Why are so many boxers inactive...?

You have to have a decent size ego to box at a high level professionally, so they believe the next big fight is always just on the horizon.

Also, people who choose to fight for a living are not exactly rational or logical thinkers, so of course it doesn't make sense to us.

I believe a lot of them spar for money on the side as well. As for Andy Ruiz who you mentioned, he lost to Joshua, got dropped by a forty year old Arreola and had a draw against Miller. His confidence is gone and so is his career.

 

Promoters are a big part of the problem, often wanting to match their boxers carefully. Some boxers are avoided (Hrgovic 2019-2023, Dychko for years).

Some promoters favor boxers from their home country, giving them opportunities, while signing boxers from other countries and keeping them inactive (Warren with Kabayel, Arum with Jalolov).

Sometimes the boxers themselves are demanding too much money or refuse to take more difficult fights (G. Davis).

Some like are just lazy (Ruiz, Hunter).

 

When boxers get paid millions its easy for them to feel content to just fight once a year. Some fighters are also too demanding or hard to negotiate with which is why some of them have been so inactive.

Naoya Inoue is probably the only fighter now that fights at least 3 or 4 fights a year. His activity is why he's a really respected top fighter right now.

 

Covid got fighters comfortable with boxing once a year. It probably cost all of the elite fighters 3 or more fights on their CV’s.

 

They all are waiting around for big money Saudi ppv fights instead of earning it by staying active. Among heavyweights Joesph Parker earned some big money by just staying active as did Daniel Dubois . The rest of boxing has devolved into part time fighters

 

Please this not the reason, sparring doesn’t pay the bills especially for fighters who have had a decent purse, they have tasted real money and spent well they need more than sparring money to keep them in the lifestyle they have become accustomed to.
Also sparring is only for a few weeks during camp, when a fighter will have multiple rounds with multiple different fighters.
The truth is that a fighter gets their chances based on their current hype and the ability for the promotor to sell them, it also depends on who is waiting in the wings once their hype has dropped off, think of it like shuffling a pack of cards.
Once you get to the back of the pack you have to build yourself up again, but you have to maintain a certain level of opponent to keep yourself relevant, and you just bide your time.
The example of Andy Ruiz was a bad one because he just threw his career away, he didn’t put the work in for his first title defence and that is absolutely criminal.
Theses many reasons for inactivity but I don’t think there’s any fighters deciding to get by on sparring money

 

I'm planning on fighting three times in 2026.

 

A big reason for this is ego.

 

Rematches over and over play their part. Deserving contenders waiting out a rematch ****s things up.

 

Top Rank and PBC are on life support. This streaming era has absolutely ****ed boxing as a domestic sport.

 

Lack of available air time.