Fighters That Went Downhill, After Suffering A First Defeat?

Cheers! I thought he suffered a broken orbital bone in his eye. However I might be wrong and have been wrong before.

 

Mike Quarry off his 21 year old taking on Bob Foster at 35-0. Bobick at 38-0 and tookout by Norton. Foreman 40-0, Johnny "the heat" Verderosa.

 

Foreman not so much he recovered very well..

Hamed definitely,

Wilfred Benitez although he won one additional title and beat Duran

Wilfredo Gomez

Michael Spinks never fought again

Tito Trinidad

De La Hoya his record was a bit spotty after Trinidad

Julio Cesar Chavez's record was spotty after losing to Randall part 1

Julio Jr dont even get me started on that one lol

Davey Moore the 2nd only won 6 of his next ten after losing to Duran

You could say Joe Frazier but Frazier had lost so much in his win with Ali that you can make a case it was the first Ali fight and not the first Foreman fight that made him start his downhill spiral.

Ruben Olivares won like 65 fights before losing to Chucho Castillo in their first fight but his record started getting spotty afterwards.

Chapo Rosario wasnt the same after losing to Ramirez..sure he won three more titles and had his year of glory in 1986 but to me the die was cast. PLUS he was already having drug problems...

Who else???

 

That’s how I’ve always looked at it. You couldn’t have put it better.

 

AJ

 

To be fair Thomas boxed really well in that fight, thumb or no thumb.

 

I'd like to cast a vote for Alvin "Too Sweet" Hayes getting zapped by Jimmy Paul. His career highlight was the prefight dance routine.

 

LOL
yeah I remember that fight was considered kind of big back in the day, for a non-world championship, undercard type of fight, anyways.

 

Yoko Gushiken, he retired lol

 

No, absolutely not.

Leon went on to legitimately earn his second HW Title shot against Holmes in a bout many predicted Leon would regain the Championship in.

He knocked out Evangelista in 2 after Alfredo had won and lost the European HW Title (which he'd won and defended four times, including over the Championship Distance against Billy Aird), and Evangelista would defeat four fellow World HW Title challengers during his career (including Snipes in Ohio. Alfredo became an infinitely better and more serious entity after Ali's penultimate successful Title defense, and Evangelista as Larry's first Title defense was not controversial as Alfredo's challenge of Ali's had been. (Alfredo was the reigning European HW champion for Holmes.) Evangelista went on to enjoy a long and solid career. In 79 career bouts, three of his four stoppage defeats were to Holmes, Leon and Greg Page. At the end of his career, he would regain the European title, then lose it via his fourth stoppage defeat to Anders Eklund before retiring a winner. Alfredo did not retire on a slide, and 62W (43) - 13L (4) is respectable enough.

After Evangelista, Leon knocked out the big and deadly punching Bernardo Mercado in 9, ending the very best winning streak of Mercado's career to get his second Title challenge at a peaking Holmes. After Holmes, Leon controversially decisioned Jesse Burnette for the vacant NABF CW Title, although Burnette rightly then got the world CW title shot. Leon did get his own WBA CW shot at Qawi, but the WBA then had a weight limit of 190, which weakened Leon too much to possess any vitality.

Ultimately, Leon's win over Mercado (who previously blasted out Berbick in a single round, then came off the deck to drop and stop Shavers in 7) proved Leon could stop a big power puncher with stamina (Bernardo had just stopped Tom Prater in 12) over an extended distance. Leon-Evangelista and Leon-Mercado are on YouTube.

Taken as a whole, Leon's career from January 1980 (after Coetzee had blown Leon out to end 1979) through December 1985 (when Leon won the WBA Continental title bout at 195 which got him to Qawi) was a pretty good 10-2-1 run, with the draw to Eddie "Animal" Lopez and defeats to peak Holmes and peak Carlos de Leon. (I've always considered Leon as a HW, being too weight drained to be a CW at or below the limit of 190 pounds. It's why Carlos de Leon and Qawi were able to stop him.)

 

Uh, Boom-Boom's first defeat was to Arguello, after he went on to an HOF career.

Ironically though, his victory over Chacon was Mancini's final victory, and Schoolboy's final defeat. (Bobby had a terrific stoppage win over the excellent contender Rafael Solis, plus Arturo Frias, which should have gotten Chacon at least a final title shot. Schoolboy finished his career with a seven match winning streak, fueled by impeccable conditioning. I wonder how Booby would've done if he'd always possessed that discipline and conditioning.)

 

Naseem was the first one that sprung to mind

 

Lots of fighters go downhill after suffering a defeat, they step up to the next level and in many instances that level is their ceiling.
I think a better question would be which fighter stepped it up and got better after suffering their first defeat.