Mayweather fought twice a year, but his traditional May & September made it only a 4 month gap before his second fight of the year Looking at Sugar Ray Robinson his schedule was insane compare to footballers and rugby players a boxer's activity is really low If there were more regular fights training camps would be reduced I liked Eubank fighting every 2 months. If anyone did it now we could forgive 2 weaker opponents for every 3 bouts Remember Eubank did plan 8 defences 1 year. Unfortunately Steve Collins messed those plans
It is a different sport from Robinson's time. Top boxers only fight in big events, and promoters are limited to how many of these events they can produce. I think the era of a world title holder fighting more than three/four times a year are gone.
Eubanks defences were against bums largely that's why there were so many Would say 3 tops, can't hold it against any elite fighter who sticks to two, hell I can live with 2 competitive defences and one scrub
Eubank was superhuman though. They don't make them like him in any more. He was known to turn grey at the weigh-in, have his people pour pineapple juice and whole milk down his throat to prevent him from passing out within seconds of weighing in, and then leaping the ropes full of vigour looking like a Greek God on fight-night - every six or seven weeks for years and years! The standard of opposition was something else, as well; Benn x 2, Watson x 2, Close x 2, Collins x 2, Rocchigiani, Wharton, Thornton, Giminez, Lindell Holmes, Malinga, Essett, Stretch, Calzaghe, Schommer, Corti et al.
He fought six winning world title defenses in 10 months in 1994! 5 of them 12-rounders, in 5 different countries!
Two fights a year is fine for the top fighters, guys at British level really should be fighting at least four times a year in my opinion. TV dates etc aren't really an issue given the amount of channels there now are.
Of course I remember back in the day: Armstrong going 41-0 in a two year period whilst winning and defending 37.5% of all the World Championships in boxing at the time!
Harry grebb went 45-0 in one year beating 6 hall of fame boxers 15 times in one year! He did more rounds that year than mayweather and pac did in their 20 year careers
They are indeed true, if you include newspaper decisions in Greb's case. As for Armstrong; in 1937/38 Armstrong went 41-0 winning and defending the Featherweight, Lightweight and Welterweight World Championships, in an era where there were only eight* divisions and one generally recognized world champion. http://boxrec.com/boxer/9018 *There were also titles at Super Featherweight and Junior Welterweight, but neither at the time got much recognition, indeed both divisions had not had a world champion since 1931 during Armstrong's reigns.
What about new pros fighting 4, 6 & rounders You could go out every week and rack up 20-0 in over a year if you went abroad and mixed small and big shows
It really depends on how dominant of a champion it is and the tv deal they have. I can imagine a guy like Kovalev would be able to fight up to 10 times a year if he wasn't a HBO only fighter.
