How long should a Great Boxing career last? (# of title defenses)

[TitoFan]

Time doesn't matter. What matters is who you fight

I'm not gonna say time and # of defenses don't matter at all.... but otherwise I'm in full agreement.
Ten defenses against top opposition trumps twenty against mediocre bums.

To be defined as great though, I feel it should be upwards of 8-10 defenses.

Interesting exercise:
1. James Toney IMO has had an outstanding career.
2. Carl Froch has had an outstanding career
Question: can their careers be compared as greater or lesser to each other?

Carl Froch born 1977 13 years pro with 35 fights.
James Toney born 1968 25 years pro with 88 fights.

JT fought more times in six years than Froch's whole career.
For the sake of similar numbers

35 fights for Toney vs to 35 fights for Froch

Toney is 33-0-2 wins title
Froch is 33-2 won & lost title

Cobra has beaten 21-0 Pascal, Jermaine Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler (1-1), Arthur Abraham, 30-0 Lucian Bute, & loss to 24-0 Andre Ward. (Groves still writing his legacy-so not sure to count him as a great fighter) 12 title fights not counting British belt.

JT has fought Doug Dewitt, Mike McCallum [43-1-1]2x, Reggie Johnson, 36-0 Michael Nunn, 18-0 Merqui Sosa & has 8 IBF title fights. not counting IBC title.

by 1994 (6) years into his career JT had 46 fights 44-0-2

So a subjective question:
Did JT fight as many good fighters in 35 fights as Froch did?

After 13 (MORE) years to which is equivalent to Froch's whole career- JT goes on to win:
MW, SMW, LHW, CW & given a NC for substance he would've won the HW title over Ruiz.

The more fights one takes the more one can be expected to lose granted no cherry picking.

After JT's 35 fight streak he would go on to fight Montell Griffin, Roy Jones Jr, 31-0 Vasiily Jirov, Evander Holyfield, HW champ John Ruiz, Dominick Guinn, Hasim Rahman & Sam Peter.

Is it possible that JT did more in the latter 1/2 of his career then the 1st 1/2 of his career? Has he done more in 1/2 his career then Froch has his whole career?

In conclusion: on one hand I think Froch had a great career. But on the other hand his career can't be seen as great...IF...I compare it to JT, since:
1. Both have lost
2. So as an end result had/if Froch would have fought more times, than I can conclude with confidence he too would have quite a few losses, but not sure if he would have won as many titles against different styles of fighters JT has taken on.

It's difficult for me to make a comparison career vs. career.
Once Toney started adding on blubber and ballooning up to an obese heavyweight, I stopped counting his fights.

[SlimTrae]

Time doesn't matter. What matters is who you fight

I'm not gonna say time and # of defenses don't matter at all.... but otherwise I'm in full agreement.
Ten defenses against top opposition trumps twenty against mediocre bums.

To be defined as great though, I feel it should be upwards of 8-10 defenses.

Interesting exercise:
1. James Toney IMO has had an outstanding career.
2. Carl Froch has had an outstanding career
Question: can their careers be compared as greater or lesser to each other?

Carl Froch born 1977 13 years pro with 35 fights.
James Toney born 1968 25 years pro with 88 fights.

JT fought more times in six years than Froch's whole career.
For the sake of similar numbers

35 fights for Toney vs to 35 fights for Froch

Toney is 33-0-2 wins title
Froch is 33-2 won & lost title

Cobra has beaten 21-0 Pascal, Jermaine Taylor, Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler (1-1), Arthur Abraham, 30-0 Lucian Bute, & loss to 24-0 Andre Ward. (Groves still writing his legacy-so not sure to count him as a great fighter) 12 title fights not counting British belt.

JT has fought Doug Dewitt, Mike McCallum [43-1-1]2x, Reggie Johnson, 36-0 Michael Nunn, 18-0 Merqui Sosa & has 8 IBF title fights. not counting IBC title.

by 1994 (6) years into his career JT had 46 fights 44-0-2

So a subjective question:
Did JT fight as many good fighters in 35 fights as Froch did?

After 13 (MORE) years to which is equivalent to Froch's whole career- JT goes on to win:
MW, SMW, LHW, CW & given a NC for substance he would've won the HW title over Ruiz.

The more fights one takes the more one can be expected to lose granted no cherry picking.

After JT's 35 fight streak he would go on to fight Montell Griffin, Roy Jones Jr, 31-0 Vasiily Jirov, Evander Holyfield, HW champ John Ruiz, Dominick Guinn, Hasim Rahman & Sam Peter.

Is it possible that JT did more in the latter 1/2 of his career then the 1st 1/2 of his career? Has he done more in 1/2 his career then Froch has his whole career?

In conclusion: on one hand I think Froch had a great career. But on the other hand his career can't be seen as great...IF...I compare it to JT, since:
1. Both have lost
2. So as an end result had/if Froch would have fought more times, than I can conclude with confidence he too would have quite a few losses, but not sure if he would have won as many titles against different styles of fighters JT has taken on.

It's difficult for me to make a comparison career vs. career.
Once Toney started adding on blubber and ballooning up to an obese heavyweight, I stopped counting his fights.

True, but that fat meatball did well as a fattington. His last great performance to me was the 1st Peter loss. I thought he won it. Not sure what happened 2nd time- Peter won that one hands down.

And I thought the Ruiz fight was a virtuoso performance. I actully liked his fight with Ruiz better than RJJ's. As Jady Nady intervened like a father chaperoning his daughter on prom night. Ruiz just couldnt get close, to no fault of his own.