When did fighters stop being active...

[Matt W]

Reading a thread on whether Naseem Hamed belonged in the Hall of Fame got me to thinking. I think that one of the reasons that his, and Tyson's, careers were so exciting was because they were very active fighters. James Toney was another great example of this. I think it's fair to say that as the activity level of each dropped, so did the quality of their performances.

So when and why did fighters stop being so active? Will the tide turn? Should it?

Over to you....

[Coco]

It's not the fighters fault, they wanna fight and get paid, there is nothing worse than rotting away in the gym.

And the end of the day fighters at championship level are often to protected, it is difficult to secure the big fights.

One of the reasons why Hamed and Tyson fought so regularly is that there handlers were confident enough to put them in against anyone.
Also because they were so popular that they generated a lot of money so the challengers would still get good paydays and the promoter would still make a bumper profit.

[Cannibal]

Tyson Vs Hamed would be fun since Hamed is pretty much a heavyweight these days.

[bigbaddaddydanny]

Sven Ottke was an active fighter having 4 title fights a year - but what the heck that was no problem, because he got so many gift decisions.

[oliverfennell]

Tyson... those were the days... a world heavyweight championship fight every 2-4 months, instead of 6-12 as it is now!