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.

[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]

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

[JonesJrMayweather]

Boxing more brutal than NFL

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

give me ray any day of the week and twice on sunday...no way in hell i rather take a punch from a heavy weight than a tackle from a football player...with pads on? please that's not even close...brain damage is far worse than having the wind knocked out of you. Also in the nfl they get fined for helmet to helmet hits ,so there is far less chance of a severe head injury.

So boxing>football in terms of danger, and long term effects.

[El Kabong]

Just because you get fined for helmet to helmet hits doesn't mean they don't happen anymore.

Tell me football isn't dangerous when Troy Aikman has pads and a helmet on and gets concussion after concussion....it's not because Troy is soft either.

Boxing is dangerous but so is football.

I would love to see these hard ass rugby players try and tackle Barry Sanders or Jim Brown

[HattonTheHammer]

Just because you get fined for helmet to helmet hits doesn't mean they don't happen anymore.

Tell me football isn't dangerous when Troy Aikman has pads and a helmet on and gets concussion after concussion....it's not because Troy is soft either.

Boxing is dangerous but so is football.

I would love to see these hard ass rugby players try and tackle Barry Sanders or Jim Brown

in britain american football is considered lightweight because they wear all those pads unlike rugby when your getting properly hit with no protection.

But often in rugby you get guys that are either the runners and are too short or the defensive liners who are too big.

In the NFL almost everyone other than the QB is built like a monster and designed to hit and hurt an opponent at maximum impact and indeed some of the potential heavyweight superstars of yesteryear have been lost to the sport!!

[JonesJrMayweather]

Just because you get fined for helmet to helmet hits doesn't mean they don't happen anymore.

Tell me football isn't dangerous when Troy Aikman has pads and a helmet on and gets concussion after concussion....it's not because Troy is soft either.

Boxing is dangerous but so is football.

I would love to see these hard ass rugby players try and tackle Barry Sanders or Jim Brown

No one said football isn't dangerous, but compared to boxing it's less. When was the last time a player was "hit" by another player and killed or paralyzed? It's been a while. Not saying boxer are killed on regular basis.

Yeah troy aikman had a concussion....but he's still making money from broadcasting...I'll take that hit from lavar arrington that ended troy's career over the hits gerald mclellan, muhammed ali, meldtrick taylor, all took any day...