Why do the fighters of this current era fight once or twice a year?

Money. That's the only reason plain and simple. The top guys like Mayweather can live well fighting only once a year.

 

No, it's not everyone. It's the very top of the food chain and the reason is money.

If it was everyone, it would take a contender 10 years to reach 20-0.

 

Money is one reason, TV is the other

for every fighter who is worth a damn they must be on TV and all their fights must be on TV, so they have to wait and fight when its convenient for the networks schedule and budget

 

Money is only a small portion, but what it really comes down to is avoiding high risk low reward fights, or fights that do absolutely nothing for legacy. I have no desire to see a champion fight 2-3 journeyman in between each real challenge.

 

because boxers now usually take at least top 15 fighters in their weight class while before there would be boxers who would fight lower rated fighters every month and have a good fight in between allowing them more figgts and less damage. another reason is money

 

The counter argument with Canelo is he is only 24 yet has already had 46 fights.

 

biggest stars rwice a year. others just need to step up. Canelo is doing good for 3 times a year, really should be fighting 4. GGG has fought 4 times a year the last 3 years (5 actually) so hes a monster.

 

The amount of money some of these guys make is one reason the top "names" only fight 1 or 2 times a year.
Good thing so many dates are wasted on warm ups,tune ups,weak voluntary/mandatory, and letting big fights "marinate".

 

And then one the other hand we have people wo pitch and moan that fighters fight crappy opposition.

 

With the decreasing number of dates on premium cable, there are less opportunities for a guy to fight 4 times a year. GGG can get away with it now, since he doesn't make millions for his fights but eventually he too will turn into a two-fight a year guy.

I use the example of Leo Santa Cruz. In 2012 he fought five times, but probably didn't get paid much for each fight. This year he got 500k for his Mijares fight and probably will get a similar amount for this Roman mismatch.

Most fighters today are not athletes but businessman, and would rather fight twice for a million dollars than fight 4-5 times for a comparable total amount.

That's why I do like how GGG has done his career early on. He'll take his show outside of the States if the networks here aren't interested. We saw that with the Ishida and Adama fights.

 

I think people bit€h when they fight crappy opposition because they only fight once a year

 

Probably for the same reason that most people don't work a third job when they already have 2 full time jobs ...because it's unnecessary to work that much to sustain yourself and/or your family...assuming that you're living within your means.