Bob Garrett

Our amateur boxing programs haven’t kept pace with the UK or Europe. Brittan especially started ramping up their boxing programs like crazy and they’re starting to get results. It’s no mystery that you can’t compete internationally if athletes have nowhere to go to box—or if they find a gym the trainers and organizers are incompetent. Our amateur programs need more generous seed money coming from deep pockets like Arum, De La Hoya, Frank Holmes, whoever—people who have benefited massively from the sport in this country need to give back huge—and that’s not being done enough right now. Where’s the generosity?

Posted October 24, 2012 12:52 pm 

Hidalgo

Kenny Weldon knows first hand about the issues and problems with amateur boxing today. He wrote a pretty good post several months ago specifically addressing the state of modern amateur boxing. He was annoyed, sad, and disgusted. All at once.

Posted October 23, 2012 6:09 pm 

coach

If they want succes
they need amateur coaches ie top ones then and only then will do anything. Heveing pros wont help them as they have found out
So far

Posted October 23, 2012 5:56 pm 

TheFacts

I heard a new scoring system will be introduced in the following Olympics(& them hiding live scoring is awfully suspicious people aren’t stupid).Boxing has been declining in the U.S. the last couple of years in no way do I think it’s dying or ever will it is however flourishing all over Europe & many pother places.As far the U.S. producing another young prodigy well theirs always one right around the corner.People forget ali,leonard,jones jr are once in a century/lifetime type fighters.One good reason why amateur boxing’s declining isn’t just the corrupt business side of it football,basketball ect are taking a lot of our athletes & boxing isn’t the safest sport in the world it separates the men from the boys.Like Tyson said you play football,basketball,baseball nobody plays boxing.It’s considered the hardest sport in the world,takes a lot of discipline, risks are so much higher & there isn’t that many people willing to put in the work.In other sports you ink multi-million dollar deals & have a safety net in boxing you don’t(Only the mega stars floyd,pac,cotto make that type of money.Another Huge reason why boxing is clearly declining is the lack of mainstream media & competition with mma.There’s just so many reason not just one.

Posted October 23, 2012 4:47 pm 

Duke

Just to react on some of the comments below – it is true, that the scoring system in amateur league plus controversial decisions in pro league DO hurt the sport of boxing. I really hope this will get better, especially in the amateur boxing, where some changes in the scoring are planned. I also agree with saying that parents are more likely to let their children do boxing when they see polite and well-mannered athletes such as Klitschko brothers on the TV instead of rude killing machines such as Mike Tyson (even though he was GREAT boxer though). I don’t agree that boxing is on decline everywhere – some people say it is booming in most of the Europe – I can speak for my homecountry, the Czech Republic, where boxing is booming greatly, especially in last 5 years. In the US it is probably because of the lack of good heavyweights and competition with MMA. I also think that there should be only one World Boxing Institution, instead of WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC, ….etc, because it makes everything very confusing – there should be only one champion per weight class.

Posted October 23, 2012 1:36 pm 

coach

They need euro coaches until then they have no chance

Posted October 23, 2012 8:32 am 

Charlottteville

In western europe north to the alps, central europe, eastern europe and to some degree Balkan boxing is booming.

Posted October 23, 2012 8:00 am 

Barabus

Ripple, are you claiming that boxing is in decline evrywhere, not just in the US? In Europe it is booming. In the UK, participant levels have doubled, and it has been reintroduced into thousands of schools. So who will save boxing in the US, Obama or Mitt? lol

Posted October 23, 2012 6:33 am 

Blanke

Pretty sure one of the US women won a medal.

Posted October 23, 2012 3:00 am 

Lman

True, still, there seems to be a steady tream of decent professionals coming through despite the amateur slump, mainly in the lighter weight classes anyway…Broner, Trout, Wilder, then you got established guys like Mayweather and Ward, all of them seemingly on top or on the way there..

Posted October 22, 2012 11:11 pm 

Raskolikov

Unfortunately, the amateur scene in my area of Western Massachusetts has dried up almost entirely since the 80′s – the local GG tournament even had to be consolidated into another region a few years back.

I honestly think that it is parents steering their children away from what is perceived to be a dangerous sport that is the main driver behind the death of amateur boxing among young people ages 10-20. There are so many other choices of sporting activities available in most communities that are well-organized and team-oriented as opposed to the hap-hazard arrangements and solitary nature of boxing. Soccer, basketball, baseball and even football are all seen as safer and strive to build social skills as well amongst the team members.

When parents see top professionals on screen trash-talking in a disrespectful manner and generally behaving like a-holes, this also causes them to steer their child away from the sport. America needs positive high-profile role models in the sport such as the Klitschkos.

Does anyone know what the total number of registered amateurs are in the US today as opposed to 10, 20 or 30 years ago? I bet it is less than half of what it was 30 years ago.

Posted October 22, 2012 11:06 pm 

dick tiger

This is something that was not mentioned in the article. Lets say that you are a young man and that you are interested in becoming a fighter. You go to the gym and start putting in the work that it takes to have a shot at being successful . Time passes and you have a few fights , and things seem to be going good for you. Then after a fight that you know that you have won and that the crowd knows you won you are “judged” the looser. Then you see this happening to other fighters , you notice that it is also happening in the televised pro fights. You decide the hell with a sport that I can’t get a fair shake in, and you take up a different sport. I have seen this happen first hand, and can understand why we have less and less young men becoming involved in the sport of boxing. The judging in both the amateur and professional ranks needs to be cleaned up. Today’s kids aren’t stupid they know what they see.

Posted October 22, 2012 9:09 pm