Why has American boxing declined to it's current pitiful state?

[soul_survivor]

No interest. Too many sports to choose from. And the MMA.

This is not a valid argument, it is not valid now and it has never been valid. You talk as if MMA is all encompassing, it isn't. It registers a handful of good PPVs but that's it. There are no MMA fighters that are part of the collective American consciousness like Paqcuiao, Mayweather, Oscar, Tyson, Holyfield et al have been in recent history. McG might be a star but he is nowhere near that level .

Moving onto the likes of other sports, yes the NBA and NFL are bigger, add in baseball but you act as if there aren't other sports, bigger sports on a global level may I add in other countries. Especially football in Europe and yet in the UK, certain fighters have managed to become household names, a handful of fighters have done the same in Germany.

the real problem is two fold and a lot less uncomfortable for Americans to admit:

1. American fighters, those who have had their careers this decadei n particular lack the star quality. What I mean by that is a ocmbination of skill set, charisma and the desire to fight the best. Take the case of Ward (gonna upset a lot of Americans) but after a middling super six, where had an ugly fight with Bika, an ugly, foul filled fight with Kessler and a pretty good performance v AA, he moved onto a final with Froch. That night, he turned in a terrific performance.

What did he do after that? He took a long time off, refused to face the next challenger in line, let Froch steal the show on that one and then spent 4 or 5 years bouncing about in weight, fighting no names. By the time he returned, the entire landscape had changed and apart from the boxing press, no one cared about what Ward had done half a decade ago. A questionable win over KOvalev did not help matters at all. Much like most American fighters, he refused to strike while the iron was hot (Crawford and Thurman are in the same boat right now).

2. An amateur system that has been superseded by the Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Brits and a few other nations. There is little development at grass roots level, subpar competition at national level leading to below par performances against world class amateurs around the world.

This is uncomfortable reading but it's the truth.

[1hourRun]

Shout out to : S.O.G. Crawford, Charlos Bros, E. Spence, DSG, Mikey Garcia, Russel Jr, Keith Thurman, Danny Jacobs, Boo-Boo, Naturalized citizen 'The American Dream' Erislandy Lara, Shawn 'Showtime' Porter, Deontay 'Bronze-Bomber' Wilder, A.B, Robert Easter Jr, Raushee Warren, Tank Davis, Money Mayweather, Tim Bradely, Jessie Vargas, Benavidez Bros, Frankie Gomez, J Magdaleno, Randy Caballero ......man Im getting tired of listing so much talent ; what other country produces this kind of quality? but we in trouble tho.

[THC]

Every era has talented fighters but boxing nowadays is hindered by:

1) Star athletes fighting too infrequently (inevitably reducing fan mindshare).

2) Of the fights that are aired, most are inconsequential info-mercials with poor entertainment value.

We all know the root causes. And they affect most markets, not just the US.

[Pac=Duran]

Shout out to : S.O.G. Crawford, Charlos Bros, E. Spence, DSG, Mikey Garcia, Russel Jr, Keith Thurman, Danny Jacobs, Boo-Boo, Naturalized citizen 'The American Dream' Erislandy Lara, Shawn 'Showtime' Porter, Deontay 'Bronze-Bomber' Wilder, A.B, Robert Easter Jr, Raushee Warren, Tank Davis, Money Mayweather, Tim Bradely, Jessie Vargas, Benavidez Bros, Frankie Gomez, J Magdaleno, Randy Caballero ......man Im getting tired of listing so much talent ; what other country produces this kind of quality? but we in trouble tho.

Not one of those guys is a star. Except the only retired guy you mentioned (pure desperation)

American boxing is dying, and it's a damn shame.

[al-Xander]

Just face the fact that boxing is rarely seen compared to other sports, which fans could watch almost everyday. You can't expect new fans to stick around when current fighters rarely fight. There's no story to follow. Big wins rarely lead to anything bigger.

[bojangles1987]

This is not a valid argument, it is not valid now and it has never been valid. You talk as if MMA is all encompassing, it isn't. It registers a handful of good PPVs but that's it. There are no MMA fighters that are part of the collective American consciousness like Paqcuiao, Mayweather, Oscar, Tyson, Holyfield et al have been in recent history. McG might be a star but he is nowhere near that level .

Moving onto the likes of other sports, yes the NBA and NFL are bigger, add in baseball but you act as if there aren't other sports, bigger sports on a global level may I add in other countries. Especially football in Europe and yet in the UK, certain fighters have managed to become household names, a handful of fighters have done the same in Germany.

the real problem is two fold and a lot less uncomfortable for Americans to admit:

1. American fighters, those who have had their careers this decadei n particular lack the star quality. What I mean by that is a ocmbination of skill set, charisma and the desire to fight the best. Take the case of Ward (gonna upset a lot of Americans) but after a middling super six, where had an ugly fight with Bika, an ugly, foul filled fight with Kessler and a pretty good performance v AA, he moved onto a final with Froch. That night, he turned in a terrific performance.

What did he do after that? He took a long time off, refused to face the next challenger in line, let Froch steal the show on that one and then spent 4 or 5 years bouncing about in weight, fighting no names. By the time he returned, the entire landscape had changed and apart from the boxing press, no one cared about what Ward had done half a decade ago. A questionable win over KOvalev did not help matters at all. Much like most American fighters, he refused to strike while the iron was hot (Crawford and Thurman are in the same boat right now).

2. An amateur system that has been superseded by the Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Brits and a few other nations. There is little development at grass roots level, subpar competition at national level leading to below par performances against world class amateurs around the world.

This is uncomfortable reading but it's the truth.

You're VASTLY underestimating the growing cultural importance of the NFL and NBA over the past 30-35 years. It is not a coincidence that boxing began declining in the United States when those two sports officially exploded here, and boxing gets less and less popular here as those sports entrench themselves further and further into youth culture.

Even if a talented kid likes boxing, he will be pushed into basketball or American football at a very young age and never see a boxing gym.

[1hourRun]

Not one of those guys is a star. Except the only retired guy you mentioned (pure desperation)

American boxing is dying, and it's a damn shame.

If boxing is dying here like I said before how is it doing around the globe overall? is it doing great in Germany? Frances...Australia? New Zealand...I think we will be just fine, thank you for the concern.

[Eff Pandas]

Lotsa reasons.

-amateur program was underfunded/mismanaged

-americans got lil time for the bs involved in boxing with knowing who's the real champ vs fake champ

-fights between the best guys don't happen much

-need to have premium cable + buy a ppv 4-6 times a year to keep up with the sport

-boxing is a poor promoter of its own product, go watch some random boxing shows & see how often its mentioned that the fight you're currently watching "isn't very good", "was a bad decision", "is a mismatch", etc & so on. if you tell someone something sucks enough eventually they'll believe you.

Probably a bunch of other reasons. I don't necessarily think its any one thing, although I think the main thing is the power players running the sport in many fields have been extremely slow in changing with the times in a faster era with less patience. No one in the US wants to wait a year for a fight to "marinate". And I believe that's proven the best by a non-US guy, Eddie Hearn, who throws his guys into more tough non-marinated fights then perhaps any promoter around today does & he's in a much more boxing friendly country & COULD milk things like they continually try to do in the US for fights that have less of the publics attention. To paraphrase Egis Klimas if fans don't give a f#ck today, they won't give a f#ck tomorrow. US Boxing needs to make fans care today by not trying to fleece the fans like last weekend.

[sicko]

No Don King type of promoter to connect with a certain demographic that is one of the biggest problems. AJ has Eddie Hearn who himself is still young he is only 37 I think people forget that but Eddie has done a masterful job promoting AJ because he gets it while the Dinosaurs who run boxing in American they just don't get it they want to stick with the Old Way of doing things and hope things get better and it WON'T!

Also Fighters who are just not interesting AT ALL! This feeling of Entitlement from American fighters almost like they SHOULD BE SUPERSTARS without having to put in the work for it we seen that with Broner! WTF are these fighters doing to build up their stardom? Instead Boxers expect people to find them instead of being active in trying to build up a Brand. I'm already seeing AJ more on American TV than I have seen any American Boxer other than Mayweather. This Commercial was ran during the NBA Players:



So to American Fighters stop being jealous of the International Fighters instead turn to your team and asking them "WTF AM I PAYING YOU FOR?" because clearly they're NOT doing their Job but yet they make sure to get their CUT every time you fight. You're being replaced and your job is being Out Source because it is guys from Different Countries who can now do if not BETTER actually and for cheaper!

[Motorcity Cobra]

Guys that should be stars lile Thurman and Crawford are barely known anywhere.

And Wilder? No one knows that guy. And people that do know him i.e. boxing fans know him to be jist a bum hunter with no skills or chin, ripe for the KO.

How did American boxing degenerate to the embarrassing state we see now?

Read the American boxing media. There is a clear agenda against certain fighters especially when they're associated with a certain manager.

Take Danny Jacobs for example. You see all the fawning media coverage he got once he signed up fight GGG. Saw a lot of them say how good of a guy he is. Jacobs has always been a good, genuine guy. One of the nicer guys in boxing. But until he signed to fight GGG they wouldn't mention that.

The American boxing media doesn't push the sport as a whole. They push their favorite fighters