In most sports, when an athlete decides to retire - they stays retired.
In boxing that's not exactly the case. Most fighters come out of retirement, and some of them come out of retirement over and over again.
Even Floyd Mayweather Jr., at 40 years old, came out of retirement back in August, after a two year break, to take a lucrative money fight with UFC superstar Conor McGregor. It was at least the third time where Mayweather had announced his retirement only to come back.
Other fighters, like Joe Calzaghe, Lennox Lewis and Marvin Hagler have never come back.
In the last few months, a number of top level fighters have retired from the sport - including Wladimir Klitschko, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley, Mayweather, Robert Guerrero and most recently IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs).
Ward's head trainer, Virgil Hunter, says his fighter will not become another statistic by being a fighter who announces his retirement only to return to the ring at some point. He fully expects Ward to never fight again.
"No, Andre is cut from a different cloth. He never looked to be a superstar in boxing and I told people from day one when he turned pro, they asked me 'Do you think he’s going to be a superstar?' and I said, 'No, he will just beat superstars.' He’s not cut that way, he understands life, he’s very mature and he did what he was supposed to do on his money making days, he did exactly what he was supposed to do. So nobody can lure him out of retirement, he’s not going to be that guy," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
As far as Ward's future, Hunter does not see him becoming a trainer. Ward is currently an expert analyst for HBO's boxing broadcasts, and he's branching into management. He's currently part of the management team for Olympic medal winner Shakur Stevenson.
"No, I don’t see him getting into training. He’s managing Shakur Stevenson, so there’s a possibility that if the right fighter comes along, then he would manage. But I definitely don’t see him in the training part of it. I don’t think fighters such as him would make good trainers anyway. He has broadcasting and he has a lot of ability to start a lot of other things for himself in life. He’s set and I’m proud of him. I just reflect to when he was nine years old and we’d talk about these things, and to have it all come to fruition just like we planned it out, it’s a wonderful thing," Hunter said.
