Inactivity Can Ruin a Boxer, They Need To Fight at Least Twice a Year

But this is the norm for fighters these days. they fight once a year (which SUCKS for us fans!)
You can't say inactivity is harming Usyk, when this is the same level of activity he always used in his heavyweight career.

On the flip side, I'm sure a lot of the inactivity is to give fighters more time to train while on the "pharmaceuticals". Then get off in time to test clean. Especially these older fighters. So maybe it helps them.

Other that that I agree. I miss when fighters would fight 3 or 4 times a year.

 

Yep, very true- these “elite” level guys should be out twice a year surely, the inactivity is a disaster for all involved

Obviously it’s the norm these days and I guess that’s partly because the purses are so huge for these big fights that they needn’t bother fighting as much, put simply

Speaking along the lines of inactivity I’d really like to see fighters spend their careers active, make their money and get out, we’re seeing so many guys staying around too long and so many of these comeback/crossover fights now, it’s the sort of stuff that can tarnish (rightly or wrongly) otherwise legendary legitimate careers

I know it’s a bit cringey and maybe out of order for fans to call boxers to retire etc but I look at the likes of fury/joshua/usyk and actually wish all 3 would have sailed off into the sunset and enjoyed retirement, again I get that the money involved is huge, and maybe hard to turn down, but these 3 guys especially have earned an absolute fortune already, that performance last night is a stain on usyks otherwise incredible career

 

Do we see better versions because they have much less wear and tear from training camps though? Could we see fighters retire earlier if they were forced to fight more often regardless of their optimum fight schedule rhythm? Every fighter is different and their body will have different issues. I definitely would like Usyk around twice as much but maybe we wouldn’t have seen him achieve so much so spectacularly if he hadn’t paced it in this way. I think the money from the Saudi’s might have something to do with it as they don’t need to fight for money so often.

 

It's kinda insane seeing elite HW boxers waste their careers either not pursuing more fights voluntarily, or being blocked by promoters.

Parker only had one 2-round fight vs an out of shape Bakole in 1 1/2 years before he faced Wardley. Before Bakole it had gone almost a year from when he fought Chang!!

Dubois was out 10 months before he faced Usyk last year, and almost 10 months between Usyk and Wardley.

Kabayel fought knyba - almost a year after Zhang!!!

Usyk mostly only fights once a year, and last night was vs a kickboxer.

They are wasting their careers...

 

Boxers should be fighting twice a year at minimum if they want to stay at the top.

 

And don't even get started on Keith Sometimes Thurman, he had an elbow injury for a while but he seems to have become permanently part time since he unified then got injured and settled with a family. He was already a chill dude but he checked out completely the last six years. You can't do anything in the sport if you're half in it and he found out when he fought that long armed dude Fundora. A committed Thurman would've done something at 154 and enhanced his legacy. There's no point saying 'I was just getting started' when you've been battered and stopped. One of the most frustrating wastes of talent in recent times. Unified and lost his belt in a valiant effort to an old all time great in PacMan then did nothing at all but turn up to fight randomly occasionally.

 

Boxers get paid more than ever

Why would they fight more than once a year?

It's not ideal for us but you can't blame them

 

Totally agree

 

I went through many of the greats records from the last thirty years, basically the ones who would be commanding millions of dollars every fight and once they'd become established and elites half way through their career, they seemed to fight largely 2 times a year and occasionally 3. Fighting once a year must be because the money has increased as social media grew and platforms fought for supremacy. Tyson would fight so much early on because he destroyed almost everyone in a round or 2 lol.

 

I agree.

You can train all you want, but competition is where you truly improve. Putting into practice what you have learnt under the spotlights. Seeing what works and what doesn't. You might get away with something in training, but is it something you can do under proper competitive conditions?

In all other sports, competitors are rusty when they haven't competed for some time. Boxing is no different.

Ring rust is a saying that I would hear all the time whenever someone had been out of the ring for 6 months. You barely hear that phrase anymore.

 

Except Terence Crawford

 

he should have fought more too

You can train all year long and that’s great, but you HAVE to get into the ring

You don’t win or lose in sparring

I think layoffs are recipes for problems

 

And at the top end of the scale most of them seem to come into their most financially rewarding fights at the tailend of their career. You'd think that trend is only going to continue as ex-pros take on youtubers etc.