Does Wilder prove the argument all the great American HW's went to other sports?

[Motorcity Cobra]

I think we lose more potentially great fighters to the streets than to other sports. I see it year after year at these tournaments. You ask a coach what happened to a kid her had last year and he'll tell you the kid just stopped coming to the gym.

If you're good at basketball, football and other sports you can see a path to success. A pro career, or maybe you only make it to college. Maybe you don't make it to college but you get to play high school sports. High school is where you lose a lot of kids. There is no high school boxing team. The kids that play other sports have an off season. Boxing is all year round. You going to tight gym while your friends out having fun. While you're fighting in these tournaments it's not the same as playing on front of your high school friends, representing your school

[LA_2_Vegas]

I think we lose more potentially great fighters to the streets than to other sports. I see it year after year at these tournaments. You ask a coach what happened to a kid her had last year and he'll tell you the kid just stopped coming to the gym.

If you're good at basketball, football and other sports you can see a path to success. A pro career, or maybe you only make it to college. Maybe you don't make it to college but you get to play high school sports. High school is where you lose a lot of kids. There is no high school boxing team. The kids that play other sports have an off season. Boxing is all year round. You going to tight gym while your friends out having fun. While you're fighting in these tournaments it's not the same as playing on front of your high school friends, representing your school

IDK if your high school was like mine, but in hallway that lead to the bball gym, there was an old dusty trophy case that had everything collected over the decades----they had trophies and banners from the boxing teams the school used to have but it was from the 60-70s. Long gone before I was a student.

I only know of one high school boxing program here in LA (Crenshaw High) and I don't even think it's really endorsed by the school or district like that, might just be a couple of coaches trying to capture kids who would have fallen into a boxing gym in another time.

I definitely think lose a lot to lack of programs - but a lot of it just economic mobility of our citizens, you don't have to get your head knocked around to make a living, you can just get a job. I agree with ur point about streets/prison as well, I don't find the other sports argument as compelling but I'm sure there are some guys with a fighters mentality to be found there too.

[boliodogs]

The idea that the reason that the American dominance over the Heavyweight division has dissipated the last 20 years is often argued and dismissed by others that all the talent now goes to the NFL and NBA.

If things had gone to plan for Deontay he would have been a pro-basketball player, but it didn't and instead he took up boxing relatively late in life and became the heavyweight champ.

If some of these others football and basketball players had instead followed Deyontay's path we'd probably see American fighters even better than Wilder.

It's a BS argument.
No great black heavyweight boxing champion would have been a good ball player and no pro ball player was ever good enough to be a world champion. Two different sports. Wilder was not a pro basketball player. Foreman, Ali, Lewis, Johnson, Bowe, Holyfield, Frazier and other great black heavyweights would not have made pro basketball players. There was no high paying pro football or basketball when so many white boxers held the world title. It's a racist argument with no fact or merit to back it up. Who ever is the best boxer in the world deserves full credit black or white. No star from another sport is a better boxer than he is, period.

[boliodogs]

But that kind of leads to my point, I actually don't think Wilder is particularly athletic or impressive compared to some actual NBA players, but despite it all and him starting boxing late in life he got to the top of boxing.


Imagine a young LeBron James going into heavyweight? 6'8", 250 lbs he makes Wilder actually look small and slow.

Keep on believing there are so many potential heavyweight champions playing pro ball but there is no proof of that. Maybe James can't punch or take a punch or doesn't like getting hit. The ring is the proving ground for boxers not the basketball court or the football field, Tyson was only 5 foot 11 and Marciano only 5 ft 10. Great champion boxers much too short for basketball and too light for football but they would still KO any of them. I go by what is not by what someone wants it to be. Wilder is the champ and a good one and basketball has nothing to do with it. I have seen enough basketball brawls to know most of them are not good fist fighters no matter how big and fast they are.

[blue_dolphin]

no parents in their right minds want their kid to box. the real money in the 4 major sports. boxing for the most part is for street dudes down on their luck. i wouldn't want a child gettin brain damage when he can just throw pitches for way more money.

[Bobby Deez]

Breazaele played college football and got into boxing in his 20's and had 2 cracks at a title. What does that tell you.

[NaijaD]

There are other things that factor into making a good fighter besides size and athleticism such as being able to take a punch, most big guys can’t. Plus Wilder has that gift of power which without he would probably have failed as a fighter. You also have to have heart in this sport.

Wilder possesses insane power, credible toughness and true fighting heart. Those are things that you can’t assume every athlete has but they are needed to succeed. This thread does Wilder a disservice in my opinion.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Wilder possesses insane power, credible toughness and true fighting heart. Those are things that you can’t assume every athlete has but they are needed to succeed. This thread does Wilder a disservice in my opinion.

I know the thread, and most people in it are thinking black athletes. But when you said that the first athlete that came to mind for me was Brett Favre. A cannon for an arm & tough as ****

[The D3vil]

Cardio is a must for boxing. If you go to a boxing gym they won't even let you spar till you can prove your fitness.

And soccer is about cardio and is about sprints and then recover and sprints again. Very similar to boxing, it is how quick you recover that is important.


24 million people play soccer in the US, that is more that play it in the UK

Dude, there's 330 million people of our population.

That would mean that only 7% of our population plays soccer

And that 7% aint the Black kids who are the ones who make up virtually all of our elite athletes.

Soccer is a sport that rich and suburban White people put their kids in because they don't want them playing football and their not talented enough to play basketball

It's primarily a girl's sport in America

[D4thincarnation]

Dude, there's 330 million people of our population.

That would mean that only 7% of our population plays soccer

And that 7% aint the Black kids who are the ones who make up virtually all of our elite athletes.

Soccer is a sport that rich and suburban White people put their kids in because they don't want them playing football and their not talented enough to play basketball

It's primarily a girl's sport in America

LMAO soccer is the sport of the poorest, you don't need nothing except a ball and can play it anywhere.

It is played all over Africa and in South America where kids don't even have shoes.

Plus the vast majority of Americans play no sport at all and are fat couch potatoes