Fighters That Went Downhill, After Suffering A First Defeat?

What metric are you applying in making this assessment?

El Radar followed his defeat to SRL by beating Johnny Turner on television (you just don't let Benitez stalk you and load up on his shots), Chiaverini (NBC Friday Night Fights), Pete Ranzany, Maurice Hope (1981's kayo of the year, an explosion of a right hand where Wilfred became the first Hispanic boxer to win championships in three weight divisions, just beating out Arguello-Watt), then his SMW defenses against multiple champions Santos and Duran before dropping that title via MD to Hearns.

Hearns shouldn't have ended Benitez, yet Hamsho and Matthew Hilton proved it had. Regardless, it was really his SRL to Hearns resume which produced his career best one punch kayo and made him a triple weight champion, bringing him to assured boxing immortality.

 

This is on my mind only because I was watching Pazienza v Arroyo today. And that is Harry Arroyo took a nasty thumping when he was 26-0 against Jimmy Paul. After that he was a shadow of himself. I can't describe how bad he looked against Paz. I mentioned it on my writeup in the scorecard thread that it looked like he was punching underwater. After the Paul fight he went 14-10. And those 14 wins were against extremely average and sub-average opposition. Some of his losses were sub-average as well.

 

Roy Jones, shockingly fast
Gerry Cooney
Frazier to a degree
Corbett
Tito Trinidad
James Scott
Jermain Taylor
Leon Spinks
David Bey
Tyrell Briggs
Pinklon Thomas

 

Totally agree. Joe Louis (Schmeling I), Tommy Hearns (SRL I), Roberto Duran (DeJesus I), Willie Pep (Angott), MMH (Willie Monroe I, the only bout acknowledged by all observers, Hagler included, to be the only conclusive defeat of Marv's career), Floyd Patterson (Maxim), Sonny Liston (Marty Marshall I), and countless others do meet this criteria.

 

Joke. Lost his 0 as in zero fights lost, lost the 0 from Wilfredo and became Wilfred whereupon he lost a fair bit.

One for you here @Pugguy . Help me out. I'm crashing and burning, bombing, dying, falling flat, pugguying.

 

Leon was a 4-1 underdog going into the Holmes bout. Not many were picking him to win.

 

Curry is my pick too…he went from being tied for top P4P with Hagler to being downright fragile.

 

I agree, but I think it was more a case of not being able to handle the success and adulation of winning a championship. He just partied on and on as I understand.

 

Ed, Edd, Eddy n’ Eddie - these terms are foreign to me. You’re just Ezzarding - surely you’re used to hearing crickets by now. Same ol’ schtick up the ash as my mate Sean used to say. If you want attention that badly, try replying directly .

 

Jeff Fenech lost it all after a draw, now reversed.

 

The fastest way to destroy a great fighter, is to give them the title.

 

Some but others take ownage of that sucker and never want to let go of it e.g. Hagler, Monzon, Hopkins etc

 

Yes, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule.

 

It also comes down to class tho Jan. Dominant champions (elite level fighters/ATG's) are few and far between so many are going to be dethroned in their first couple of defenses. So cutting to the chase the law of averages is very much present.

Edit - I will concede that winning the title did indeed dim the odd fighters drive. Sonny Liston is the pinnacle example of this.

 

An absolute contrast to what Gil Clancy used to frequently say, that winning a championship would improve a guy by around 25%. But since Marciano happened to become the first undefeated challenger after Queensberry boxing achieved establishment (definitely in the HW division, maybe in all divisions, but you're the poster I'll defer to for confirming or debunking that for other divisions prior to Marciano's challenge of JJW), then Clay's challenge of Liston, being an undefeated challenger seemingly has become paramount.

"When a fighter's undefeated, there's something wrong." - Billy Conn. When Marciano challenged JJW, Rocky became the exception which proved Conn's rule. Then, Marciano actually won.

In the PKA, the undefeated Bill "Superfoot" Wallace was only listed fifth in a karate magazine on the ten greatest of all time in that discipline. The legendary Joe Lewis was rated number one, and his superb comport in defeat was a primary consideration for that honor. Boxing's Joe Louis also represented that principle after Schmeling I, Charles and Marciano. After Braddock, he said "You can't call me champ until after I beat Schmellin'!"