Wlad and Tony showed something

[amat]

I don't buy the MMA thing. MMA has been big for about 5 years now. That's when it got exposed to the audience it has now anyways. Before TUF you would never find any young kid inquiring about BJJ and kickboxing lessons. It's effect if it will have one will be in the long term, the heavyweight division has been in disarray since Lewis left and Vitali started backing out of fights with Rahman.

But it is true, a kid with great athleticism isn't going to want to grind their way through the amateur system and operate in near annonomity when they could be the star of their school's football team and not get punched in the face.

Boxing needs a grassroots revival imo but that's a longterm solution, not much to do with how the heavyweights are now but something to think about. Hopefully these superstars who made so much money from boxing, King, Arum, De La Hoya will begin to put money back into boxing at the lower levels.

[SweetPea]

Changing the weight limit isn't going to change anything.

The fact is that 200-250 pound talented American athletes aren't going to waste their time in boxing when they can compete in safer and less corrupt sports like basketball and football. And that's not going to change anytime soon. The days of the heavyweight division being dominated by Americans are over. Get used to it.

I know we all wish that the heavyweight division was stronger, but there are a bunch of other divisions that are full of talented fighters and all-action fights. Enjoy those.