Could a modern boxer fight 44 times in one calendar year?

If they could stay healthy yes. But a lot of men who fought outrageous schedules like that back in the day often fought injured and most Athletic commissions wouldn’t allow that today.

 

Dude, you beat me to this by seconds. This is exactly right. Fighters were carrying injuries wholesale back then and giving your body time to heal was akin to letting the kids starve. Todays medicos would never allow a fighter into a fight carrying an injury (unless its Oklahoma LOL!) and even if you're fighting soft opposition, you're going to pick up a nick or two along the way. So, an emphatic 'no' that it couldn't be done today.

 

To illustrate my last point, in 1944, Lou Nova fought 17 times. A very ambitious schedule but they weren't exactly top contenders he was facing either. On the 2nd of the month during this campaign, he fought a draw with Buddy Scott and a rematch was signed for the 20th. Crazy by todays standards, but what was even crazier was Nova picked up 2 more fights in between. But during the second 'in between' fight he picked up a cut which scuttled his rematch with Scott. He didn't get back into the ring for another month, which today would again be unheard of after a cut that scuttled a match. So, again, anything can happen during so many contests and I think medical exams would prevent anyone today getting to 44 matches in a year.

 

Unless you are Tyson on the Albany tour early in his career I do not see how it is practical to fight that often. In any extended fight ( past 3 rounds) fighters are going to hurt. cuts, body shots---but what about the hands? In any fight your brain is going to feel the impact. I wish the best fighters of today fought 4-5 times a year. Too much money, Too many parties keeping them away to build excitement. Would boxing be better if we saw Fury, Pac, Wilder every other month? Everyone on this forum would like to see more---but PPV is partly driving the schedule. Medical of course is significant.. Would today-----the commission allow SRL and Duran to rematch five months later????
I read in a book on Tyson that they fought him so often to keep him in shape and out of trouble. As a poster said---Fury might benefit.

 

Exactly. And today we have unemployment benefits and things like that to help people get by. Back then you either worked or you starved

 

Seriously doubt Greb could today at least as you describe — not that he couldn’t physically do it but with those physical conditions he couldn’t get past a commission doctor’s exam. And if one commission suspends him for X days until the broken arm heals, no other commission would let him fight until that suspension is lifted.

 

Sure a current boxer could.

Most of Greb's fights were no decisions. It would be no different than Mike Tyson and Roy Jones fighting their 10-rounder no-decision once a week for 44 weeks (or about 10 months) out of the year and taking two months off at the end.

You don't spar. You box once a week. You fight no-decisions. Most of the time, you agree not to go for the KO (like Jones and Tyson). People still bet on the "unofficial" results. Like someone said yesterday, Buck Smith fought 36 times in one year, and he won them all. He was interviewed a lot. He said he never sparred. Just got in his car. Drove to the next fight. Fought. Drove to the next. He won a ton of fights, but he was never more than a journeyman. And his bouts weren't primarily no decisions. He knocked out a lot of people. You don't have to be a superman to pull this off. Buck certainly wasn't.

Honestly, the most difficult part would actually be finding 44 fight cards a year to box on. (LOL) And getting on a card without having to tie yourself to a promoter. Smith fought on a lot of Top Rank cards, but he mainly fought on any shows that would have him. I believe he even fought twice in one day in different cities, once.

And the other difficult part would be finding 44 guys who are willing to fight you on short notice. (Even mention a fighter against a name opponent, and guys on this board have a heart attack if they aren't giving a full eight-week camp. LOL). Because Greb wasn't signing to fight all these guys three months down the road, and then fighting 10 times before that. There were a ton of short notice fights.

To be that busy, you have to have others willing to play along. Good luck with that today.

 

The lack of cards is a big impediment. My brother and I were putting on club shows about 4 times a year a couple decades ago and you could do that for around $15-20K (and if you made more than that in tickets you profited). Today he does like one a year and that cost has more than doubled — not to mention that a lot of venues won’t allow a boxing show for liability/insurance purposes.

The reality is of the fight cards that are being put on, almost all the time the promoter (whether club show or big Las Vegas PPV) is looking to book his fighters and his fighters only. There are rarely slots for unaffiliated fighters to just fill out the card and try to make a good fight — maybe a promoter brings a show to a town and books a couple of locals low on the undercard to generate a few ticket sales and some local press.

The only other kind of fights that exist generally are what are known in the industry as “bought fights.” You manage Fighter A, you need to keep him busy, you contact a promoter (usually on a club show) and say ‘I’ll pay my guy and his opponent and kick you, the promoter, a few hundred bucks if you’ll let us do it on your show.’

 

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