Has the interest in the heavyweight division been drained so much in the U.S that no match up between current heavyweights could sell out an arena there?
Has the interest in the heavyweight division been drained so much in the U.S that no match up between current heavyweights could sell out an arena there?
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There are plenty of decent American heavyweights BUT there's precious few who fight in a style or manner the crowds like, ditto for personalities outside the ring.
Bryant Jennings and Deontay Wilder have the best chance to excite the fans but. Jennings isn't getting much attention from the channels that cover boxing and Wilder isn't fighting anyone with a pulse. Wilder had a chance as a Bronze medalist to springboard into doing something special as a pro but he's too raw. Jennings has seemingly come from nowhere, but his attitude is that of a champion. He wants to test himself, he's getting good matches, and he fights with a style more similar to Ali than Tyson so maybe fans don't know how to handle that just yet.
In the end this all boils down to US amateur boxing being in the shitter. We've got precious few stars right now Floyd Mayweather being the MAIN one and he's aging out...who will replace him? Broner? I don't know if we have the dynamic superstars we used to. We're going to have to find that fire again from the youth up to the pros...it'll happen but not soon.
Briggs v Arreola?
Wilder v Jennings?
Arreola v Wilder seems the most likely, but yet similarly unlikely to fill up an arena in a realistic sense.
You say tomato,
‘n I say …… it correctly.
That is just another symptom of something else.
I believe its more down to a lack of quality trainers.
Emmanuel Steward has said before that there are now a lot of pad holders rather than trainers.
I see it in our small boxing gym. Just like cheerleaders taking young boxers on the pads making them feel good but not really teaching them much.
I also see now, fitness coaches turning to boxing coaching like they think because they can get someone fit it now qualifies them to encourage people in to the ring and fight.
In Guernsey recently we had an amateur mma show in a cage and there were fights of all disciplines on on the night of the show. One was "white collar" and a local personal fitness trainer had this young fat rugby player who wanted to fight but also wanted to lose weight and was doing the personal trainers circuits and asked him to coach him along with a couple of other guys who train under the personal trainer who have uncompetetive martial arts back grounds and have done a bit of training alongside boxers.
Rather than thinking he would be irresponsible and out of his depth to try and teach someone how to fight, he went along with it. The lad was tough but basically just took a beating and kept turning away and the fight should have been stopped. Its only because his opponent wasnt good that he actually managed to hear the final bell.
My point is there are too many wannabe trainers who have no experience or insight to pass on but want to be involved and seen as some svengali.
Mike Tyson once said he would not have the patience to act as atrainer but I think he is dabbling a little bit now. He knows so much about boxing and has been in with some of the biggest punchers ever and masses of experience.
What you need is a drive to encourage the old pros to get back in to clubs or introduce it in to schools as part of the kids physical education where they can have teams challenge other schools.
Right now there are a lot of charlatans parading as boxing coaches who are diluting the skill levels as the generations move on.
Mike Tyson v Holyfield 3 would get more fans than Wilder v Arreleo
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
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