Kristian Laight retires after 300th fight

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kristian Laight has retired from boxing after his 300th fight, which includes only 12 wins.

The super-lightweight from Warwickshire has now called time on a 15-year career that concluded with the milestone achievement of a 300th fight last month.

Laight, aged 38, has never knocked anybody out and ends his career on a 53-fight winless run. But in 279 defeats he was only stopped five times.

Without the likes of him the pro game wouldn’t exist imo! He has probably fought more champions than anyone.. fair play to him
— Tony Bellew (@TonyBellew) August 2, 2018

"Sometimes I get depressed about it," he told Sky Sports last month. "But, it's a job. I'm putting my little boy through nursery, I'm paying rent, I'm paying a mortgage, I'm paying my bills. I'm keeping my head above water, you know? I can't moan."

He has shared a ring with Kevin Mitchell and Derry Mathews, and was the beaten opponent in the debuts of Tyrone Nurse, Tommy Coyle and Lewis Ritson.

William Warburton is still actively boxing and has fought 175 times, while Peter Buckley retired after 300 fights a decade ago and joined Laight for his final ring walk.

[Ruthless-RKO]

How much you reckon he made on average..

[jamamb]

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=224496

[REEVE]

How much you reckon he made on average..

4 round fight roughly £1000 + exs take off your juice and food plus manager and trainer bit £750/800 or there abouts - more on allegedly shows

[Coco]

If you call it a grand a fight, he has earned on average 20k a year for 15 years, it's a living, but he is no rich man.

[Ruthless-RKO]

If you call it a grand a fight, he has earned on average 20k a year for 15 years, it's a living, but he is no rich man.

Most of these guys do have other jobs though don't they?

[Coco]

If you call it a grand a fight, he has earned on average 20k a year for 15 years, it's a living, but he is no rich man.

Most of these guys do have other jobs though don't they?

Maybe, less so if your fighting 20 times a year, nevertheless as I said it's a living, it's only at the top of the tree you really earn. If he has been clever and worked hard he might have a nice, well deserved nest egg, if not at least he has provided his family with some stability.
20k a year goes a lot further outside London too.

[Nightmare Roy]

Fair play, massive respect to him

[skanksta]

[skanksta]

I should add...

I have trouble explaining to my 'casual' boxing fan mates just how good you have to be to be a 'bad' boxer.
Guys like Laight should get some sort of small golden handshake from The Board and/or the big earning champs that he's helped improve.

[gilgamesh]

Tough guy, hard to stop, obviously must've had pretty good defense. Definitely one of the most prolific of these types of fighters.

They have the book called "Journeyman" about these guys, but in my mind a Journeyman is a guy that wins about as much as he loses at least. Laight would fall more under the "Professional Loser" umbrella to me.

That being said I'm not saying that as an insult to the man, but merely as a factual statement. As the above poster mentioned, you can't have THIS many fights without knowing how to at the very least take care of yourself in the ring, and know how not to get seriously hurt. Because you know a great deal of those 300 guys were trying to make a statement, and beat the hell out of him something serious and simply weren't able to.

You don't really see these kinda prolific losing records elsewhere, seems that athletic commissions are more stringent depending on the Country or the State/Province...etc.

Nevertheless, as people say, it's a living and he's done it well. Respect to the man, and all the other boxers who wind up getting sucked into this role in the sport.

I'm sure none of these guys set out with the intention of being THAT guy in Boxing. It just kinda winds up being that way when you realize there's really no money in doing it any other way after you've already picked up a handful of losses.

[Nightmare Roy]

I should add...

I have trouble explaining to my 'casual' boxing fan mates just how good you have to be to be a 'bad' boxer.
Guys like Laight should get some sort of small golden handshake from The Board and/or the big earning champs that he's helped improve.

I've heard it a thousand time too from people who don't know the sport, "he's lost how many, reckon I'd beat him" no son, he'd fold you like a deckchair.

[gilgamesh]

I should add...

I have trouble explaining to my 'casual' boxing fan mates just how good you have to be to be a 'bad' boxer.
Guys like Laight should get some sort of small golden handshake from The Board and/or the big earning champs that he's helped improve.

I've heard it a thousand time too from people who don't know the sport, "he's lost how many, reckon I'd beat him" no son, he'd fold you like a deckchair.

Actually YEAH they probably would beat him. Because he'd make no effort to win. That's why he has so many losses. He's a Professional Loser, that makes no effort to win because if he did he'd get less fights and therefore less money.

So I mean if he were told to cut loose, and really give it a go yeah he'd probably beat you. If not, he'd probably go about it as business as usual and just move around for 4 rounds and take a decision loss, and a paycheck and go on about his business.

I'm sure Laight was capable of beating a lot more than the 12 guys he did officially beat. He just made no sincere effort do so because it would've done his career no favors. Fights with guys like this are essentially fixed because one guy is coming simply to survive, and move on to the next bout. He's not there to win nor even try to win.

I'll bet a lot of the 12 guys that Laight has wins over are guys that either only had 1 bout or had WAY more losses than wins like him right? Where he was just told "Hey go ahead, and win this one to get the board off your back" or whatever.

[Nightmare Roy]

I should add...

I have trouble explaining to my 'casual' boxing fan mates just how good you have to be to be a 'bad' boxer.
Guys like Laight should get some sort of small golden handshake from The Board and/or the big earning champs that he's helped improve.

I've heard it a thousand time too from people who don't know the sport, "he's lost how many, reckon I'd beat him" no son, he'd fold you like a deckchair.

Actually YEAH they probably would beat him. Because he'd make no effort to win. That's why he has so many losses. He's a Professional Loser, that makes no effort to win because if he did he'd get less fights and therefore less money.

So I mean if he were told to cut loose, and really give it a go yeah he'd probably beat you. If not, he'd probably go about it as business as usual and just move around for 4 rounds and take a decision loss, and a paycheck and go on about his business.

I'm sure Laight was capable of beating a lot more than the 12 guys he did officially beat. He just made no sincere effort do so because it would've done his career no favors. Fights with guys like this are essentially fixed because one guy is coming simply to survive, and move on to the next bout. He's not there to win nor even try to win.

I'll bet a lot of the 12 guys that Laight has wins over are guys that either only had 1 bout or had WAY more losses than wins like him right? Where he was just told "Hey go ahead, and win this one to get the board off your back" or whatever.

Ohh don't worry I know how it works, too good no fights, I'm talking about guys who think they could take a journey man out in a street fight.

[gilgamesh]

I've heard it a thousand time too from people who don't know the sport, "he's lost how many, reckon I'd beat him" no son, he'd fold you like a deckchair.

Actually YEAH they probably would beat him. Because he'd make no effort to win. That's why he has so many losses. He's a Professional Loser, that makes no effort to win because if he did he'd get less fights and therefore less money.

So I mean if he were told to cut loose, and really give it a go yeah he'd probably beat you. If not, he'd probably go about it as business as usual and just move around for 4 rounds and take a decision loss, and a paycheck and go on about his business.

I'm sure Laight was capable of beating a lot more than the 12 guys he did officially beat. He just made no sincere effort do so because it would've done his career no favors. Fights with guys like this are essentially fixed because one guy is coming simply to survive, and move on to the next bout. He's not there to win nor even try to win.

I'll bet a lot of the 12 guys that Laight has wins over are guys that either only had 1 bout or had WAY more losses than wins like him right? Where he was just told "Hey go ahead, and win this one to get the board off your back" or whatever.

Ohh don't worry I know how it works, too good no fights, I'm talking about guys who think they could take a journey man out in a street fight.

Oh...well yeah in that case yes he'd be in for a rude awakening indeed

[Counter-puncher]

Tough guy, hard to stop, obviously must've had pretty good defense. Definitely one of the most prolific of these types of fighters.

They have the book called "Journeyman" about these guys, but in my mind a Journeyman is a guy that wins about as much as he loses at least. Laight would fall more under the "Professional Loser" umbrella to me.

That being said I'm not saying that as an insult to the man, but merely as a factual statement. As the above poster mentioned, you can't have THIS many fights without knowing how to at the very least take care of yourself in the ring, and know how not to get seriously hurt. Because you know a great deal of those 300 guys were trying to make a statement, and beat the hell out of him something serious and simply weren't able to.

You don't really see these kinda prolific losing records elsewhere, seems that athletic commissions are more stringent depending on the Country or the State/Province...etc.

Nevertheless, as people say, it's a living and he's done it well. Respect to the man, and all the other boxers who wind up getting sucked into this role in the sport.

I'm sure none of these guys set out with the intention of being THAT guy in Boxing. It just kinda winds up being that way when you realize there's really no money in doing it any other way after you've already picked up a handful of losses.

Out of interest, how many times, say you're the journeyman actually trying to win as the 'away' fighter, how many times in his earlier career do you think Laight may have not got a fair shake on the cards, and how many times do you think most people get the shaft before they realise they may as well just look after themselves as 'win' or lose they're probably not getting the win anyway, and there's no point getting in a tear up and maybe injured or cut and lose potential fights coming up if they know they won't get the win given to them?

[gilgamesh]

Tough guy, hard to stop, obviously must've had pretty good defense. Definitely one of the most prolific of these types of fighters.

They have the book called "Journeyman" about these guys, but in my mind a Journeyman is a guy that wins about as much as he loses at least. Laight would fall more under the "Professional Loser" umbrella to me.

That being said I'm not saying that as an insult to the man, but merely as a factual statement. As the above poster mentioned, you can't have THIS many fights without knowing how to at the very least take care of yourself in the ring, and know how not to get seriously hurt. Because you know a great deal of those 300 guys were trying to make a statement, and beat the hell out of him something serious and simply weren't able to.

You don't really see these kinda prolific losing records elsewhere, seems that athletic commissions are more stringent depending on the Country or the State/Province...etc.

Nevertheless, as people say, it's a living and he's done it well. Respect to the man, and all the other boxers who wind up getting sucked into this role in the sport.

I'm sure none of these guys set out with the intention of being THAT guy in Boxing. It just kinda winds up being that way when you realize there's really no money in doing it any other way after you've already picked up a handful of losses.

Out of interest, how many times, say you're the journeyman actually trying to win as the 'away' fighter, how many times in his earlier career do you think Laight may have not got a fair shake on the cards, and how many times do you think most people get the shaft before they realise they may as well just look after themselves as 'win' or lose they're probably not getting the win anyway, and there's no point getting in a tear up and maybe injured or cut and lose potential fights coming up if they know they won't get the win given to them?

That's a good question. I'd like to think his efforts were sincere, and he was trying to win for his first 20 or 30 fights or so, but I'm sure the bulk of them have been "I'm just gonna look after myself" type efforts.

A few of the guys in the book about this sorta thing straight up admitted that they basically just go in the ring, and move around and survive. A few of 'em pretended they gave sincere efforts to win every time out even though obviously they didn't.

To me just by the virtue of the sport if you're really TRYING to win every single time, you're bound to win by KO sometimes and they CAN'T take it away from you, but most guys just don't go for that.

I did like it that a few of the guys in that book when they decided their final bout was gonna be their last actually went out, and gave it all they had, and often won in that case.

One of the guys in that book said it'd be his dream for them to have a "Prizefighter" Tournament featuring these types of fighters because for once you'd get to see all of them really give their best because they'd all be matched against their peers, and would have no reason to hold back.

[Counter-puncher]

Yeah we mooted a journeyman prizefighter on here back when tom podmore used to post, i remember as he suggested some great names. I can't remember any of them now- Baz Carey may have been one. But the likes of him and Billy Smith and others in a tourney would have been brilliant. They'd have smashed ten bags of shite out of each other

[gilgamesh]

Yeah we mooted a journeyman prizefighter on here back when tom podmore used to post, i remember as he suggested some great names. I can't remember any of them now- Baz Carey may have been one. But the likes of him and Billy Smith and others in a tourney would have been brilliant. They'd have smashed ten bags of shite out of each other

Billy and Ernie Smith is probably one of the darker, and sadder stories in the book about these types of fighters. Brothers, Twin Brothers in fact. Both committed suicide after the same amount of Professional Fights.

Billy I suppose made his mind up that he wanted to follow his Brother's path, and committed suicide after reaching the same tally of fights that Ernie had.

People close to Billy said he was real quiet around that time. As if he'd already had his mind set on it, and he knew what those final few fights meant.

Really sad stuff.

You know that being a "Paid Loser" can't be an easy thing for a guy to deal with every day of his life, and I'm sure a lot of these fighters have spells of deep depression because of it.

[REEVE]

Kris has given me some very good advice at times the best thing he said is the most simple "when they move, u move"

Stops your opponent from setting his feet ever zince he told me ive tried to do that as much as possible

[olij999]

Very best wishes to Kris. And I hope he stays involved in the sport - he clearly has lots of knowledge, and comes across as a good communicator.

[spudder56]

Very best wishes to Kris. And I hope he stays involved in the sport - he clearly has lots of knowledge, and comes across as a good communicator.

This x 2

[THEBUTCH]

Many congratulations to Kristian. 300 pro fights is a tremendous milestone to achieve.

Nice comment from Bellew.

Really nice touch Peter Buckley joining him on his ring walk. Wish I'd been there to see it.

[Jamesthegreat]

All the best Kris, top guy, slick boxer.