The Death of the Great American Heavyweight
Let's face it, the Heavyweight Championship of the World is probably the most highly regarded and coveted title in all of sports. It's the crown jewel of individual accomplishment in sports, and has been ever since John L. Sullivan first held the title during a ten year reign from 1882 - 1892. James Braddock, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, and of course, the great Muhammad Ali are all great American heavyweights that have held the unofficial moniker of "baddest man on the planet." But, it has been more than 20 years since an American has held an Undisputed crown and more than 10 years since we've seen a legitimate heavyweight contender emerge from the US.
Despite the recent championship runs of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones Jr., boxing's biggest stage and marquee division remains at Heavyweight. Heavyweight boxers capture the public's attention due to their size, ability and raw power. Fight fans watch boxing to see the knockout. We can talk all we want about back and forth wars, technical battles that boxers have in the ring and this and that, but at the end of the day people fill the seats to see someone get their lights turned out. And to be fair, the Klitschko brothers are still knocking people out. But without a US heavyweight pulling the trigger, the public in this country just isn't going to be interested in watching. This problem, unlike some of the other ones that plague the sport, will probably be corrected in the future. It's cyclical in nature. The talent pool goes up and down, and it's in a downward trend right now. It is just a matter of finding and grooming new talent, then using good promotion to build him up in the public's eyes.
The real problem for boxing is that during this lull more and more fight fans are migrating over to MMA while boxing searches for its next great heavyweight savior. It's marketing is leaps and bounds ahead of boxing here in the US, while it's stable of fighters is largely made up of young, athletic American prospects. One other thing to note is the explosion of dominant college wrestlers that are making the transition into MMA to continue their athletic careers. Before MMA exploded into the public consciousness after the first season of Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter, amateur wrestlers truly had no venue other than the Olympics or World Championships to display their abilities. Now that we've seen successful champions and fighters in MMA that have that wrestling pedigree, the sport is never going to be short of talent here in the US. Internationally, boxing may still be ahead of MMA, but your popularity here in the US is what will ultimately determine your place among the sports world. If the American public isn't tuning in to watch you fight, then essentially nobody's watching. That's not me being biased, that's just fact. Our media, our fans, our money drives the sporting world.
And right now, 4 of the 7 MMA divisions have US champions, with 100 more waiting in the wings for their shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment