Your top 3 scenarios where boxers messed up their lifetime chance.

Where did you come up with this "mentally beat" crap ?!?
Bowe was not afraid of Lewis at all cause that stoppage was premature and just a wrong decision by the judges.

 

Walter Dario Matthysse was undefeated until he was knocked out by Paul Williams. After that fight he won one fight and was knocked out in his next 4 bouts.

 

I'll keep it to the middleweights.

Hagler not fighting southpaw for the first few rounds v Leonard. Marvin had an OK career, as it happened , but he could have had a happy retirement and peace of mind too if only he'd come out of the blocks as a lefty against Ray. Speaking of Marvin, Tommy Hearns getting his legs massaged before the war with Hagler cost him dearly according to Manny Steward. Not sure how getting your legs rubbed weakens the bones in your hand but there you go.

Nigel Benn turned it around in the end and had a helluva career but spending the day having his hair done before taking on Michael Watson didn't half bite him on the arse. That kind of loss could have really sent his career south.

Finally, Herol Graham is set to finally become a world champ at 31 and get some paydays commensurate with his talent. Just needs to keep doing what he's doing and not go for the KO against Julian Jackson. That poor judgement cost him not just the title but the last years of his prime when he could have been making some serious bunce (as opposed to ridiculous Bunce aka Steve!). Herol sounds like he's having some serious mental health problems now. I wonder how things might have panned out differently without that gnawing away at him, not to mention the money as it sounds like he is struggling financially, too. Shame. He always came across as a really likeable bloke. I hope he has got back on his feet since I read about his problems.

 

When a fighter clearly doesn't want to the fight the number 1 contender who beat him for Olympic gold to the point he throws his title away and tarnishes his legacy what would you call it mental fortitude lol. Even Holyfield called Bowe out about refusing to fight Lennox. A person doesn't go that much out of their way to avoid the fight if they feel they'll win. Even their confrontation when Lennox was commenting and said he want to fight and Bowe's response was I thought we were friends.

 

Actually Bowe called him a bum and a sucker and said anytime, just say the word.

 

That was after he he said he thought him and lennox were cool and mentioned he's not afraid of Lewis a couple times.

 

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned but Marcos Maidana had some pretty close fights with Mayweather and Kahn

 

Tracy Harris Patterson and Kennedy McKinney were both 122 lb champs and extremely popular with the big networks. They were poised to meet in a huge showdown that would have guaranteed both seven figures. But instead of putting their names on the dotted line, what did they do? They farted around, made easy defenses and disparaged the other rather than fight. End result; they both lost their titles within a week of each other to Hector Sanchez and Vuyani Bungu. Bye-bye seven figures.

Johann Orsolics of Austria had a signed contract to fight Jose Napoles for the welterweight title in Vienna. The contract did not contain any clause that he had to have another fight. It was a solid contract. So what does his management do? I guess they wanted a tuneup before the big fight so they look around for someone old. Do you wanna know who they signed to fight? Eddie Perkins, that's who. Eddie flattens him in 4 rounds and Napoles' people exercise a clause that was in the contract. That they could bail out within 48 hours if he received a thumping. Bye-bye title shot

George Barnes of Australia was included in the eliminators to fight for the vacant welterweight title after Basilio's abdication. Whatever he was offered to fight in the eliminators couldn't have been much, but this was a chance at the big time. George stated he wouldn't leave Australia for less than $4,000. When the US Promoters balked, he stayed in Oz and lost his Commonwealth title to Johnny Van Rensbug the same month Virgil Akins was knocking out Vince Martinez for the title. George went 5-8-0 the remainder of his career.

 

Exactly.