One thing I always find interesting in boxing is when fighters take an entire calendar year away from fighting, or somehow miss an entire calendar year. For example, Miguel Cotto took the entire year of 2016 off after his fight with Saul Alvarez, and will finally return to the ring next year. Tyson Fury and Wlad Klitschko also didn't fight in 2016, despite numerous attempts to get their rematch off the ground. Juan Manuel Marquez has been inactive for two years now but still insists he will come back in 2017.
A lot of notable fighters fought only one time this year. Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Amir Khan, Tim Bradley, Danny Jacobs, Jermell Charlo, Mikey Garcia, Adonis Stevenson, and Adrien Broner each only had 1 fight throughout all of 2016, which is a pretty dismal activity rate
Can you guys think of other notable fighters that didn't fight at all in 2016?
Gary Russell Jr (only 1, and before that 1 he was inactive for over a year)
..he even abandoned his twitter acct. since Loma was clowning him on it in April.
That's the way of things these days. Boxers used to average about 4 fights a year. Hagler would average fighting 4 top 5 rated guys in defense of his title in a year. Now for some reason few fighters fight more than twice a year and going over a year without a fight is not unusual.
Lamont Peterson missed all of 2016? That might be the worst squandering of a year so far. Kirkland, yeah he's going to take a year off after that Canelo loss and enjoy what was probably a record payday for him. Cotto, he's already got one foot out the door and is flirting with retirement. But after his showing in the Danny Garcia fight I would have thought Lamont would get a push, instead we haven't heard much at all from him.
It looks like Andy Lee also didn't fight in 2016 after losing his middleweight title to BJS.