Whatever Happened to Non-Title Fights?

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Champions used to take a fight against a lesser opponent in between defenses to showcase their skills and stay sharp and well, every now and then the upset could happen. What happened to this? No champion ever does this anymore. I mean, aren't these guys supposed to fight often and stay sharp? Some of these champions fight once a year. Why not throw in a non-title fight? Don't they want to move around a little? Or just sit on their ass for ten months out of the year? What do they do with all this spare time?

Food for thought...

[Longhaul]

Champions used to take a fight against a lesser opponent in between defenses to showcase their skills and stay sharp and well, every now and then the upset could happen. What happened to this? No champion ever does this anymore. I mean, aren't these guys supposed to fight often and stay sharp? Some of these champions fight once a year. Why not throw in a non-title fight? Don't they want to move around a little? Or just sit on their ass for ten months out of the year? What do they do with all this spare time?

Food for thought...

Those days are long gone fighters a pampered Now and your lucky if they fight twice a year .When they get a small injury it means they are inactive for 16 mos or more.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Those days are long gone fighters a pampered Now and your lucky if they fight twice a year .When they get a small injury it means they are inactive for 16 mos or more.

It's getting to be quite pathetic though. I mean, damn. Every fan of the other sports gets to see their favorite players a hell of a lot more than we do. The average basketball player plays like 80 something games a season? We get like once or twice a year. It's not cool.

[Rockybigblower]

Cycling. Boxers need time to cycle off the juice. Taking interim non title fights would mean showing off their different body types pre and post cycle which would make the cycles seem more obvious.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Cycling. Boxers need time to cycle off the juice. Taking interim non title fights would mean showing off their different body types pre and post cycle which would make the cycles seem more obvious.

Damn, man.

That makes a hell of a lot of sense. It's sad and very realistic at the same time. Great answer, Rocky!

[Ray*]

Cycling. Boxers need time to cycle off the juice. Taking interim non title fights would mean showing off their different body types pre and post cycle which would make the cycles seem more obvious.

You actually have a point, back in those days when there isn’t any sort of random or regular testing it was easier to be active, to take non title fights and keep more active, nowadays it’s more difficult because of regular testing or let’s say more scrutiny in terms of PED.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

You actually have a point, back in those days when there isn’t any sort of random or regular testing it was easier to be active, to take non title fights and keep more active, nowadays it’s more difficult because of regular testing or let’s say more scrutiny in terms of PED.

This definitely makes sense.

It's a shame though. This era will go down and we'll have like a handful of good fight films to watch. The era where nobody fought nobody.

[£-4-£]

Also sanctioning bodies do not want their champions fighting in fights that don't make them money. If they get injured and can't defend for a while they don't get paid.

[paulf]

All the above posts are great points, but the real answer is that fighters just make way more money now. Champions used to fight non title fights to make a little extra cash, but now the risk outweighs the reward in a massive way.

[MasterPlan]

Danny Garcia v Rod Salka was a non title fight and it got destroyed.

Lamont Peterson vs Lucas Mattyhsee also.

Wasn't one of Deontay Wilder fights a non title fight?