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

[The D3vil]

The average means nothing. No-one is suggesting that scrum halves could make heavyweight champion.

The 6ft6-6ft9 280 pound locks might be a chance though.

But even those dudes would be considered small on an offensive line in American football.

If a dude 280lbs should up to the Dallas Cowboys camp saying he wants to be an offensive lineman, he'd get laughed off the field.

And also once again, Rugby players are not proving themselves to be elite athletes in other fields.

How many Rugby players are elite sprinters?

How many of the have Olympic track speed?

You have guys in the NFL who are 220, 230 lbs, that run the 100m in 10 seconds

the 200 in 20 seconds.

How many Rugby players can say that while being as big as a lot of those guys are?

[D4thincarnation]

Football takes cardio too.

A large percentage of the guys in the NFL were stars in track & field too.

Not the 400lb linemen, but definitely the DE's down to the CBs and definitely the receivers.

I can tell that you never played football because if you did you wouldn't argue that these guys have no "cardio"



You don't think they run all summer when they're training?

And even still, stop getting away from the original argument.

Rugby players from the UK don't have the best "cardio" in the world, Kenyan long distance runners and Olympic track & field athletes do, which would still not include them.

The reason people make the argument that Black NFL/NBA players would dominate the heavyweight division is because African-Americans make up a disproportionate number of elite athletes.

That is not the case with the UK

Muscles are not cardio, and the running distances they do clearly show it is not a cardio sport.

No but Rugby and especially football has similar cardio levels as boxing.

Long distance runners have a stead heart rate. In boxing you have peaks and then recover, burst of energy for a few minutes then recover. Very similar to soccer, and rugby to a lesser extent.


American Football by contrast is much more stop, stop, start.

It is very different from boxing.

Has any American football player made it as a boxer?

[Toffee]

But even those dudes would be considered small on an offensive line in American football.

If a dude 280lbs should up to the Dallas Cowboys camp saying he wants to be an offensive lineman, he'd get laughed off the field.

And also once again, Rugby players are not proving themselves to be elite athletes in other fields.

How many Rugby players are elite sprinters?

How many of the have Olympic track speed?

You have guys in the NFL who are 220, 230 lbs, that run the 100m in 10 seconds

the 200 in 20 seconds.

How many Rugby players can say that while being as big as a lot of those guys are?

I wasn't arguing Rugby over NFL. Mind you, I'm not sure I can consider those guys athletes - they're built for a very specific purpose. They're not much use anywhere else at 6'5 and 320 pound.

You were arguing that Rugby players aren't taking talent from boxing.

I'm telling you there are 6'9" blokes with athletic ability running around Rugby pitches.

Let's face it, boxing champions overcome very small talent pools to get where they are. The best prospective talent all over the world goes into other sports.

[Cutthroat]

Let's face it, boxing champions overcome very small talent pools to get where they are. The best prospective talent all over the world goes into other sports.

Not true, AJ, Klitschko bros, etc. Would've tried their hands at the NFL before boxing if offered the opportunity.

School athletics in America is a multi-billion dollar business, we've invested exponentially more money into athletics than any country on earth.

People from outside countries try to equate their athletics to ours not understanding that it's on an entirely different scale.

[Toffee]

Not true, AJ, Klitschko bros, etc. Would've tried their hands at the NFL before boxing if offered the opportunity.

School athletics in America is a multi-billion dollar business, we've invested exponentially more money into athletics than any country on earth.

People from outside countries try to equate their athletics to ours not understanding that it's on an entirely different scale.

Just out of interest, what did you think my post said?

I'm saying other sports pull the best talent ahead of boxing. Which seems to be what you're saying.

Where we appear to differ is that you don't realise that we have high paying sports in countries outside the US. Heard of Messi? Ronaldo? Neymar? Just check the sporting rich lists.

I'm sure AJ would have tried NFL if he was American. He's not though, so instead he would have tried the sports that we have in other parts of the world. In fact he did - he played football and was involved in athletics. Then he took up boxing at a late age - and became a unified World Champion.

It's a global problem for boxing. The guys who could become huge crossover stars are doing other things.

[Cutthroat]

Just out of interest, what did you think my post said?

I'm saying other sports pull the best talent ahead of boxing. Which seems to be what you're saying.

Where we appear to differ is that you don't realise that we have high paying sports in countries outside the US. Heard of Messi? Ronaldo? Neymar? Just check the sporting rich lists.

I'm sure AJ would have tried NFL if he was American. He's not though, so instead he would have tried the sports that we have in other parts of the world. In fact he did - he played football and was involved in athletics. Then he took up boxing at a late age - and became a unified World Champion.

It's a global problem for boxing. The guys who could become huge crossover stars are doing other things.

Sounds like you're trying to equate American athletics to the rest of the world but it's just nowhere near the same thing.

Put it this way, if you added the total amount spent on athletics by America to that spent by all other countries it'd probably be a quarter of what we've spent.

Football is a small-average man's sport, there is no other comparable outlet for a man AJ's size & that's why he's in boxing. You simply do not have an NFL-NBA-MLB which can accept almost anybody and still pay guys like they do soccer, Rugby & cricket pay is shyte.

-In America we are offered a wide variety of school and youth sports from young ages, you don't. We have more kids playing sports right now than the entire population of the UK.

-Our educational system is tied into athletics as a huge source of school income and as a free education. Yours doesn't.

--Americans are 1.53 TRILLION in student debt and this also ties into why people pursue sports in America hoping for a free education. You don't have to deal with this.


Entirely different systems, other countries are still producing rare athletes like AJ, Usyk, Loma, etc. The U.S is just meh, sometimes you get a Wilder but he's nothing unique in America like say an AJ or Joe Joyce is to the UK.

[The D3vil]

Muscles are not cardio, and the running distances they do clearly show it is not a cardio sport.

No but Rugby and especially football has similar cardio levels as boxing.

Long distance runners have a stead heart rate. In boxing you have peaks and then recover, burst of energy for a few minutes then recover. Very similar to soccer, and rugby to a lesser extent.


American Football by contrast is much more stop, stop, start.

It is very different from boxing.

Has any American football player made it as a boxer?

Well, the point of the thread is that people who CAN play football choose to do that instead of boxing.

Deontay Wilder, the impetus for the thread couldn't make it in football, so he went to boxing. Had he made it in football, he would've never stepped in the ring.

And the problem that you keep running into is that many football players are stars in track & field in America and choose football because it pays more, including guys like Bullet Bob Hayes, RGIII, and even Carl Lewis was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, though he chose not to play because he was one of the few dudes track paid more for.

All of those track sports require CARDIO in order to be good at them.

How many guys in Rugby who are over 200lbs run the 100yd dash in 10 seconds?

Run the 200 in 20 seconds?

Excel in the hurdles and other Olympic type sports?

And once again you never address the fact that there isn't anything that Rugby players do in terms of speed, strength, or endurance that is better than anyone else.

Boxing above all else is a CONTACT sport, having Mo Farah's cardio is not going to help you once you're in a ring with Mike Tyson.

American football players are bigger, stronger, and yes have cardio (because they're often world class athletes in other fields).

[D4thincarnation]

Well, the point of the thread is that people who CAN play football choose to do that instead of boxing.

Deontay Wilder, the impetus for the thread couldn't make it in football, so he went to boxing. Had he made it in football, he would've never stepped in the ring.

And the problem that you keep running into is that many football players are stars in track & field in America and choose football because it pays more, including guys like Bullet Bob Hayes, RGIII, and even Carl Lewis was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, though he chose not to play because he was one of the few dudes track paid more for.

All of those track sports require CARDIO in order to be good at them.

How many guys in Rugby who are over 200lbs run the 100yd dash in 10 seconds?

Run the 200 in 20 seconds?

Excel in the hurdles and other Olympic type sports?

And once again you never address the fact that there isn't anything that Rugby players do in terms of speed, strength, or endurance that is better than anyone else.

Boxing above all else is a CONTACT sport, having Mo Farah's cardio is not going to help you once you're in a ring with Mike Tyson.

American football players are bigger, stronger, and yes have cardio (because they're often world class athletes in other fields).

Wilder wasn't going into American football, it was basketball that he was playing in college.


Sprinting is not heavy on cardio, it's a power sport.

Get yourself a heavy bag, hit it constantly for 3 minutes and have a 1 minute rests.

See how long you can do that for.

It is your heart that will feel it the most.

Kids take up many sports and they will go into sports they excel at.

The reason why America is failing is because they don't go into boxing.


Not sure about you but I played more than one sport as a kid.

[SN!PER]

Boxing is like 1% of our athletic talent pool

It's so small that it didn't even make this list

[ShoulderRoll]

He pretty much does prove the argument. Wilder started boxing relatively late, came over from football and basketball.

Breazeale came over from football as well.

We've been trying to tell non-Americans this for years. But they refused to accept it.