Fighters are turning pro too late.

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

 

They quit televising it in the states, except the odd American fighter who does well.

 

OK I thought it was just gone glad they didn't it's the only medles México wins

 

BUMP!

 

I do agree.

Joe Joyce was basically shot when he turned pro.

 

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.

 

A lot of decorated amateurs turn pro late, if they do at all, chasing Olympic glory. The best example I can think of in the Korean case is Kwang-sun Kim. He felt he was given a raw deal against Paul Gonzalez in the 84 Olympics in LA and decided to try again in 88 Seoul. He got that gold finally, but it meant he turned pro at 26 - which is ancient by junior flyweight standards. Perhaps as a result, he had serious stamina issues and lost his two shots to Carbajal and Chiquita Gonzalez after leading both fights. In his prime, I think he likely beats both. But who knows?

Sung-kil Moon, Kim's teammate in the 84 Olympic team, made the opposite decision after he similarly lost a shot at the gold after being among the favorites and turned pro - though he still stayed amateur too late and waited until he at least won the world amateur championship. He was almost 24 when he turned pro, and that's not an ideal age to turn pro either - especially at the lower weights and especially with Moon's face-first, high volume punching style.

 

I see the opposite. Fighters are waiting till their 30 before facing a real opposition. They start out fine in terms of age but fighting once a year and gets you nowhere till you are 30+.

 

Ron Lyle - 30.
Still, he put up a great fight against Foreman.
Challenged Ali for the title.
Has on his resume: Shavers, Ellis, Bonavena, Bugner,...
He probably would have done more if he hadn't turned pro at 30.
P.S. the only boxer to knock down Foreman twice.