American boxing is dead

[LoadedWraps]

Don't get me wrong they have a long history of amazing fighters but what has happened? Seriously. Come on America sort it out!

I put Shobox on last night. I've not seen a boring fight in that Cruiserweight division for the last 5 years. You could put my nan in with Usyk and it'd somehow be a good value scrap. 4 undefeated Cruiserweight contenders I was hyped to see who was going to go to to the next level and all I seen was headbutts & clinching. Literally more headbutts being thrown & clinches than punches. Pathetic.

Then it got me thinking of all their current fighters. Andre Ward bores me to tears at times but I can appreciate his skills. Apart from Ward what good fighters does America have right now or even exciting fighters?
Its all feather-fisted spoilers like not just a few most, if not all.

I'm not trying to bash American boxing, as a fan I am concerned. How do you go from Mike Tyson, Hagler, Holyfield, Bowe & all these beasts to whatever the hell you're producing right now?

All of them fight like they're in survival mode.

You've got Ward at LHW that is about it apart from what are a few prospects around light middle. Crawford, Thurman are knocking on the door we'll see in their next fights.

Is it todays trainers in America?
I know people will get butthurt over me pointing it out but surely they must see where I am coming from and be concerned because its terrible for the sport.

I think it might come down to finances as well.
Paying certain fighters excessively and others not enough. Never happen but I'd love to see a system in place also in other sports where your pay varies depending on your performances. I don't want to begrudge anybody of a payday but when you've got a great opportunity to raise your stock, you're getting paid well to fight well a nobody you probably should go out and look to make a statement or at least try.

About 5 years back America had the #1 in majority of the 17 divisions. They now have 0.
Bradley, Mayweather, Dawson, Steve Cunningham, Ward, Ortiz was there briefly, I think Rios was elevated when JMM moved up

I really do hope the '08 olympians are for real and are about to flood the world scene.

What is American boxing? The Americas cover Canada to Argentina. I love ignorant fools.

And why does "American" boxing matter? How about just boxing?

Shut your ignorant nationalistic mouth and learn to be a fan of the sport first, and local fighters second.

You are the type of moron that I am ashamed to say I went to war for in Iraq and Afghanistan. You would be more useful as my human shield.

[Eff Pandas]

I'm serious when I say that Floyd has messed up American boxing. Let's look at his career in a synopsis:

"I haven't took no punishment. There's nothing cool about taking punishment."

"I've set the model of showing fighters how they should conduct their business."

When you look at his view point, from a fighters perspective, he's correct. But from a fans perspective, he's bad for business in the long run because just like everyone can't be Jordan in the NBA, everyone can't be Mayweather in boxing.

Imagine if Ali never fought Foreman because "it's nothing cool about taking punishment" or "Foreman isn't a PPV star. Until he becomes a ppv star, we can't fight".

Imagine if Tyson, Foreman, Lewis, DLH, etc all used this logic in the 70's, 80's and 90's.

Before Mayweather showed up, I remember boxing being passed from generation to generation, superstar to superstar. Whether it was Ray Robinson passing the torch to Ali and Ali passing the torch to Tyson and SRL. Or SRL/Tyson passing the torch to DLH and Roy Jones Jr, so on and so forth. You never had as many issues with big fights not happening because of the political concerns of boxing. Don't get me wrong, it happened, but not to the extent it's happened since Mayweather has been at the helm.

What's happening now is just like the torch was passed to FMJ, now FMJ has created a new ideology that previous superstars didn't receive or pass from previous and future generations. That new ideology is:

"I haven't took no punishment. There's nothing cool about taking punishment."

"I've set the model of showing fighters how they should conduct their business."

And in my opinion it's ruining the sport.

Again, I have these conversations with casuals on a daily basis. They refuse to reengage with boxing. Their reasoning has something to do with Mayweather, whether it's Mayweather vs DLH/Pac or some other issue.

I'm left trying to tell them about guys like GGG, Ward, Canelo, Spence, Crawford, etc, but they don't want to hear it. I only have a select few of fighters that are old school in mentality. And I really can't use GGG and Canelo as examples because they are now suffering from the same Mayweather business plan mentality that I'm talking about. From a fighter perspective, they are old school in mentality. But they are Mayweather business contemporaries.

So you were serious Floyd destroyed American boxing? I'm not even sure what to say besides what I said about this ridiculous stance.

[Chollo Vista]

Roy Jones conducted business the same way. .

I disagree there.

The only fights Roy wasn't able to make was the 2nd Hopkins fight and that Dariusz guy from Europe that never wanted to leave his country and thought Roy should go to Europe to fight.

Other than that, Roy made all the necessary fights and went up in weight, fought at CW's, etc. Once he lost his bargaining leverage, then you saw Roy fighting guys in their hometown when need be.

But for the most part, outside of 2 fights (i.e. Dariusz M./Hopkins), one against a guy Roy had already beaten in Hopkins, business never stopped Roy from making fights. Roy made it happen.

And guess what? When he made the fights happen, there was no bullschiting. Roy went out there to do damage in the fight. He wasn't out there to jip everyone out of money just so he can say he took the least amount of damage. Roy went out there looking for the KO and normally got it in exciting fashion.

[Tom Cruise]

I can see what you are saying for sure. From where they have come from they have dropped massively, especially in the heavier divisions.

However there are some good fighters about who i have my eye on. Some might make it others wont, but they look good right now...

Julian Williams, Andrade and Jermall Charlo (to a lesser extent Jermell) at LMW look quality. I think they have a big part to play in the future of the LMW and MW divisions.
Gervonta Davis at 130 and Robert Easter Jr at 135 look good.
Errol Spence is coming up strong at 147.
Benevidez at LHW (brother of the 140lber, who is also good).

Unfortunately American boxing is being choked to death by this cold war between HBO block and Haymon Bloc. So many of these fighter are being held back, imo because promoters dont want them to lose until the cold war is over.

I think there is still talent there, especially in the middle to lower divisions.

[Chollo Vista]

So you were serious Floyd destroyed American boxing? I'm not even sure what to say besides what I said about this ridiculous stance.

I think Floyd's outside the ring business moves and in the ring unwillingness to engage in big fights has severely hurt the sport. Yes, it made Mayweather the most financially compensated athlete in boxing history, but hurt the sport. His ideas have also been infectious with boxings newest generation taking heed after him.

Again, imagine if Ali said he couldn't fight Foreman because Foreman lives to far or isn't a PPV star or he thought Foreman was on the juice because he was knocking everyone out in his path.

Or imagine if Tyson never fought Holyfield because {insert your excuse}

[dirty fingers]

Yeah right, Hearn. Your top guys are bummy as fuck. Degayle? Kelly Brook? Anthony Juice-ua? Hot garbage.

[Eff Pandas]

i don't think american promoters are doing a good job selling their product any more, and the sport is overburdened with parasites.

For sure. Although I wouldn't say they are bad at selling boxing, they just got a antiquated approach to selling it. They wanna milk things for all there worth, but ultimately you are turning off more fans than you gain by taking that method in this era of give it to me now.

Like right now, who wants to wait a year to see Canelo vs GGG? How is that even a thing that could be happening? I don't even get the logic. "Hey we got the #1 & #2 middleweights in the world who you would love to see fight, but cuz we'd rather sell a few more PPV's in a year, wouldn't you rather see them fight lesser opponents you know they'll beat 1 or 2 more times". I mean how do more people not leave boxing when that is what the powers that be are trying to sell the fans. Its no wonder you can't find a person in the US who can name you 2 active boxers anymore.

[ИATAS]

We need more fighters like GGG, Kovalev, Canelo, Wilder, Joshua, etc... All these other guys that want to follow the Mayweather blueprint should go away. I say that as a fan.

You should keep in mind that the amateur boxing system has completely changed. This means no more of that pitty pat let's play tag BS, which promoted a hit and don't get hit style of fighting, whereas now, with no headgear and pro style scoring, it's about winning the fight the old fashioned way, this will promote more seek and destroy type styles where it's about hurting the other guy, not racking up points.

This Olympics is going to be off the chains, tons of talent and new stars will emerge.

I've been trying to tell people the Mayweather Pacquiao era is over so there is naturally going to be a transition period where all the old stars fade away (Cotto, Marquez, Bradley, Pac, Floyd, etc) and slowly but surely new stars fill the gap. It's OK and expected to have a down period during this transitional period, especially considering we have guys like Canelo-Golovkin, Kovalev-Ward, Wilder Fury, etc to keep everything going until the new crop of fighters get to the top. Takes a little bit of time but we'll get there, we always do.

[b00g13man]

Came in expecting to see someone blaming Floyd or Haymon, and I wasn't disappointed.

[Banderivets]

Nothing to do with American boxing and all to do with other countries producing fighters and globalization which has allowed for these fighters to get noticed.

Anyone can hop on plane and go see the local talent in some small eastern European town or Filipino village.

Communication technologies that allow for one to stream a fight in some basement to a global audience.

America simply doesn't have a monopoly on the sport anymore.