The point about young American athletes taking up other sports than boxing is very valid. In these days young athletic men can get paid minimum of 285k a year(zero years experience, and up to 900k for 10 years or more) for warming a bench and helping out in practice scrims. you have guys who risk their lives, train 7 days a week and don't know WHEN their next paycheck is coming. Sports now-a-days are unionized, they take care of health, and lots of other things. Boxing is pretty much do or die. Young Talented American athletes are given scholarships for their athletic ability, so they get a great education too. Boxing usually doesn't provide that. From a fans point of view, i wish more talented athletes would get into boxing because i believe they would succeed but i can definately understand why they don't.
Also as far as comparing athletes from different sports, its just plain silly. football players are trained machines focusing on football, and boxers are trained machines focusing on boxing. ray lewis, lennox lewis...couldnt hold each others jockstraps at each others sports.
HummerH2 is an awesome machine that can get from point A to B no matter the terrain (just not as fast)
Porsche is and awesome machine that can get from point A to B in the blink of an eye (just not on dirt roads)
Both are excellent machines, but cant do each others jobs for shit, they werent designed for it.