USA Heavyweight boxing

[Dornalai]

What has happened to the USA heavyweight boxers?
Michael Hunter is ranked No1 but is barely in the Boxrec to 20.
What happened to the days of the great US heavyweights?

[JamesPhilips]

It’s just the globalisation of heavyweight boxing. Eastern bloc countries didn’t used to allow pro boxing. Modern nutrition and availability of food has also resulted in a larger global population of bigger humans. The pool of heavyweight boxers is larger than it’s ever been. Chinese, Cuban and ex Soviet nations are now in the mix. Also I think boxing interest in the US has receded and fewer Americans are attracted to boxing. People say the NBA and NFL has taken away a large number of big US athletes from boxing. I’m not sure about that as both sports have been very popular for decades; these are hardly new sports. The most interesting aspect is the number of successful British heavyweights. I think that’s because of amateur funding, modern nutrition and the fact that boxing has a higher profile in the UK. Success breeds success.

[Perkin Warbeck]

It has something to do with softer lifestyles and lack of motivation, people being unwilling to go through the required intense training.

Most of the great heavyweights of the past like Louis, Foreman, Liston and Marciano grew up poor. Now life is much easier for Americans.

Muhammad Ali was highly motivated and stayed in excellent shape between fights. Nowadays, American boxers seem lazy and grow large bellies.

Heavyweights used to fight more often - usually several times a year. Nowadays, many only fight once or twice a year.

Another factor is the entry of very good heavyweights from other parts of the world into heavyweight boxing (Usyk, Dubois, Joshua, the Klitschkos, Kabayel, Hrgovic). They seem to be generally more motivated than American heavyweights.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Big American lads rather play is safe in the NBA or other sports.

[joshj909]

Big American lads rather play is safe in the NBA or other sports.

NBA is dominated by non-Americans at the moment as well

[Perseus]

What has happened to the USA heavyweight boxers?
Michael Hunter is ranked No1 but is barely in the Boxrec to 20.
What happened to the days of the great US heavyweights?

The popularity of boxing in America is a fraction of what it was 50 years ago.
Boxing fell off the mainstream radar around 25 years ago and has been a niche sport ever since.

[JMac]

What has happened to the USA heavyweight boxers?
Michael Hunter is ranked No1 but is barely in the Boxrec to 20.
What happened to the days of the great US heavyweights?

The popularity of boxing in America is a fraction of what it was 50 years ago.
Boxing fell off the mainstream radar around 25 years ago and has been a niche sport ever since.

A big part of the problem is the amateur program. Most of the great US heavyweight boxers had good amateur careers and many boxed in the Olympics. The current governing body USA Boxing is weak compared to past years. I put most of the blame on the excutive director. He doesn’t get amateur boxing on TV anymore. Back before him, they used to show the US Championships, Golden Glove nationals, dual matches against the world and Olympic trials on Tv every year except the Oly trials. Kids are just not exposed to it anymore. Plus the younger generation would rather look at their phones or x-box than go to a gym.

[londonwar]

All of the above, pretty much.
Look at the most recent amateur of any note, richard torres. His pro career has been handled so badly.

As for Hunter? He's a joke.

Let's not forget when boxrec suddenly rolled out the new search format offering a long list of sub-pro and outright bullsh*t versions of boxing.....This was never going to end well. Throw Saudi money into the mix and you can pretty much turn the lights out.....