By Allen Hmiel: People have seemed to lose interest in America in following the sport of boxing rapidly over the past twenty years. Years ago, American fighters totally dominated the world wide boxing rankings and almost had a monopoly on the sport and the title belts held. My has time and American sports viewership and boxing popularity and participation changed at a rapid pace.
I recently went through the ESPN Worldwide Boxing rankings and was shocked to see that American fighters in the divisions from Heavyweight Thu Featherweight 11 total divisions) had only 25 fighters listed or ranked in the top ten fighters out of the 110 total fighters listed worldwide. That comes out to 23% The Junior Welterweight division had the most American fighters with 5 fighters out of the top ten and Light Heavy-Junior Middleweight and Welterweight has 3 Americans each ranked in the top ten. These numbers were shocking to me and I am sure are shocking to all of the American boxing fans. America did have 7 out of the top 15 P4P fighters mentioned.
Where have all the Boxers in the USA gone? I can tell you quickly they have chosen to participate in all the other more popular sports offered and that are more widely publicized across the US in the newspapers and on the sports news casts. Most shocking to me was that there are only two Heavyweights listed in the top ten fighters and they were 8th Tony Thompson and 10th Eddie Chambers. Neither of these two is anything close to a star or a household name or could begin to fill out a hotel ballroom for a fight. Being as it is, the heavyweight boxing belt is the most prestigious honor in sports. The USA looks like it will be some time before they ever regain any hope of having the world heavyweight boxing champion!
Congratulations to the rest of the world and the great success they have accomplished in taking over from the Americans, the boxing rankings and championship belts. Taking the top 5 Organizations into account and the possible 35 champions, the US had 7 belt holders or 20%. I can clearly see the US has lost it’s dominance and control of the sport of boxing in the world’s eyes. I wonder if the USA will ever regain the prominence it once held in the sport of boxing with the dismal numbers and the few champion belts we currently hold?? But the USA did have two of the five Junior welterweight belts and congratulations to Bradley and Alexander. Interesting facts and the numbers positively show the USA has lost it’s grip on the championship titles.
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