Yes I have stated this in numerous posts that the heavyweight championship of the world became controlled by Black fighters because virtually nobody else fought for it. Aside from England who until recently only produced one large heavyweight that was White(Bugner), only tiny South Africa had anybody competing against American Blacks. It's not shocking that once the sport became international that American Blacks are now a small fringe factor in the sport. It's almost the reverse of the 70's with Black prospects being viewed as suspects more than prospects by knowledgeable fans. The DWF types still believe that Mike Tyson clones can save the divison.........
I'm glad someone else shares my viewpoint.
American Negro Boxers from the past (Ali, Frazier, Ray Leonard, Ray Robinson, etc) had it easy in the sense that they only mainly fought white Americans, white British, or other Negroes. They never fought any Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Germans, Kazakhs etc.
To illustrate my point: One time I saw on ESPN Classic a boxing match between Donny Lalonde (white) and Sugar Ray Leonard ("great" Negro from the past), from the 1980's I think. Ray Leonard won by KO over Lalonde in the 9th. It was one of Leonard's greatest wins. Lalonde only had about 15 amateur fights. He was the best white fighter of his time in that weight class.
That tells me the level of opposition in those times was piss-poor. A guy with 15 amateur fights would get nowhere today, and Russians, Kazakhs, Germans, Romanians etc come with 300+ amateur fights. Do you understand the difference in competitive level? Thats a joke. And thats the type of fighters Negroes of the past fought. No disrespect meant to Lalonde, but he wouldn't even make a top50 guy today. But in the 1980's he was seen as a credible challenger and the best white fighter in his weightclass. Clearly, the competitive level in the 1980's was far lower.
There was very limited international competition in those days. So calling these Negroes "World Champions" is stretching the truth. The reality is that they were champions of a small talent pool that basically concerned USA and Britain, and that was all. Yes there was the odd German, one or two, or maybe the odd Italian here and there. But in no way was boxing as internationally competitive in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and even 80's as it is today.
People today are delusional when they say the heavyweight division is lacking. Actually, the heavyweight division today is better than it ever has been, and that is demonstrated numerically in terms of the actual amount of fighters today which is larger than ever before, and its also more internationally competitive. There is a larger talent pool both in terms of the number of fighters, as well as the nationality of fighters.
So for Wlad Klitschko to be a champ today, in my opinion is a greater accomplishment than someone being a champ in the 70's or 80's. Reason why is because there is more competition today than ever before. For example:
- In Joe Louis's time, there was maybe a couple hundred (300 or 400) active professional HW boxers (mainly all American or British, with some exceptions).
- In Wlad Klitschko's time, today, there is roughly 1,200 active professional HW boxers and they come from all over N America, S America, Africa and Europe. So in terms of sheer numbers,
Klitschko's talent pool is larger, its also more competitive in terms of being diverse. Looking at these numbers, Klitschko's accomplishment vastly outweighs Negroes from the past.
* This info can all be verified by Boxrec
Interesting note: Since European whites started competing in the mid1990s at a good level, also correlates to the exact time when Negroes started losing their ground in the sport.
White Europeans, I would say, are the most successful race in boxing from year 2000 onwards to today. Which is amazing and you imagine how different history would be had they competed in the earlier years.
Many black American champs from the past would have lost to better European fighters if those Europeans had went pro. Europeans only started going pro regularly in the mid 1990's.
