How does a boxer know when to retire?

The answer is: most of the boxers don't know when to retire. Usually it's the only thing they know how to do. And the adrenaline spike you endure while fighting can't be replaced. Some retire more than once for that reason. Floyd, Tunney, Marciano and Lewis are one of the few that knew when to hang up the gloves.

 

When their phone stops ringing...................beyond that they don't. It's a time honored tradition for boxing greats to attempt to completely ruin their record and status.

There's literally only 2 fighters that I know of in all of boxing that saw the writing on the wall and just "stopped"; Lennox and Andre Ward.

 

They dont, most go far past their primes and end on a loss because of it.

 

injuries

 

"There's old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots"

Same rings true for boxers. Most don't pick an appropriate enough time to see the benefits of their winnings if any are left.

 

As much credit as Lewis gets for this, I’ve seen it was his wife who saw the writing and put her foot down, threatening to leave him if he fought again.

Assuming this is correct, credit to her.

 

When he can see the punches coming but can't get out of the way.

Or when he talks like James Toney.

 

There are a few others to be fair. Joe Calzaghe and Kostya Tszyu come to mind. GGG has pretty much hung them up and hopefully doesn't come back. If so then he has it spot on. Floyd is another if you don't count these circus shows against UFC/MMA guys and bums. He's only taking fights where he knows he's not getting hurt.

 

Marciano is the classic example of a guy who realized his time was up, because was having serious problems to beat opponents that were supposed to be underdogs.

Monzon is another case of a guy who realized it was time to get out, because it was becoming more and more difficult for him to win.

 

My absolute favorite quitter is Buster Douglas, because he knew exactly when to GTFO.

After beating Tyson, Doyglas was on top of the world, but he knew well it was a mirage because with his lack of commitment all would be downhill from then on.

Thus he did the smart thing: arranged the biggest purse available, took a quick dive and laughed all the way to the bank.

A masterclass on quitting if you ask me.

 

Interesting. Where did you read this?

 

Somebody takes a chisel and puts that hyphen between their two dates.

 

I forgot about Calzaghe, yeah him as well. I don't consider Kostya as he didn't close out still on top like the aforementioned. I think he saw the writing on the wall and knew it would get worse, but he had already kinda got pushed by Hatton out the door.