I understand the idea but not really agree to it. Lets remember that only recently amateus were allowed to compete professionally. The main idea is you need to be fast tracked as a professional if you turn pro at 28. Something like 10 fights in 15 months or so
While I agree with this on premise, I think there is a way around this problem. Mike Tyson got a world ranking in 20 some fights. In fact, it took him less than 2 years after turning pro, to get a world title shot. Of course thats Mike Tyson. But it makes no sense for someone like Joyce to fight just twice or at best thrice a year. They started off well, with 6 fights in his first year. Yet it was all downhill from there. So it´s up to the managers and promoters to keep their prospects active and in the media. Omar Figueroa quickly built a cult following by staying active and destroying guys. The occasional war/brawl added to his growing star.
This is what I was about to say. Turning pro late isn’t the problem, it’s all the early years of doing absolutely nothing meaningful. Is it really necessary for an elite prime fighter to spend so many years beating up no hopers? It’s an absolute joke that Beterbiev has clearly been a top dog for years and he’s barely fighting for undisputed. The business and promotional side do boxing is the real problem.
I genuinely believe it comes down to overpaying fighters. If you cough up a million bucks every time Beterbiev fights, you will struggle to find him fights. And of course managers want the biggest purses for their guys. Instead, they should be turning to promoters and networks and say: "Listen, we want to stay more active. Let us take an occasional smaller fight for less money". Ffs, Erislandy Lara was paid 750k for most of his fights post Alvarez. He could have easily made way more money had he stayed more active and fought for just 250 or 300. Of course fight with guys like Hurd would have brought with them the bigger purses.