Why Are There So Many Old Fighters Today?

Fewer fights also means fewer undercard fights for young fighters to hone their craft. Fewer fights people can attend or watch on tv. This results in declining interest and fewer youngsters ever taking up the sport.

 

This. Also other sports have their athletes for longer these days. Like you said it has a lot to do with sports science, diet and supps.

 

Seems like a lot of youngsters take up the sport in the rest of the world (outside the US). A lot more countries stage pro boxing today than 100 years ago - meaning much more international competition. Gone are the days, where Americans fought Americans in the US, in nearly all the big fights.

 

I think most has been covered above me, but I'll add my two cents.

Promoters and sanctioning bodies.
They want to milk the established names for as long as they are worth anything and then a little more after that.

Both prospects and champions are fighting with a lack of regularity and the division becomes stagnant. So it takes longer for younger fighters to climb the ladder as the older fighters near the top prefer to sit and wait in line than risk their meal ticket against a younger prospect.

Also, many realise they need to be almost pre-packaged products to get a push by the promoters, so need to go the Olympics route, throw in the WSB to add on another year to get ready for the pros. Being very good at social media provides an alternative route though too.

Finally, even when a fighter does eventually climb the ladder, they are then told to wait.

Look to the Welterwait and Heavywait divisions for many examples of this.

It has taken both Hrgovic and Joyce on unbeaten runs about 5 years to climb into mandatory positions, and it will probably be another year possibly more before they get a title shot. It took Mike Tyson 2.

Ultimately I blame the sanctioning bodies and promoters.

 

Less fights against weaker competition for the most part.

 

In everything from MW up, there doesn't seem to be much happening. With the guys at the top or with youngsters.