Interesting article on a topic that has certainly been bounced around a bit. My contention has always been that the U.S. likes to be at the forefront of any sport. This much can be surmised from the first two sentences of the article. When the U.S. finds itself behind on a global sense, it loses interest, and moves its focus to other sports. (“If I can’t dominate, I’m not interested.) This fact may or may not be of importance to those living elsewhere in the world. But to those of us in the Americas it’s kind of a big deal. With U.S. interest comes TV coverage, sponsorship money, and incentive for developing talent.

But I also gleaned some curious, if predictable, slants from the article. First of course is the constant use of “America” to mean the United States. Typical habit, and one that’s normally harmless. But it does tend to skew arguments a wee bit. Then there’s the sort of annoying premise that boxing only exists in the U.S., and is now shifting to Europe and Asia. Sure… Mexico gets mentioned I think twice in the article. And never mind Puerto Rico. Unless of course the author means to include Puerto Rico in with the United States, since we are, technically, a territory.

Hey, I get it. The gist of the article is to point out the shift of boxing powers abroad, and away from the United States. He makes a good point in that the heavyweights, once a stronghold of the U.S., is now almost exclusively a domain across the pond. But the article reeks of a MAGA-type train of thought. He even ponders over the need for fighters to know “fluent English” as a requirement, although he did pose it as a question.

I would point out that South America is totally ignored… but alas, none of the countries down there are exactly powers in boxing.

The author asks, “Will the US reclaim its throne…” I think we all know that’s not gonna happen. To begin with, let’s do the only fair comparison that exists in terms of boxing prowess, or something measurable, such as number of world champions per capita. The latest table I saw has the U.S. at #7 of countries with most boxing champions per 1 million people (minimum 10 champions).

The author goes to great lengths in asking how the U.S. (not America) can regain its boxing dominance. Again, it’s not gonna happen. The U.S. is just going to have to get used to not being the top dog in a sport it loves.