Thread: why do boxers stay past their prime

i have never seen a boxer that was really great,retire from the game seemingly with all their facultys and skill levels still sharp.
i wonder why if they make millions per fight if they don't hang them up after so long,like micheal jordan.
i hav'nt seen one do it yet except linix lewis.

Originally Posted by cdanielb

i have never seen a boxer that was really great,retire from the game seemingly with all their facultys and skill levels still sharp.
i wonder why if they make millions per fight if they don't hang them up after so long,like micheal jordan.
i hav'nt seen one do it yet except linix lewis.

I agree, Rocky Balboa needs to retire.

Originally Posted by cdanielb

i have never seen a boxer that was really great,retire from the game seemingly with all their facultys and skill levels still sharp.
i wonder why if they make millions per fight if they don't hang them up after so long,like micheal jordan.
i hav'nt seen one do it yet except linix lewis.

Because they love the fight game.......The fame, glory, the means to prove themselve's to the world are what great fighters have in their character...boxing is simply in their blood...So bascically they will fight until they can fight no more.

Originally Posted by cdanielb

i have never seen a boxer that was really great,retire from the game seemingly with all their facultys and skill levels still sharp.
i wonder why if they make millions per fight if they don't hang them up after so long,like micheal jordan.
i hav'nt seen one do it yet except linix lewis.

Athletes stay past their prime in all sports. They stay until they are average, or perhaps slightly above. In boxing though, it becomes painfully obvious (literally) that a fighter is past their prime because it's a one man show, and they get physically punished for it by a lesser man.

In hockey, a once great defensemen may be outdone by an average young forward on a breakaway... someone who wouldn't get by them 8 years ago.

A baseball player may not steal the bases he used to. He may not react as quick to that sharp ground ball up the middle and miss it.

In boxing he gets his head beat in, he gets knocked down, knocked out, and bloody.

That's why we point at boxers for having this problem... it's all athletes. Their sport is their life, and they want to keep doing it for as long as they can.

At least V. Klitschko had the sense to quit on top.

In the "old days" when even great fighters were not making millions of dollars, money was the main reason why washed-up fighters kept going. Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis and Ezzard Charles come to mind. Nowadays it's more often due to an addiction to the fight game (Hearns, Leonard, Holmes) and\or the stubborn belief that you can recapture former glory (Holyfield).

A few fighters retired at just about the right time. Lennox Lewis, Henry Maske, Darius Michalczewski and Marvin Hagler are good examples.

Originally Posted by cdanielb

i have never seen a boxer that was really great,retire from the game seemingly with all their facultys and skill levels still sharp.
i wonder why if they make millions per fight if they don't hang them up after so long,like micheal jordan.
i hav'nt seen one do it yet except linix lewis.

Don't forget Marciano. If you were doing something you loved and it had been your job for pretty much all your life would you walk away? Or would you stay until you were sure there were no more "What ifs"? This is the dilemma boxer's face. Un fortunately with boxers it is far more extreme that any other sport. If you play a team sport and find out you just don't have it or they cut you, you pretty much know. In boxing you don't know when your last fight is until it's too late. Usually by a horrendous beating or KO. It's just more final in boxing.

They stay past there prime because for most of them boxing is all they know. They don't pretty much know how to do anything else.

Some because they can't accept the fact that their skills are declining.

They have a fighters heart but their body gets run down.