Why do most fighters usually only fight 2-3 times a year?

Boxing is s job.. They just fight, get payed, go on vacation, buy cars, then fight again when they need more money.

 

In the past boxers used to fight more but a lot of those fights were against pathetic opposition.

It's funny how some boxing fans like to claim how old school boxers were better because they fought more times yet forget how many of those fights were against complete "cans", for example Marciano fought these guys during his best years:

http://boxrec.com/boxer/12217
http://boxrec.com/boxer/12218
http://boxrec.com/boxer/12219
http://boxrec.com/boxer/12216

Imagine if Floyd or Pacquiao decided to fight guys like that in their prime. The boxing public would crucify them.

If modern boxers wanted to fight 4 or 5 times a year then most of those fights would have to be against low level fighters and no one is really interested in this. GGG gets enough **** already for fighting undefeated Wade, imagine if he fought someone with sub 0.500 record.

 

good post :good

 

I agree to some extent, but I can overlook top fighters fighting lesser opposition or two in between the two or three big name fights.. Fighters get slack over the cans they fight now because they use up one of the two times a year they fight on that can.

 

^ perfect. There are different ways of getting rank and also putting work in. Experience counts, but you can't have life or death fights all the time - training camp takes a lot out of someone, then a big fight on top of that.

People were knocking Joseph Parker for taking easy fights in the 3 months after fighting Kali Meehan and not necessarily looking as good as he could or should against Jason Bergman. If you look at the 6 fights he had within 12 months before fighting Martz and Bergman (in December and January respectively) and the fact that each of these fights would have had a training camp and recovery time fit in between as well as normal life... this is a pretty gruelling way to operate for someone working their way up:

16 2015-10-15 Kali Meehan
15 2015-08-01 Bowie Tupou
14 2015-06-13 Yakup Saglam
13 2015-03-05 Jason Pettaway
12 2014-12-06 Irineu Beato Costa Junior
11 2014-10-16 Sherman Williams

 

Because it causes brain damage? :conf

 

They might look fresh but the brains and the body take damage even if the fight itself isn't a war. Also, they go through a long and tiring camp training to peak at the day of the fight. It's not like football teams that train to sustain their form for entire season. The camps that the fighters go through are really tough and then there's the weight cut too. Take hard sparring into account and the body and the brain simply need some rest.

As I said, it's only possible if some of those fights were against cans and they wouldn't have to prepare that much for a fight, but this is pointless in the modern days. The reason why the old school boxers did it is because they were more desperate for money but in modern days boxers make more from fighting 2 top level fights with all the build up and promotion behind it than smashing a new can that no one cares about every 2 months.

 

Far too accurate a conclusion for the utter re****s we have trolling the Internet. How the hell did these types operate pre Internet ??? Really hasn't been that long since it was only paper and radio

 

Well if you consider that it takes 6-8 weeks to properly prepare for a big world title fight, and of course fighters need to rest and recuperate in between bouts, 4 in a year, is the very best you can expect from the elite guys.

 

Floyd fought berto though...

 

This could be described as incomplete and poor research.

Records from this period are incomplete on boxrec, for one thing.

Marciano was only in his second full year as a pro.

In Rock of Times, this sequence of opponents was said to be a retooling period following the tragic Vingo fight where Marciano sunk into depression and was performing poorly in the ring.

 

I think it has more to do with the toll taken on the body in boxing.

Just coz they look fresh after the fight, what about the day in day out grind of the training, the sparring, exhausting yourself in the gym every day would take the toll.

B-Hop has always been known as being extremely dedicated to gym and always in shape but even he only fought a couple times a year at his peak.

He touches on the importance of rest in this clip
[YT]52tuw5vM6ug[/YT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52tuw5vM6ug