Money is probably a big factor nowadays. A pro boxer pre 1960's probably had to fight a lot more to earn a decent living. But if you watch fight from back in the day the fighters didn't move about as much, they just used to trade punches. So fights didn't take it out of you as much. But then you had boxers like Sugar Ray Robinson who used to work the ring and the sport became more and more physical and physically draining. fighters back in the day were not as bothered about losing as much either, whereas today's fighters don't like losing, so train for longer and harder.
The reason there are more fights is because Television & Cable tv have helped hype fights better. The result is that fighters don't have to bust their nuts as much as back in the day.
Most fighters today begin their careers fighting allot, usually 1s a month. BHops fought Mercado only 13 days after whopping Eddie Tyler. But with global television; the more fame a fighter gets, the easier it is for that fighter to sell big and to sell big you need a big promotion which can take 6 months.
You always had big promotions, for example Jack Dempsey fights [at the end of his career as champion he fought maybe 1s a year or 1s every 2 years] but there were allot more active fighters back then so to climb the pyramid it took allot of fights. Once on top of the pyramid you can get them big fights which mean 6 month promotions.
It could still be possible for countries like Mexico, Puerto Rico and even the Philippines to produce fighters like that since boxers from these countries usually start pro boxing at a very young age, some as early as 14, 15 years old.
But with so many international championships available today, I think it will be very difficult for them, especially for their handlers to resist the temptation of pushing them into big money fights earlier than they are prepared for.
In the past, with just a few major championships to fight or aspire for, boxers usually have to fight more often and against improving levels of competition to be able to win local, national and regional championships that would qualify them to break into the world rankings, which are an elite and exclusive list. Boxers who were not rated in the top ten contenders could not fight for local, national, regional, much less in international or world championships.
Flash Elorde of the Philippines for example who had a career total of 118 fights, did not earn his first world championship crack at featherweight until his 46th pro bout in 1956 or five years his pro debut in 1951 and did not win his first world title until his 75th pro fight in 1960. He would proceed to chalk off 43 more fights until his retirement in 1969 logging a total of 18 years of pro fighting. Elorde had to win and defend the Philippine national and the Oriental regional titles in order to break into and maintain world rankings and eventually vie for the world championships at 126 and 130 lbs.
It's still possible now but would be extremely difficult to produce 100-fights level elite boxers even for the traditional boxing nations given the glut in so-called international belts/titles and the heavy commercialism in boxing.
what country they're from to have between 100-200 fights on their record like fighters from the old school era/Pre-1960s?
I've heard that the reasons why all of today's fighter, mostly American boxers, fight much less than back then was because of they train a lot more before the bout and the fear of losing more money to either promoters, managers, trainers and the IRS and most other serious issues happening in the US. I don't know much about boxers from the UK or of other countries and their problems but all I know for sure is today seems near impossible for a fighter to have near or over 200 fights partly due to the amount power that greedy promoters are receiving in today's boxing.
What do you guys think?
