Why do boxers who were great refuse to retire and end up with so many losses?

[TheBigLug]

If a guy has had a great career, history will still judge them properly and we'll remember their greatness. Nobody thinks about Mosley losing to Avanesyan do they? they think about when he whooped Margarito and other good wins and how good he was at his best. Having a 0 won't make a whole lot of difference. Plenty of guys with losses are held in higher esteem than Marciano and Mayweather.

We all know this was basically another Floyd-loving thread from Larry though.

[Eff Pandas]

There is no quality control with the level of competition in boxing. So too many guys stick around to long cuz boxing has a flawed system. Imagine if cats could play HS football into their 20's lol. HS Seniors would never make the team. Or imagine the NFL added a extra team every year. More guys could stick around. Thats boxing. So its not so much guys are sticking around to lose, they are just sticking around too long cuz you can stick around in boxing longer than most other competitive sports which eventually results in them losing to lesser & lesser guys then they've lost to before.

So it kinda is money to, but the way boxing works its always about money. If guys got flipped to some AAA level of boxing as they got older thus got paid less you see fair less great fighters hurting their legacy & making their record look less sexy.

[Eff Pandas]

Bills to pay

There is a lot of this too I bet.

When you are the 35 year old post-prime boxer who's got a bank account with ~$200k in it you aren't exactly set for life & when a mfer has spent the last 28 years focused on boxing what exactly is a guy to do? You aren't exactly setup to do much more than get some $12/hr manual labor/Walmart cashier type job so getting $100k per fight a couple times a year with some hopes of getting another $1M or more payday if you string along enough W's makes all the sense in the world I'd imagine.

[KillaCamNZ]

When you've been on top, it's harder to accept not being on top.

That, and money, the pure enjoyment of fighting, or being scared of post-boxing life.

[MurkaMan]

naw..it really does tarnish their legacy..sorry it does...it takes away that "what if" factor

When you go ya whole career without a loss, and have the greatest undefeated record of all time, one loss will ruin everything imo.

Its something worth losing sleep over imo

[Larry the boss]

When you go ya whole career without a loss, and have the greatest undefeated record of all time, one loss will ruin everything imo.

Its something worth losing sleep over imo

Being a great fighter and knowing a taxi driver,a school teacher or a construction worker beat you or even knocked you out the ring is ridiculous..sorry its their own fault and embarrassing

[KillaCamNZ]

If Jones retired after Ruiz he'd been in everyones top 10 ATG. Now he'd be lucky to break top 50.

Depends on your criteria. It's like counting stats in baseball - some prefer the guy who had 3000 hits over 20 years, some prefer the guy who had 2600 over 15. One had longevity, the other had a better peak.

Whatever RJJ has done with his career in recent years, doesn't change anything for me - his peak remains a part of history and that can't be taken away. What we did against Enzo, for example, will never change what he did against Toney.

[Chollo Vista]

Manny Pacquiao now has 7 damn losses

Ray Robinson ended up with 19 damn losses

Shane Mosley has 10

Roy ****ing Jones has 9 damn losses

Holyfield stuck around to long and has 10 damn losses


why **** up your record like that?? losses no matter what people say do effect your legacy..It takes away the "WHAT IF" SUPERHUMAN factor away..you demoralize yourself by losing to people you would have ran thru in your prime

Hopkins has 8 damn losses and was knocked out the ****ing ring by a damn construction worker.....

This **** is disgraceful...

Why did Mayweatther need 4 retirements?

Why did Mayweather retire from 2007-2009 when the division was the hottest?

I wish Jones would've retired instead of fighting Tarver

Cotto should've retired after Mosley or fought #1 JMW Cory Spinks instead of fighting #4 Margarito. That would've been a Floyd move.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight old ass DLH in 2007

Floyd came out of retirement to fight JWW Hatton at 147. Floyd called Ellerbe immediately after the Castillo fight because Hatton called him out. Fight got made.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight Lightweight Juan Marquez.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight 0-0 Connor McGregor

But when Cotto wanted to fight him, Floyd said he was retired. As soon as Cotto decides to fight Gomez, Floyd comes back out of retirement to negotiate a rematch with DLH. The public said hey Floyd "We don't want the DLH rematch. You do". Floyd didn't want to touch the Marg Cotto winner or Paul Williams so he stayed retired for 2 1/2 years.

How many retirements did Cotto, Pac, Jones, Williams, Robinson etc have to take over their career?

[Larry the boss]

Why did Mayweatther need 4 retirements?

Why did Mayweather retire from 2007-2009 when the division was the hottest?

I wish Jones would've retired instead of fighting Tarver

Cotto should've retired after Mosley or fought #1 JMW Cory Spinks instead of fighting #4 Margarito. That would've been a Floyd move.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight old ass DLH in 2007

Floyd came out of retirement to fight JWW Hatton at 147. Floyd called Ellerbe immediately after the Castillo fight because Hatton called him out. Fight got made.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight Lightweight Juan Marquez.

Floyd came out of retirement to fight 0-0 Connor McGregor

But when Cotto wanted to fight him, Floyd said he was retired. As soon as Floyd decides to fight Gomez, Floyd comes back out of retirement to negotiate a rematch with DLH. The public said hey Floyd "We don't want the DLH rematch. You do". Floyd didn't want to touch the Marg Cotto winner or Paul Williams so he stayed retired for 2 1/2 years.

How many retirements did Cotto, Pac, Jones, Williams, Robinson etc have to take over their career?

here we go with this Cotto ****..dude he beat Cotto and took his damn title..get over it

[Robbie Barrett]

Depends on your criteria. It's like counting stats in baseball - some prefer the guy who had 3000 hits over 20 years, some prefer the guy who had 2600 over 15. One had longevity, the other had a better peak.

Whatever RJJ has done with his career in recent years, doesn't change anything for me - his peak remains a part of history and that can't be taken away. What we did against Enzo, for example, will never change what he did against Toney.

When he was prime he looked like superman a slight decline showed his weakness. His chin. A weakness nobody knew but now has to be taken in to consideration when discussing his ability. Also his fundamentals and defence are quite poor, which we didn't know how bad until he slowed which also now need to be taken in to consideration. Fighting on too long exposes fighters weaknesses and they suddenly don't look quite as impressive as they did.