How many times should World Champions fight?

**generalbulldog** · 01-16-2011 10:25 AM

It doesn't really matter how many times he fights, what matters is quality of opposition. Marvin Hagler fought only once per year in his last 4 years in the sport. The names he fought in those 4 years? Hamsho, Hearns, Mugabi, and Leonard.

I'll take quality over quantity anytime. And another thing, you can't expect a champ to fight 3 or 4 tough fights in a year considering no one here has yet talked about recovery from damage from hard fights. The Hearns fight and the Mugabi fights took a lot out of Hagler for instance, those fights take away your longevity and career. That has to be factor in also.

It's easy to sit on the couch and say how many fights a fighter should take, you and I ain't in the ring taking the damage.

**Gandalf** · 01-16-2011 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

It doesn't really matter how many times he fights, what matters is quality of opposition. Marvin Hagler fought only once per year in his last 4 years in the sport. The names he fought in those 4 years? Hamsho, Hearns, Mugabi, and Leonard.

I'll take quality over quantity anytime. And another thing, you can't expect a champ to fight 3 or 4 tough fights in a year considering no one here has yet talked about recovery from damage from hard fights. The Hearns fight and the Mugabi fights took a lot out of Hagler for instance, those fights take away your longevity and career. That has to be factor in also.

It's easy to sit on the couch and say how many fights a fighter should take, you and I ain't in the ring taking the damage.

If two of them are Haye/Harrison type debacles with a standard mandatory followed by a legitimate challenge, it is possible.

I would rather go with the quality too, but fighters of the past were more active and most fighters are more than able to fight at least twice a year while still young.

The standard is 2 to 3 times and that sounds reasonable, but if there is a 2 round gimme in there you can probably tack on another 1 without killing yourself.

**Nameless** · 01-16-2011 01:05 PM

Depends on a lot of factor:

If These are top notch opponents and that the guy hasn't been shaken up seriously in one of the fight, I say 3 times. If the guy fought top notch guys but got shaken up pretty bad, I say that it might be reasonable to then decrease to 2 times for the time being in a 12 months span. If these are tomato cans like what Chavez Jr used to fight galore, then I say 4-5 to stay tuned is reasonable. It all depends of the context, really, but in an ideal situation, 3 times is quite a good compromise.