What really happened to HW boxing?

mommas homeboy said:
I don't know what the statistics are. I just know that HW boxing was wildly popular in the US a few years ago. I don't know why there aren't any blockbuster fights that everyone is talking about....the way there used to be.
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But if fringe HW boxing is still more popular than the UFC's biggest stars it can't really be that bad though can it?
 
ZroC said:
But if HW boxing is still more popular than the UFC's biggest stars it can't really be that bad though can it?
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also the replay of wladimir " nobody knows me in the US " klitschko vs david " i never fought outside of europe " haye did 1.3 million viewers on HBO ... not bad
 
people i know who arent even fans of boxing know about how haye shit the bed and saw the arreola fight when it was on tv
 
Was HW boxing any better than today before the golden generation?

Not to mention the fact HWs are much bigger than they were in the past, a-lot of the champions of the past would be too small today to compete at HW.
 
JPSmyth said:
simple.. large black athletic kid (not being racist here) wants to make a lot of money playing sports. The average salary of a pro football/basketball player is so much higher than a boxer, Floyd being the exception obviously
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I hate this reason and I don't think it's true. People that want to be boxers go into boxing and not to other sports. Just because someone is large doesn't mean they'd be coordinated boxers and be able to take a hit to the chin, just look at Seth Mitchell.
 
In the u.s. in particular there are no trainers who have stepped into the void left by Goldman, Futch and D'amato. There are still more than enough big athletic physical guys getting into boxing, they're just not skilled enough.
 
farfan said:
also the replay of wladimir " nobody knows me in the US " klitschko vs david " i never fought outside of europe " haye did 1.3 million viewers on HBO ... not bad
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They also appear somewhat frequently on us talk shows. Wlad was on Conan at the start of this year. The fact is they're from a relatively unknoworthy country in the Ukraine Which has little reach yet still manage to keep their heads high. Now imagine those same bothers were American.
 
Heavyweight boxing has suffered a decrease in interest and talent in the U.S. That is a pretty apparent fact just by watching what our amateur program has been producing.

I think one of the things that has done this is how big heavyweights are these days. To be a truly relevant HW you need to be about 6'4" 245lbs. Those are not dimensions of what is even considered "typical" big people.

For people that are that large and athletic to boot there are sports that have much more developed organizations, are more mainstream, have school programs and are just generally considered less dangerous. In the states even sports like football and hockey are being monitored closer and closer because of all the concussion related problems.
 
I feel like the more of the HW title fights should be held in NYC or LA to help regain attention.
 
Spirit Breaker said:
Heavyweight boxing has suffered a decrease in interest and talent in the U.S. That is a pretty apparent fact just by watching what our amateur program has been producing.

I think one of the things that has done this is how big heavyweights are these days. To be a truly relevant HW you need to be about 6'4" 245lbs. Those are not dimensions of what is even considered "typical" big people.

For people that are that large and athletic to boot there are sports that have much more developed organizations, are more mainstream, have school programs and are just generally considered less dangerous. In the states even sports like football and hockey are being monitored closer and closer because of all the concussion related problems.
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I don't think you have to be 6'4" and 245 lbs. to be a relevant heavyweight. Tyson and Holyfield were never that big but they were skilled enough to take out the bigger guys. Current prospects like Bryant Jennings and even Wilder don't weigh near that weight and yet they are making some noise in the division. David Haye is also not 245 lbs. If you're skillful enough with enough power you don't have to fit those dimensions. I also don't think the heavyweight division is all that bad nowadays. There are still some interesting fights to be made and hopefully when they're all made there will be new prospects and challengers that are stepping up to fill the void.
 
GhostBlade said:
I don't think you have to be 6'4" and 245 lbs. to be a relevant heavyweight. Tyson and Holyfield were never that big but they were skilled enough to take out the bigger guys. Current prospects like Bryant Jennings and even Wilder don't weigh near that weight and yet they are making some noise in the division. David Haye is also not 245 lbs. If you're skillful enough with enough power you don't have to fit those dimensions. I also don't think the heavyweight division is all that bad nowadays. There are still some interesting fights to be made and hopefully when they're all made there will be new prospects and challengers that are stepping up to fill the void.
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Tyson and Holyfield haven't been truly relevant in a decade. Tyson retired 7 years ago!

Jennings will get smashed eventually because he is too small.

Wilder isn't 245lbs., but he is 6'7" and hasn't accomplished much so far.

Haye has done much less than he is given credit for at HW, and has already shown that when he comes in against big men that are actually talented he has nothing.
 
Spirit Breaker said:
Tyson and Holyfield haven't been truly relevant in a decade. Tyson retired 7 years ago!

Jennings will get smashed eventually because he is too small.

Wilder isn't 245lbs., but he is 6'7" and hasn't accomplished much so far.

Haye has done much less than he is given credit for at HW, and has already shown that when he comes in against big men that are actually talented he has nothing.
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I understand they have retired and are not relevant as of today but I'm saying if they were still in their primes fighting in today's division, Tyson and Holyfield would do very well because they have the skills to back them up and they weren't 6'4" 245 lbs. I don't think Jennings is all that small but he just doesn't have a big punch and someone like Arreola would most likely bully him in the ring. Also, David Haye is 26-2 and before Wlad he lost all the way in 2004 to Carl Thompson when Haye's corner threw in the towel pre-maturely when Haye easily could have survived the remaining 13 seconds remaining in the fight. In the Wlad fight he didn't perform like he could have but I bet he'd do a lot better in a rematch. At least he wasn't knocked out like so many others that have faced Wlad. Haye is no Lennox Lewis but he is still one of the best boxers today.
 
What ever happened to American NFL? Does anyone know whats the name of the player married to the hot Brazilian model?
 
the klitschkos have a super boring style
lewis/holyfield/tyson/bowe were fun to watch
 
The last two posts made my brain hurt.
 
Can't speak for the rest of the world but in America all the potential top HWs and LHWs are too busy sacking quarterbacks, dunking basketballs and hitting homeruns.

No matter how badly people want to deny it, it is pretty much a given that major team sports like football, basketball and baseball took the top athletic big guys in the US.

Team sports are not only more accessible than boxing but less dangerous (Well maybe football is equally on par but the sport has established itself as a religion in the US so it's an exception).
 
IceAndFire said:
Can't speak for the rest of the world but in America all the potential top HWs and LHWs are too busy sacking quarterbacks, dunking basketballs and hitting homeruns.

No matter how badly people want to deny it, it is pretty much a given that major team sports like football, basketball and baseball took the top athletic big guys in the US.

Team sports are not only more accessible than boxing but less dangerous (Well maybe football is equally on par but the sport has established itself as a religion in the US so it's an exception).
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The word is "potential." Just because something has potential doesn't mean it's going to come into fruition. Most of those athletic guys dunking basketballs, hitting baseballs or sacking helpless quarterbacks while fully padded would look like Oliver McCall in midst of an emotional breakdown after taking a real punch from a boxer. Seth Mitchell is the face of when someone that excelled at football goes into boxing. It's a one on one sport and there is no head and body gear to protect you and most football players and other athletes don't have what it takes to turn into real great boxers. I'm sure there are some athletes in other sports that could be good or potentially great boxers because of their coordination, mentality and toughness but I think it would be such a small percentage that it's really not worth dwelling on.
 
Lack of American champs and the boxing decline of the middle 2000s.

Maybe when Klitschkos retire.
 
GhostBlade said:
The word is "potential." Just because something has potential doesn't mean it's going to come into fruition. Most of those athletic guys dunking basketballs, hitting baseballs or sacking helpless quarterbacks while fully padded would look like Oliver McCall in midst of an emotional breakdown after taking a real punch from a boxer. Seth Mitchell is the face of when someone that excelled at football goes into boxing. It's a one on one sport and there is no head and body gear to protect you and most football players and other athletes don't have what it takes to turn into real great boxers. I'm sure there are some athletes in other sports that could be good or potentially great boxers because of their coordination, mentality and toughness but I think it would be such a small percentage that it's really not worth dwelling on.
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Which is exactly why I used the word "Potential". I'm not claiming that all those NFL or NBA players would be great boxers. However if a good portion of them chose to focus on boxing instead of playing team sports at an early age, I'd be willing to bet that the American HW boxing scene would have more depth today.

Of course, having great athleticism doesn't automatically mean that you will be a good fighter but it certainly wouldn't hurt either...........especially when you consider how abysmal the state of American HW boxing is.
 
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