Who Were The Most Popular Of Fighter s, Five Years After Their last Fight.?

How do you leave Mike Tyson out of this? He's second only to Ali in fame and recognition. If that. He might be first in the younger generation.

 

There are actually a bunch from Japan.

But let's just add Frank Bruno, Fighting Harada and Mayweather. Pacquiao will join soon

 

You could say Tyson is probably more popular today almost 20 years after his last fight than he was when he was fighting. Sure everyone wanted to see him fight but he seemed more infamous than popular back in his fighting days. Today he’s a lot more fan friendly though flashes of the old Tyson still erupts from time to time but almost everyone seems to like him and are interested in his everyday life. Social media has definitely helped and seeing old films of him fighting on platforms like YouTube has attracted new generations of fans that weren’t even born when he was fighting.

 

Dempsey
Marciano
Ali
Foreman
Tyson
Mayweather

 

As JunLongXiFan mentioned Frank Bruno remains popular in the U.K after his retirement also Henry Cooper was also well liked post retirement in the UK.

 

Dempsey lived off the goodwill from his career for a long time as a NY socialite type. It worked out well for him and he lived a long time as a prominent member of society with his name very much alive.

Marciano had a TV show, which is actually pretty good if you ever want to youtube the clips. He was a big deal.

Ali was big before during and after his career. He was an absolute icon of American culture, really.

I think those guys were more culturally preeminent than Money May, just because of how boxing has declined in notoriety since the 20th century. But I'd probably slot Floyd in right around here.

 

He's still mentioned prominently by journalists, current fighters, youtube boxers & commentators. His name is regularly brought up in interviews, boxing media & social media. He is still a star attraction, despite being inactive professionally for 7 years (I don't count the debacle against Mcgregor as a professional fight. That was an exhibition).

 

In America, from a cultural point of view, boxing is not nearly as big as it once was. Therefore the best American boxers have not enjoyed the same overall popularity after they retire as their predecessors did.

Popularity on a large scale has to include a lot of casual boxing fans and they just don't care at all like they used to. I cannot think of one boxer since Mike Tyson who truly captured the interest and imagination of the general American populace and remained popular after their career ended.

 

Jack Dempsey was a whole lot more popular 5 years after his second fight with Tunney than he ever was before that fight.

 

Very true,Fergy. And the only boxer to have won Sports Personality of the Year more twice. However much kudos that gives. Lol!

 

I think we can add Roberto Duran to that list.