For the first time in over a century, US Heavyweight boxing is non-existent and irrelevant at the top level

TheMaster

TheMaster

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Strange how that happened....
Wilder was flying the flag for a while but now Ukraine with Usyk and the UK are ruling the roost with Dubois, Fury, AJ along with a few Europeans.
Embarrassing and sad this happened to the US
 
Torres seems promising although he's on the smaller side for a HW. They should step up his competition to see how he does against guys who actually pose a threat.

But yeah no American HW stars currently and not many american stars in the sport period compared to previous eras. We got Tank, Bud, Benavidez? Maybe Ryan Garcia, Boots, and Plant?
This is why I laugh whenever Americans criticize Inoue for not fighting in the US. The US isn't the mecca of boxing anymore.
 
Wilder, likely one of the harder hitters had his best performance in his draw with come-back King Fury. He may be the lowest skilled US HW champ for... a long time or ever.

(Mike) Tyson fading away allowed some pretenders to the throne but unless Torres or somebody else pulls an ace from their sleeve, at least the next 5 years won't see any Murican come close.

The thing is, HW boxing has always been very popular in Europe and that culture isn't going anywhere.
 
Toothlessjoe said:
Were you in a coma while Lennox Lewis, and the Klitschkos dominated the HW conversation lol?
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Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Mercer...there were plenty of top flight US champs during the Lewis era.

And even guys like Chris Byrd were also still around during the Kiltschko era.

US has literally nobody at HW now who is championship level and I can't recall that happening before
 
Michael Hunter only top 20 HW from US right now and Richard Torrez only good prospect from there. America hasn't had a top heavyweight since the 90s though. Last 25 years it's been all UK and Ukraine.
 
I would NOT say that Fury and AJ are still relevant
 
PrideNverDies said:
I would NOT say that Fury and AJ are still relevant
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AJ just fought for the IBF HW crown. Fury is fighting for the other belts in December. If he loses they fight each other next. They are very relevant still.
 
TheMaster said:
Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Mercer...there were plenty of top flight US champs during the Lewis era.

And even guys like Chris Byrd were also still around during the Kiltschko era.

US has literally nobody at HW now who is championship level and I can't recall that happening before
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Wilder only became relevant in like 2015. There were no relevant American heavyweights before him for years.
 
We also had Briggs holding one of the belts until 2007 and Byrd just a couple years earlier.
 
pugilistico said:
Torres seems promising although he's on the smaller side for a HW. They should step up his competition to see how he does against guys who actually pose a threat.

But yeah no American HW stars currently and not many american stars in the sport period compared to previous eras. We got Tank, Bud, Benavidez? Maybe Ryan Garcia, Boots, and Plant?
This is why I laugh whenever Americans criticize Inoue for not fighting in the US. The US isn't the mecca of boxing anymore.
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it absolutely isn't.
 
TheMaster said:
Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Mercer...there were plenty of top flight US champs during the Lewis era.

And even guys like Chris Byrd were also still around during the Kiltschko era.

US has literally nobody at HW now who is championship level and I can't recall that happening before
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me either, not in my lifetime and probably not for generations before that.
 
So tired of people hating on the HW division. The division is interesting, entertaining, still has big names that draw, gets casual interest & is better than it has been in decades.
Wilder was the only American of note for like a decade & before that it was dominated by the champs in the UK/Eastern Europe. What sport were you following?


This is just limited experience fans falling for the "undefeated" fallacy of boxing. Straight Cap.....
In HW when the best fight the best upsets are going to happen. One good shot in this division changes everything.

Same people who wrote off DDD due to his early resume, getting smashed and retired by Joyce, and getting whooped by Usyk. Now look at him......

-Ruiz is still relevant.
-Hunter is still relevant. Stopped one of the hottest prospect/contenders
-Miller is back relevant after arguably beating Ruiz
-Anderson still has loads of talent & potential. He took a crazy step up fight. He can come back. He fought a potential future champ. Many people called this "upset"
-Torres is a solid hope and prospect & is being brought along carefully protected
-You can never really count Wilder out if he keeps fighting. He certainly could break some prospect or contender hearts in a second with one crazy shot. Gatekeeper for sure if he stays active
-Don't know what happened to Franklin...but he's a dangerous dark horse if he's still active
 
deleted my comment as i didnt mean Joe Hipp, there was another American HW who was being touted as a decent boxer, but never really made the leap up and ended up retiring because of either an injury or health issues, i dont recall his name now
 
American boxing not just the heavies has been on the way out but for the so called "glamor division" that is quite a big deal. Before the 2000's no one really took many overseas heavyweights seriously. Of course, the other divisions have always had some capable guys from all over the world.

Why? We're soft, it's just that simple. And there obviously aren't any teachers out there. I went to a competitive boxing gym a few months ago and it was so bad that I just put my head down and ignored it while I did my own personal training. It's not my place to say anything, I was just trying to lose weight, but what I saw was just atrocious. It wasn't like that when I was a teen, there was decent comp in this area even though we only had a few champs (Lockridge,Haugen,Jackson) who came from here we had them.

Part of the problem with the teachers is that they don't know what the hell they are doing, I'm seeing all these shorts pop up on my facebook, by guys who claim that they are giving the right way to do things and they are mostly just nothing but a chance for them to be egotistical.

It being a competitive sport, it's not about people's feelings, raise your game if you want to be in the picture.
 
treelo said:
deleted my comment as i didnt mean Joe Hipp, there was another American HW who was being touted as a decent boxer, but never really made the leap up and ended up retiring because of either an injury or health issues, i dont recall his name now
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incidentally, Joe Hipp was from my area, I saw him win a golden gloves in the mid 80's. A skilled but overweight boxer, probably shouldn't have been a heavyweight. I hear he's still in the area doing some sort of contracting work.
 
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