When Should A Boxer Call It A Day?

By Nick Hagan - 10/16/2013 - Comments

By Nick Hagan: Following Juan Manuel Marquez’s defeat last weekend In Vegas, there are now many people, who are calling for him to retire, after what has been a very accomplished career.

Marquez is now 40 years old and has fought the best in Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquia, and finally beating the latter at the 4th attempt. You have to ask the question; where does Marquez go from the defeat, inflicted by Bradley last week? This answer is simple, just retire! If he continues (which I suspect he will), It would be a sad situation and likely do damage his legacy and potential long term health.

The same can probably be said, about Manny Pacquia. It’s Imperative that Manny beats Brandon Rios in style, when they clash In December and not take too much punishment in doing so. In my view Pacquia is definitely in the twilight of his career! He is now 34 years old and has shown signs of wear and tear, during the past three years. I would say that he is notably slower, coming forward and is more susceptible to taking big shots, which is a worrying sign and typically of a fading boxing.

It’s a combination of factors that makes boxers deteriorate over time. These factors being, desire, the amount of punishment taken In the ring, the type of lifestyle lead between fights and probably most of all the Individual boxers style.

Floyd Mayweather Is now 36 and is a prime example of a boxer, who has shown that not all boxers deteriorate with age. If anything he is seemly improving, technically and with his ring IQ. Mayweather without doubt lives the model life of a boxer, trains hard, doesn’t balloon between fights, but I think most of all he still very fresh, as he has never actually been in a outright brawl, or taken real punishment to the head and body.. Mayweather could feasibly box until his 40’s and still look just as good. Please note that when I say model life, this doesn’t include his personal life and I’m just illustrating Mayweather as an example, in contrast.

So my point here is that many boxers go on for far too long, they find It near to Impossible to retire and without sounding hypocritical, you can kind of understand why, If you are being paid 10’s of million dollars and so long as you are a ‘cash cow’, for your promoter, you will consistently return to the ring.

Surely at the end of the day, a boxer’s health should come first; we have all seen sad cases when too many continue to the bitter end, with health in ruins and no quality of life after boxing.



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