Why Boxers Stay too long in the Game

 "Roach, in various pre-fight interviews, kept coming back to Pacquiao may be at the end of his career, almost like he suspected this might happen."

"He said something like it is always a three stage process. First the legs go, then the reflexes, then denial by the boxer, even though he knew before everyone else."


This is a real clear description of what we see over and over again with great boxers who stay too long.

 This is a real clear description of what we see over and over again with great boxers who stay too long. The managers and other hangers-on seldom stand up to the fighter's ego because they lose a payday and because they hope he can pull off another dramatic win.  

Dr. Ferdie Pacheco had the humanity to quit on M. Ali and to tell the world that the guy was sick, pissing blood from kidney damage and generally, unfit for the ring.  Yet he was a lone voice in the wilderness being shouted down by Don King, Drew Bundini Brown and the rest of the leaches.  When Larry Holmes was beating the life out of Ali there is the classic picture of the chief corner man, Angelo Dundee struggling across the ring with his sweater stretched three feet long by Bundini trying to stop him from ending the slaughter. 

Most recently, Ricky Hatton refused to listen to common sense and took a terrific beating... that said, I think Manny was not a shot fighter in there last night.  He was boxing one of the great counter punchers of all time and made a mistake by walking into a trap set by Marquez.

On the other hand, they took so much out of each other that 'old man Time' is likely to be a decider in the next fight.  Marquez at 39 may be the one to fall apart 'all at once' during a next fight, as boxing aficiandos say about aging fighters.  It would bew ironic for Marquez to burn himself out chasing Manny only to lose to him in a 5th match that is already being discussed.
Marquez should retire with his masterpiece completed... but money will be waved under his nose to keep him in the fight game.  Lennox Lewis said in a recent interview that he is still being offered vast sums of money to come out of retirement to fight one of the Klitschko brothers.

My blog about boxing is primarily about repetitive brain injuries in boxing, football, hockey and even soccer.