When did "protecting the 0" become the most important thing?

Probably Mayweathers fault setting a blueprint everyone else wanted to follow.

 

There are so many fighters with undefeated records today that don't mean anything.

 

Fans started punishing fighters for individual losses more. Its more about avoiding losses.

Fans today are reductionist and only care about figuring out who the best fighter is.I've compared modern boxing discourse to the board game "guess who". Most fighters early in their careers is undefeated(maybe 1 or 2 losses early on) and fans are trying to use process of elimination to identify which fighter is the best. When the sport is built this way every loss becomes a potential career ender and the fighter is discarded from contention. Because in the fans mind its been proven they aren't the best and since all they care about is proving whose the best it means "they aren't that good". So fighters have adapted to avoiding this above all this.

Even when the system lets fighters with a few losses get a title shot and be champion their prior losses will shape their reputation. To some people Wladimir Klitschko will always be the 3 loss gatekeeper they thought he was in 2004. Buster Douglas will always be the 4 loss journeyman who was "inconsistent".

What makes me say its not Floyds influence is that champions are much more willing to risk losses then boxers who haven't "proven themselves". Former champions with name recognition actually get treated favorably when being given title shots. They are still trying to delay and minimize their losses but while theres more undefeated champions almost none will retire undefeated or even with 1 loss. What Floyd did or was trying to do is fairly uncommon. Floyd gets to be the face of this culture around avoiding losses because he went the furthest. But he didn't create the culture the culture created him.

 

Void.

 

50-0 #NoExcuses TBE PBF Money May all day

 

Imagine being in your 40s and having a homosexual crush on a famous boxer for half of your life.

 

LOL it's pathetic. I used to like Floyd as a young bloke then I grew up and realized he is an ass clown

 

All about money in this sport.

 

I would suggest that awareness of the concussion issue has made some realise money is more important than glory.

 

Which current fighters are avoiding fights against the best in the world to protect their "0"?
On the contrary I'm seeing a lot of people putting their 0 on the line. In recent months we've seen Abdullah Mason vs Sam Noakes, Shakur Stevenson vs Zepeda & Teo, Devin Haney vs Brian Norman Jr and coming up we have Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani, David Benavidez going up to face Zurdo, Boots vs Zayas. There's a decent chance we get Abdullah Mason vs Joe Cordina and Kid Austin vs Lucas Bahdi too and there's an even better chance we are going to get some combination of Rafael Espinoza, Bruce Carrington, Angelo Leo and Brandon Figueroa. Plus lots of fights between high level fighters with 1 or 2 defeats such as O'Shaquie Foster vs Ray Ford and Gary Antuanne Russell vs Alberto Puello. I believe there's more positive movement regarding OPs claim lately and apart from the odd one or two fighters like Tank Davis, most other fighters seem to be going for tough challenges even if not necessarily the absolute toughest one all the time.

 

Floyd lost. And he also lost many in the gym behind closed doors. There was an up and coming fighter from Cuba who absolutely battered him in 2014. Mayweather didn’t record many for a reason. Haney got him too.

 

I believe the seeds were planted whenever the ring announcers first started introducing fighters with their records.

Nothing sounds the same as "undefeated, undisputed".

 

Having a 0 means people are waiting for the upset and willing to pay for it to see you losing your 0. In each fight, they expect to be surprised.

What was more shocking and interesting than AJ getting KTFOed by a fat Andy Ruiz Jr?

Once you lose your 0, you're not that interesting anymore.