events, and syndicated programming.


- Remember, TV sets were primarily available to middle-upper class citizens, they were expensive and didn't become widely affordable to lower class citizens until the 70's, the same goes for basic cable TV.

Sources:
http://www.calcable.org/learn/history-of-cable/
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/...zashvili.shtml

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.

-With the boom in TV and cable subscribers in the 60's, the audience had expanded from thousands to millions. There were lucrative broadcasting deals which boosted salaries for both sports.

-Sports club owners had a gentlemen's agreement to never get into a bidding war for their players, this helped keep players salaries down while owners made profit.

This would all change in the late 1960's when 2 baseball players got signed to monster contracts having a chain reaction in the sporting world. This would be known as the collective bargaining agreement , players now had a voice.

Through supreme court rulings, federal legislation and unionization, other players were soon also able to create leverage in bargaining for higher salaries. In 1966, the MLB Players’ Association hired Marvin Miller from the United Steel Workers of America. Miller negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement with team owners in 1968, which raised the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000 per year. The 1970 CBA included arbitration to resolve disputes, and by 1975 the modern free agent system came to be. Through a combination of salary arbitration and free agency, salaries have continued to skyrocket.

Source:
http://www.firmex.com/thedealroom/wh...-getting-rich/

Boxers have alwYs been from poor backgrounds.

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

Salaries increased exponentially each decade for all sports, I'll just use the NBA for example, the NFL saw a very similar increase, their salary caps went up millions:
Average NBA salary by decade
1960-$12,000
1970-$35,000
1985-$370,000
1990-$1,000,000
2000-$2,000,000
2015-$4,900,000

(Google the figures for yourself, they're spread out)

-This meant being a professional athlete was now a viable job. These salaries had a chain reaction:

Pro sports-College Sports-School Sports-Youth Sports

College football and basketball are now both billion dollar industries, these universities are making a killing off their free labor.

-An increase in the popularity of college sports lead to a popularity in regular school sports. Colleges were now handing out scholarships, scouting the talent, creating youth programs to create future talent.

Parents noticed and now enroll their children into these sports hoping they'll get that free education or hit the lotto.

-School sports in the USA draw entire communities together, entire families come to watch their siblings/children. School sports are very profitable, and because of that they became more widespread in the USA.


We are essentially creating fans of these school sports, basketball, football, baseball etc. because children are attending these school sporting events, entire families, they watch, cheer, have a great time. That is what most foreigners do not realize.

Sports are God in America, we literally build million dollar stadiums for our high school athletes. Most countries do not have the attendance like American school sports do, they completely lack perspective.
It's so bad you have rabid parents abusing their kids, forcing them into sports, training them from a very young age.

-Youth sports also gained a huge boost in popularity, we literally have anywhere from 50-100 million in America playing youth sports right now.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9...-espn-magazine

Those are entire generations of children playing these sports, no other country can compare to our youth sports programs.


Andre Ward, Floyd Mayweather, the Klitschko Bros, tons of fighters come from middle class backgrounds, they didn't all grow up poor.

[Ravens Fan]

You sound like a monumental douchbag extraordinaire.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone, I was just writing how I write.

Sorry if your 8th grade reading level isn't up to snuff, though not my problem.

No, no mention of MMA. I don't think MMA is relevant to the conversation one bit.

Finally a word I can understand, I guess you write normal when you are upset. By the way you misspelled douche.

But at least you are right about one thing. That is why just about all newspapers and books and magazines that the general population of the USA would read are written on a 7th to 9th grade level.

And if you do really speak that way you must have some rather boring conversations. That is unless of course you spend your time speaking to Noah Webster or who ever it was that invented the game Scrabble.

If you also honestly believe that the popularity of the MMA is irrelevant in a conversation dealing with the decline of the popularity of boxing within the USA, then you should really truly refrain from calling anyone else a douchebag!

[Drunken Cat]

Andre Ward, Floyd Mayweather, the Klitschko Bros, tons of fighters come from middle class backgrounds, they didn't all grow up poor.

I specifically said American heavyweight champions.

Mayweather is from a boxing family.

The Klitschkos are products of the Soviet sports academies.

I don't know Ward's case, and I never said it never happens, but it is very rare, across all weight divisions.

Again, my specific challenge was name me an American heavyweight champion from a comfortable middleclass background.

My point was that it illustrates that boxing is indeed for the most part a sport for people from poor backgrounds. It has somewhat to do with the institutional structure based largely on inner-city gyms, and other things.