The influence of the heavies in the perception of American boxing

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Liam_Main's recent and excellent thread concerning ' Britain v USA ' set me thinking about the perceived recent decline in American boxing, and at that thread I floated the notion that what is really hurting the Americans at the moment is that they no longer reign supreme among the big men.

What prompted the idea was that I recalled that during the seventies - universally regarded as a very strong period in boxing history - the Americans didn't dominate at either middleweight or welter. I decided to do a little research ( any excuse to refresh my memory, ) as to how the Americans fared, overall, during the golden seventies. It goes without saying that in Frazier, Foreman and Ali the Americans had the heavyweight division sewn up, but while it should be remembered that the lightheavy ' lineage ' fell into disarray following Bob Foster's retirement in 1974, there weren't enough Americans in the mix for lightheavy honours for us to give them a pass here, the leading men being Conteh, Galindez, Cuello, Parlov, with Rossman and Saad Muhammad flying the stars and stripes toward the end of the decade.

Among the big men, then, America was unchallenged. However, from lightheavy on down it was a very different story. Lineal champs, in each weight division from middleweight down, during the seventies were as follows :

MIDDLEWEIGHT

1970 - 77 Monzon ( Argentina ) ; 1977 - 78 Valdez ( Colombia ) ; 1978 - 79 Corro ( Argentina ) ; 1979 - 80 Antuofermo ( Italy. )


LIGHTMIDDLE

1970 - 71 Bossi ( Italy ) ; 1971 - 74 Wajima ( Japan ) ; 1975 - 76 Do Yuh ( South Korea ) ; 1976 Wajima, again, and then Castellini ( Argentina, ) until '77 ; 1977 - 78 Gazo ( Nicaragua ) ; 1978 - 79 Kudo ( Japan ) ; 1979 - 81 Kalule ( Uganda. )


WELTER

1970 - 71 Backus ( USA ) ; 1971 - 75 Napoles ( Cuba / Mexico ) ; 1975 - 76 Stracey ( GB ) ; 1976 - 79 Palomino ( Mexico ) ; 1979 Benitez ( Puerto Rico ) ; 1979 - 80 Leonard ( USA. )


Below welter, the USA had only Danny Lopez ( feather ) claiming a lineal title.


Bottom line, then, is that during a golden decade of boxing the USA boasted only three lineal champions outside the heavyweight division, yet they simultaneously boasted three of the greatest heavyweights who ever drew breath sitting atop the flagship division. Not sure how you folks interpret all this, but my take would be that the decline in American boxing is something of a myth, and that the percepton is hugely influenced by the fact that they don't have a dominant heavyweight.

Thoughts ?

Agree entirely Windy. The idea that at the start of the 90s - when there was a lot of dross around (as shown by a 38 yr old Duran becoming MW champ) things were good because Tyson/Holy/Bowe were king says it all really.

When 45 yr old Foreman becomes lineal champ - doesn't that say that boxing was weak in the late 80s early 90s? Yet apparently now, under the K-bros things are worse.

Interesting to note that the Germans seem to think boxing is quite strong at the moment. I wonder what they'll think when the next US champ comes along?