Why do fighters have shorter careers& are more inactive nowadays?

I've always wondered the answer to this question. Fighters of yesteryear manage to have hundreds and hundreds of fights,sometimes fighting monthly! There were not as many rules or regulations in place yet today,if a fighter fights 3 times a year,he's active and a 60 fight career is a really long career by todays standards.Why is this?What changed?

Sorry if it's a stupid question,I guess I just miss seeing fighters fight more often and for longer periods.Let me know your thought and theories. :)

Once you get popular and have a fan base you make so much cash off TV/PPV as well as the money the actual venue (which was the only source of cash in them days) makes, that fighters these days don't really need to. So with all this cash they see fit to fight just 2 or 3 times a year. Plus fights are so much harder to make these days because of greedy bastards they take forever to get made. Before you know it 3 months have passed before the fight takes place.

I dunno really it's a good question. Just one or two of my thoughts on it.

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Originally Posted by Kel

Once you get popular and have a fan base you make so much cash off TV/PPV as well as the money the actual venue (which was the only source of cash in them days) makes, that fighters these days don't really need to. So with all this cash they see fit to fight just 2 or 3 times a year. Plus fights are so much harder to make these days because of greedy bastards they take forever to get made. Before you know it 3 months have passed before the fight takes place.

I dunno really it's a good question. Just one or two of my thoughts on it.

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Veru nice post. I never really saw it from that view,good post my friend.

For the elite guys, the answer is simple... money.

50 years ago, Floyd Mayweather would have fought 7 or 8 times a year, because he'd need to fight that often in order to make a living. Nowadays, he can afford to fight 2 times a year, because he can make 20 million in one night.

The old school fighters would defend their titles only 2 or 3 times a year, just like today's champs, but the old guys would also fight several non-title bouts in between to pick up extra cash.
If the big paydays were available back then, guys like Robinson, Armstrong and Pep would have only fought once or twice a year.

As the above posters have said there is more money in the sport at the higher level so they don't need to fight as often.

The other main reasons are health and performance.

With the amount of money at stake at the world championship level no boxer can afford any off nights so each fight must be meticulously trained and prepared for.

Finally with all the health risks associated with boxing there are probably few boxers, and even fewer sanctioning bodies and medical boards who want to see any modern day boxer fight hundreds of times in a career with a different fight every month.

Another one Ill add,with the exception of a few very questionable fights(they didnt check them as often and lead shavings are very easy to mix in)Gloves
An old pair of Everlasts,or any of the no names,are the equivilant of getting hit with a pillow,a pair of Reyes are like getting hit by a wall

Again, i've gotta agree it probably has to do with the bigger paydays and risks the further you go on in your career because if you look at prospects, they fight a lot more often than the established stars. Two reasons I guess. 1) because they don't need as long to train for the usually tame competition they're put in with and 2) The more established you are, you're normally making more money and the more dangerous your opponent usually becomes, thus perhaps longer time is required for training to be at your absolute best.

When it comes to the very top tier, I'm sure that people thinking about their legacy has something to do with the earlier retirements too, as there's more glory in retiring 40-0 than retiring 120-10 like many of the true greats in the past might have done.

Health and money sure have something to do with it too.

Ok,cool,I see. Health and $$$ appear to be the biggest factors. I like your point Heavy,for promotional purposes,and for the wider audience/casual fans,the 0 is important. I've seen this for myself,with family,when I say a fighter has not lost,you get the Wwow",24 fights,24 wins,no losses"!?! Fighters in the past could risk fighting all the time,maybe because the 0 did not mean as much.

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Originally Posted by Trainer Monkey

Another one Ill add,with the exception of a few very questionable fights(they didnt check them as often and lead shavings are very easy to mix in)Gloves
An old pair of Everlasts,or any of the no names,are the equivilant of getting hit with a pillow,a pair of Reyes are like getting hit by a wall

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Thats a really really interesting point.Could you elaborate for a laymen here please. Reyes were used all the time before and now not so much? And is there REALLY that much difference?

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Originally Posted by El Gamo

Ok,cool,I see. Health and $$$ appear to be the biggest factors. I like your point Heavy,for promotional purposes,and for the wider audience/casual fans,the 0 is important. I've seen this for myself,with family,when I say a fighter has not lost,you get the Wwow",24 fights,24 wins,no losses"!?! Fighters in the past could risk fighting all the time,maybe because the 0 did not mean as much.

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Originally Posted by Trainer Monkey

Another one Ill add,with the exception of a few very questionable fights(they didnt check them as often and lead shavings are very easy to mix in)Gloves
An old pair of Everlasts,or any of the no names,are the equivilant of getting hit with a pillow,a pair of Reyes are like getting hit by a wall

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Thats a really really interesting point.Could you elaborate for a laymen here please. Reyes were used all the time before and now not so much? And is there REALLY that much difference?

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Grants and Reyes are known as punchers glove,Im pretty sure they use contact foam
To explain,theres a type of foam they use in the film industry that compresses fine at slow speed,but it turns in to a brick at high speed
If youve ever found a really old pair of gloves in an antique store,theyre marshmallows,its also one of the reasons you didnt see as many one punch knockouts,youd see plenty of wear them down knockouts,but you didnt see as many 1 punch and their completely out ones.I used to have a pair when I was a kid,its like pillow fighting

Well besides the already mentioned of higher paydays and health...there are a bunch of other factors....Most take place once a fighter has hit the top 10 or near the top 10...

Strategy--Fighting the right opponent will get you a shot quicker if you win...if you lose to that guy it does not set you back too far....Sometimes you have to wait for the opp to fight them...

Titles--with so many titles around the wrong fight even if it is a win can hurt your rankings...

Politics--everyone is so picky and choosey now a days...this guy wants the venue..that guy wants glove choice...if both are given what they want something else comes up...then no one wants to budge on what to give in to...causing delays...

Add the hold ups by state license authorities, medical exams, or what ever else you could possibly think of

Again though it all leads back to money...Carefully thought out careers will earn the big bucks...fighting just for the sake of fighting will earn you money but not the right money....

Truth be told the fight itself is the easiest part of the whole process...

$$$

It's pretty simple $

Once World Class/Champions star making good money they realize theres no need to be fighting an endless amount of times per year.
Most recently PDL fought a staggering 4 times in 2007.

The upside, the single big event, paided less than it does now, but boxing was a much bigger mainstream sport. More small time local events, club fights, ballroom sized events. The pays weren't as big, but there were more available. You just needed to fight to get them, and it was kinda of expected that you would take a hard loss from time to time based on being too young (still learning),bad hometown judgement, fighting injured. Even top prospects weren't as protected as guys today. Occasional Losses early in a pro career were expected and didn't cause a guy to written off so you would just go out fight and make a living.