Are all the best American Boxers in the NFL and NBA?

[generalbulldog]

I had an interesting convo with my older brother and he mentioned a quote that Bob Arum used a few years back saying something like, "the best American heavyweights are in the NFL."

I'm thinking it's not just the heavyweights but other weight classes too. There's no real incentives getting your head bashed when you can make more money in another sport like the NFL, NBA,that's just less brutal, although American football can at times be brutal, but not like boxing. And most of the black inner city kids wants to be the next Lebron James or Vince Young than being the next Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson.

Sugar Ray Robinson has been on record to say that he hates boxing and considered it to be a barbaric sport, and he did it for the money, because it was easy for him. My brother and I was thinking that if SRR had lived in this era he would probably be a corner back in the NFL with his speed and athleticism and not a professional prize fighter.

Your thoughts?

[Rocky Balboa]

Boxing more brutal than NFL

[kingfrnk]

Boxing more brutal than NFL

i rather be in a ring with Wlad than be on a field with Ray Lewis.

[ElTerribleMorales]

Boxing more brutal than NFL

i rather be in a ring with Wlad than be on a field with Ray Lewis.

plus you only take the hits come fight night, which comes at the most once every 3 to 4 months, not like football which is pretty much weekly

[Taeth]

Boxing takes way more head trauma than Football which is also very bad, but not like boxing, the rate of people alzheimers and parkinsons is way lower in football.

The thing is that football and basketball have the best recruiting scouts, they take all the athletes in highschool, and what young kid would rather be a boxer that nobody knows instead of a superstar who is on top of the world? Even guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao are just whispers in the wind in the sports world compared to guys like Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Lebron James, etc.

[Taeth]

Boxing more brutal than NFL

i rather be in a ring with Wlad than be on a field with Ray Lewis.

plus you only take the hits come fight night, which comes at the most once every 3 to 4 months, not like football which is pretty much weekly

So boxers don't spar at all? Football is a lot harder on the body, but not even close on the brain, boxers need to stop fooling themselves that its not the case.

[ElTerribleMorales]

i rather be in a ring with Wlad than be on a field with Ray Lewis.

plus you only take the hits come fight night, which comes at the most once every 3 to 4 months, not like football which is pretty much weekly

So boxers don't spar at all? Football is a lot harder on the body, but not even close on the brain, boxers need to stop fooling themselves that its not the case.

have you ever boxed a day in your life? you don't go all out in sparring, so whoever gets seriously hurt in sparring well unless it's some freak accident, should probably be looking for another sport, and i'm pretty sure that there's a bigger risk for immediate injury in football than in boxing, such as paralysis

[generalbulldog]

Boxing takes way more head trauma than Football which is also very bad, but not like boxing, the rate of people alzheimers and parkinsons is way lower in football.

The thing is that football and basketball have the best recruiting scouts, they take all the athletes in highschool, and what young kid would rather be a boxer that nobody knows instead of a superstar who is on top of the world? Even guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao are just whispers in the wind in the sports world compared to guys like Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Lebron James, etc.

Exactly. Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali are the most well known in their respective sports, but Jordan is living large with something like a 500 million dollar networth and in good health compared to Ali that's living with Parkinsons.

Not to mentioned the outrageous NBA and NFL contracts. Matthew Stafford the 1st pick in the NFL draft is getting like 42 million guaranteed and he hasn't played 1 down in the NFL.

And paralysis hardly happens in the NFL. It can happen, but I"m willing to bet that there have been more boxing deaths than paralysis in the NFL within the last 10 years. NFL players when they retired have an assortment of injuries, but for boxers like Ali, Hearns, Frazier have serious injuries to their heads and have slur speech or parkinsons or Alzheimers.

It's just more lucrative playing basketball, football, or baseball than being a pro boxer.

[Taeth]

Paralysis hardly ever happens, it does occur, but still way lower stats than boxing has for permanent brain damage. ALso if you've sparred a day in YOUR life, you would know that people don't always take it easy sparring, especially if you've ever gotten ready for a competition, sure you are wearing 16oz. gloves, but you still feel it, if the person has any technique or power whatsoever. But you probably shadowbox with gloves on, or you've obviously never done inter-gym sparring sessions or real sparring.

[ElTerribleMorales]

Paralysis hardly ever happens, it does occur, but still way lower stats than boxing has for permanent brain damage. ALso if you've sparred a day in YOUR life, you would know that people don't always take it easy sparring, especially if you've ever gotten ready for a competition, sure you are wearing 16oz. gloves, but you still feel it, if the person has any technique or power whatsoever. But you probably shadowbox with gloves on, or you've obviously never done inter-gym sparring sessions or real sparring.

i've been boxing since i was 8 yrs old, plenty of sparring and no way do you hit as hard in sparring as you do in an actual fight, even if an Amateur fight, i didn't pursue boxing as a career or anything but did have my share of Am fights, don't think i can say the same about you though, and for the record, here in PR we basically start out with pro-style training, obviously you start with the fundamentals but we're basically taught a style to move on to pros, that's why PR isn't really huge on the amateur circuit

[Kel]

They all wear pads, it's rugby with protection. I'd love to see them all without all that padding and helmets, they would pussy out of big tackles everytime.

[ElTerribleMorales]

They all wear pads, it's rugby with protection. I'd love to see them all without all that padding and helmets, they would pussy out of big tackles everytime.

lmao gotta give you rep, but for whatever reason cant lol so i'm gonna have to give you a rain check, but you're dead on

[Kel]

By the way, all the best American heavyweight boxers are doing sod all

[generalbulldog]

They all wear pads, it's rugby with protection. I'd love to see them all without all that padding and helmets, they would pussy out of big tackles everytime.

And I agree with you. But most Americans don't even know what Rugby is, they don't even understand that American Football is the bastard child of Rugby but with pads. But it's considered the most hardcore sport to them.

This discussion isn't about whether boxing or American football is tougher, but it's boxing hands down. The recovery time for a boxing match is anywhere from a few weeks to months, while the NFL is 1 week.

[Taeth]

Paralysis hardly ever happens, it does occur, but still way lower stats than boxing has for permanent brain damage. ALso if you've sparred a day in YOUR life, you would know that people don't always take it easy sparring, especially if you've ever gotten ready for a competition, sure you are wearing 16oz. gloves, but you still feel it, if the person has any technique or power whatsoever. But you probably shadowbox with gloves on, or you've obviously never done inter-gym sparring sessions or real sparring.

i've been boxing since i was 8 yrs old, plenty of sparring and no way do you hit as hard in sparring as you do in an actual fight, even if an Amateur fight, i didn't pursue boxing as a career or anything but did have my share of Am fights, don't think i can say the same about you though, and for the record, here in PR we basically start out with pro-style training, obviously you start with the fundamentals but we're basically taught a style to move on to pros, that's why PR isn't really huge on the amateur circuit

I don't know who you were fighitng with, I know people are tough in PR, but if you sparred with anybody half decent, and they feel like going hard, then you definitely have wars, and the difference is that they don't last 3-4 rounds like an amateur fight, and they aren't 2-3 minute rounds, I've had times where we've gone 8-10 hard rounds with guys. Its obviously different htan a real fight because you don't have the adrenaline going the same, way and you know the fighter and so you feel more comfortable, but we still hit go hard.