I know that the gentle Giant Jess Willard hated boxing but never the less beat Jack Johnson. Gene Tunney supposedly did it just for the money. Were there more that disliked the sport they were participated in or more that loved this great sport?
Leo Randolph had an extremely successful amateur career and a moderately successful pro career despite openly disliking boxing.
It is PROFESSIONAL boxing. The ultimate idea of the sport is to knock your opponent off their feet using your fists for a ten count. I do not understand how you can do this for anything other than predominantly money. But just because that was the case; to be as good as Tunney, I doubt he hated the sport. Aspects yes, but not the sport as a whole.
Joe Bugner mentioned more than once that he was certainly not in love with Boxing ( Getting Hit Hard and Often is a real Downer !?) I think John Conteh grew to hate the Management side of Boxing and i suspect this is a common distaste when fighters are locked into a disagreeable Contract. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the 'Business' has started to Pale for Ricky Burns
Chris eubank Snr openly said the sport wqs barbaric/should be banned or something to that affect when he was fighting - il look for the vid
while there must be some fighters who didn't like boxing, most of these same fighters probably came not to like it. I mean PRIDE is a very powerful motivator, and I'd say MOST boxers have a mean streak or killer instinct and their pride revels in the pleasure of hurting, beating and coming out the better man over an opponent. the Young Lion sort of thing. and even the more athletic or mild mannered and humble type even, I dare say there is a guilty pleasure Pride driven. therefore loving the dance and it's outcome. I'd say there 'might' be a small percentage of fighters that truly 'don't like' boxing, but it'd probably be a more later in the career thing when money is good or fighting to just to make money when and if the career isn't good, or isn't good anymore. in other words, love battering someone until the two polar opposite ends of the purse influence the psyche or reason for fighting.
Kelly Pavlick didn't like boxing, and wouldn't even watch tapes of his fights, or go to fights when given free tickets.
No doubt that he didn't like to watch films of his losses where he might have benefitted from some constructive education. He probably didn't have it in him to correct any flaws that he had.
There have been quite a number of highly successful professional boxers who didn't like certain aspects of their sport, but I doubt that any of them absolutely despised boxing. For instance, Gene Tunney certainly enjoyed many of the challenges that he encountered in boxing, including learning the fine points, preparing for bouts and being a successful boxer. It is true that Tunney was highly critical of professional boxing and retired after only two title defenses, but I think that he missed being a professional boxer at some level for the rest of his life after his retirement. - Chuck Johnston
It's probably a love/hate thing for many fighters. They love certain aspects of it, hate other aspects, particularly the business part of it.