The relentless pull of the ring – why boxers struggle to retire on top

Usually, it comes down to money.

That is the ‘why’ behind many a boxing comeback and the inability to retire at the zenith of their respective careers, with their personal peaks, however modest, conquered. Pugs and champions in their thirties and forties have always scrambled to resist the slope that waits beyond that crescendo since first they donned gloves.

Lennox Lewis spoke to Sky Sports this week about his hope that Oleksander Usyk would follow his own rare example and depart the sport at the very top.

“When a guy retires, it’s really down to him. He’s got to feel that push that he wants to retire.” Adding, “I would say to him to retire at your own time but retire on top. Like I did.”

Boxing comeback – Money Remains Huge Need For Fighters Well Past Their Prime

Lewis And Usyk Are Rare Exceptions At The End

The ‘top’ that Lewis and Usyk have risen to is beyond the reach of all but the greats of course, but every man or woman that ducks beneath the ropes has a top of their own. The peak of which is not as visible as the Heavyweight Championship but however high or low that summit is, precious few fighters walk away while standing upon it and even fewer succeed in staying away if they do. Lewis, Calzaghe and Marciano three luminous but isolated examples of fighters who got out on top and stayed away.

As Usyk, now aged 38, rests and considers his own options, none of which appear as conspicuous and lucrative as those he has already vanquished, further evidence of the age-old truism that fighters never know when to stop is buried deep on under cards around the globe.

The forgotten Kentuckian bruiser Jeremy Bates has his second fight in a comeback aged 51. Close to a decade since the main act of his career drew to a close.

He headlines at Parkersburg High School.

A man who once fought Evander Holyfield, having offered to box for half the contracted purse to ensure he would get the gig, and kept several good men busy in the late 1990s and 2000s, Bates is pursuant of whatever financial rewards are available. His mission seems driven by necessity rather than choice, but he has spoken of his hope of winning the West Virginian Heavyweight title he first won 25-years ago. There would be a charm were he to succeed and once again retire more fulfilled, but these stories rarely boast such poetic conclusions.

Further up the snakes and ladders of boxing significance, veteran Irishman Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan made his own boxing comeback in Dublin against Mataues Pawlowski – who had lost 5 of his last 6 – in a 6-round fight. O’Sullivan overcame an arm injury to record a 58-56 victory.

The cost and consequence of a boxing comeback

Ideally, fighters should be discouraged from this peculiar mid-life delusion, but experience also instructs that such discouragement is rarely any more successful than the comeback. As observers we are not as redundant in influencing those decisions as we may appear. Beyond the cold hard reality of defeat and the inevitable pain accrued in losing, our apathy as an audience is the most powerful antidote to the folly of middle-aged comebacks.

Because in truth, it is always, not just the usually of the opening line, about the money.
Regardless of their motives, let us hope Bates and O’Sullivan find what they are seeking on Saturday, and if not, very soon.