Does it really all come down to money???

[ryanman]

Good thread.
Its an interesting topic. I always feel disapointed when there is evidence that fighter's main motivation is money. But then I wonder if i'm just being naive. Its hard for somebody that earns a 'normal' wage to place themselves in the position of a wealthy figher. I think most people would feel that whilst they would rather have more money they would be motivated by other things once they acheived a certain degree of wealth. I know i feel instinctively that if i was already a millionaire fighter i would be motivated purely by achievement and ambition. But i also know that if i was actually in that position that would probably change.
With money i think its a case of 'the more you get, the more you want'.
I think its a natural reaction to think of fighters as being 'greedy' if they put money before ambition. But in any walk of life people try to maximise their income, regardless of their wealth. I guess boxers are no different except they are dealing with higher amounts than most 'normal' people.
Also, its about your worth compared to your peers. Imagine you are in a job and you are perfectly happy with your wage. But then you find out that another member of staff, somebody that you consider is not as good at the job as you, is getting paid more. You then may not be so happy with your income.
People generally get paid what they are worth, thus from an ego point of view it is logical to get the maximum income from your service. The ego is fed by other peoples opinions of your worth. I guess its possible to feel undervalued not matter what sums of money are involved.

Hmm, thats a rambling message. Stream of conciousness. Apologies. But i'll post anyway.

[JazMerkin]

Yes & in my opinion rightly so. It will inevitably damage their legacy if they don't take on dangerous opposition at all, however at the end of the day everytime they get in the ring they risk their health & their futures with their loved ones to get in the ring. They deserve to maximise the profits.

Take Joe Calzaghe, he did spend too much of his career fighting in Wales against no-hopers. However, he did show with Kessler & Hopkins he was willing to take on tough opposition. As disappointed as I was that he chose to fight RJJ instead of Pavlik, he maximised the money. Although his choices will undoubtedly affect his legacy, his grandchildren will have a grandad who can speak clearly & doesn't have pugilistic dementia.

As fight fans, we demand more of these fighters than ANY of us would be willing to give. In The Ring recently, they said we want them to fight the bigger man, the faster man, the vicious puncher, all so we know their limits. The most obvious was the Nate Campbell issue recently. Doctor's reports confirmed that if he had fought on, he would have very likely been blind in that eye for the rest of his life. Yet on here, there were many saying he should've carried on, that he showed a lack of heart.

To be honest, this just strikes at my biggest peeve with boxing fans (yes more than reckless fanboys) & that is this keyboard Gatti mentality, often by people who've never put on some gloves.

[DaxxKahn]

Aside from the Mundine portion of the original post (Mostly because Anthony is nothing but an annoying fly buzzing around but unable to do much more) I do believe boxing is now all about the money.

At one time championships meant as much if not more then money (Mainly because they went hand in hand so you were not making big buck until you held a title or at least was a top contender) fighters craved glory and legacy.

Today there is no real need because so many fighters make the millions without titles, fact is guys get title shots too quickly these days and they make the fast money so after socking away a few hundred thousand or few million depending on the fighter many of these guys start a business or an even more popular trend is education (These guys are getting smart realizing they will need something to fall back on after boxing) to have a career outside boxing, once this happens they lose the desire to fight.

As Micky said in Rocky 3 "They become civilized"

Make the money and get out

[Kirkland Laing]

It's not just boxing, if somebody offers you more money you take their offer. It doesn't even have to be double money, a big increase does the trick. Everything else being the same, people will go for the money in 99+% of cases.

[killersheep]

Given the option most people with choose higher pay over a title in any job.

[Scrap]

When a Fighter was on over £100,000, He always got looked after that little bit more