Bob Arum doesn’t expect Josh Taylor to break the modern-day mold of fighting more than twice a year.

The head of Top Rank Inc. was recently asked if he has plans to ensure that Taylor, the undisputed champion in the 140-pound division and Arum’s client, will maintain a more active fighting schedule than has been the case in the recent past.

Arum said that initiative resides with Taylor himself. Taylor gloved up only once last year, for his division-unifying win over Jose Ramirez, and only once in 2020, although part of that had to do with the onset of the novel coronavirus. He fought twice in 2019, racking up sterling wins over Regis Prograis and Ivan Baranchyk. The last time he fought three times in a calendar year was in 2018, when he went up against Wiston Campos, Viktor Postol, and Ryan Martin.

“That depends on Josh,” Arum said of Taylor’s willingness to fight more often in an interview on The 3 Knockdown Rule. “He’s the kind of guy that’s content with fighting twice a year, rather than three or four times.”

Scotland’s Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) is scheduled to enter the ring for the first time this year, on Feb. 26, in what will be his inaugural defense of his WBA/WBC/WBO/IBF 140-pound titles against England’s Jack Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs) at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.

A common criticism levied at elite fighters today is that they fight too seldom compared to those of previous eras, although a counterpoint to that line of thinking is that they are simply following the nature of the current business. Moreover, marquee fighters, such as Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua, oftentimes find that they cannot accommodate more than two fights a year on their agenda, given the scale of their events and their various commercial commitments.

Arum, however, says Taylor’s reluctance to fight more often has to do with the fact that the 31-year-old is in the prime of his life, and fighting more than twice a year would mean less time being with, say, his friends and family.

“These fighters are all young,” Arum said. “To fight four times a year sounds great, but it means giving up a lot of their life during a fun period of their life.

“They’re in their twenties. Some of them don’t want to do it.”

Not all fighters, Arum said, are keen on keeping an equitable work-life balance. Oscar De La Hoya, Arum’s former client, is one example to the contrary.

“Oscar wanted that role (of fighting often),” Arum said. “He was never happier – he had some troubles outside the ring as we know – but he was never happier than when he was in the ring participating in a fight.

“It depends on the guy.”