Fighters who have no one to blame but themselves

Since we have good cornermen/bad cornermen, I figured maybe start a topic on fighters who lost winnable fights and just need to look in the mirror to find the culprit.

Some examples:

1) Roberto Duran vs. Ray Leonard II. IF Roberto was debilitated by weight loss, whose fault is that? Why not actually respect his title and the sport (and the fans) and party for a month and then get back to work? Or at least stop partying and do some basic training (not an intense camp per se) while negotiating his next fight.

That’s not to mention … how about don’t quit? He wasn’t far behind on the scorecards and you never know that one punch might not turn everything completely in his favor.

Nobody made him party. Nobody made him quit. That’s all on Roberto.

2) Marvin Hagler vs. Ray Leonard. Why give away the first two rounds fighting orthodox rather than come out southpaw and do virtually nothing? If he thought he was going to win easy anyway, that’s hubris … this the ‘destruct and destroy’ guy who never previously took his foot off the gas, always pressed his advantage, but here he’s coasting out of the gate.

Seems Marvin decided he could outbox Ray orthodox and wanted to show the world. Good plan … didn’t work. In a close decision, that strategic blunder probably cost him the fight.

3) Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas. Personally I put less stock in this, but as the guy said in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,’ when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Well the legend is that Tyson had sex in Tokyo and didn’t train hard enough.

Never mind that it turns out Mike wasn’t a virgin and had actually had sex before, or that we have no idea whether he didn’t also seek similar entertainment before his other fights (in which case why was this any different) … it gives Mike an excuse.

Nobody can take away what Tokyo Douglas did that night, although Don King surely tried. But if Mike indeed neglected his training in pursuit of sins of the flesh … the wages of sin are high and he paid the price for his dalliances. Not Buster’s fault, nor anyone else’s, if he didn’t give himself the best chance. Just Mikes’s.

What are some other cases where a guy lost a fight when the fault likes squarely with him?

 

I’ll add another:

James Toney vs. Roy Jones Jr. Tony weighed 168 just 3 1/2 months before this fight. He scaled 167 for Roy. Yet apparently he depleted and dehydrated himself to make weight without a long layoff, which means he must have had a few pizzas waiting on him in the locker room after his previous fight to get off to a fast start on bloating himself.

I personally don’t think Toney beats Roy Jr regardless, but this was a very high-profile fight at the time and if James didn’t take his training seriously …well, that’s on himself.

 

Foreman angainst Young.

People make excuses about the heat as if Young was somewhere else.

Holyfield vs Moorer

Juiced so hard he had a medical issue.

 

what was the Canadian HW's name, who could have been a lot more, Donavan Ruddock, who am I thinking of... he had the goods.

also could Guinn, have been more too.

 

Similar with Maxim vs Robinson (although I think Ray was a gentleman about it). Even the ref had to be replaced due to the heat! As Maxim himself said, ‘ I’m pretty sure there was no air conditioning in my corner either”.

Also McGuigan vs Cruz, although that was more to do with Barney Eastwood than Barry.

 

Golota against Bowe both times. Though Bowe's own lack of discipline and focus outside the ring caused him a lot of problems obviously.

Great fighter as I think he is Lennox Lewis in the first Rahman fight. Rahman took his opportunity seriously and was focused.

Herbie Hide losing against Joseph Chingangu. Hide hit him after break was called so Chingangu did too and ultimately that cost him the fight. A fight he was expected to win, and should have, but his dirty fighting cost him the whole thing.

Andy Ruiz in the Joshua rematch. Threw away any chance he had by not training and eating.

 

Lennox/Rahman I, Lennox was out of shape and even being out of shape was comfortably playing around with Rahman. That was dumb

Kirk Johnson "Jabba the Hutting" vs. Vitali. Why would someone who relies on speed and combinations "blue whale" himself into the biggest fight of his career.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson - we all know he was a wheeler-dealer at the negotiating table, but the proposed 3rd fight between he and Carmen Basilio was his Waterloo. He had a solid guarantee of $500,000 on the table from the States and was juggling a few offers from Rome and Paris. One of them came up with an unheard of $750,000 and Ray nixed it. His manager George Gainford stood with his mouth open saying, "Ray, what do you want?" Ray said, "$1,000,000" At that point, all offers came off the table, he frittered away almost 2 years trying to get this going, the NBA stripped him of their portion of the title for his inactivity and finally, he ends up losing his title to Paul Pender for $50,000. You only had yourself to blame, Ray.

 

Lomachenko. He could still be undefeated if he didn’t make a bunch of tactical errors like playing it safe for too long or taking off round 12 because he already “won.”

 

All very good examples here, you could probably make a list just on Duran fights after he turned 30. Trainer Freddie Brown said the only reason Duran went to 154 is he didn't want to train to cut the weight and then he was beaten in a fight with Benitez where Ray Arcel later said he was lucky to go the distance the way he prepared. Add to those Kirkland Laing, Hearns and the Robbie Simms fight where he was gassing out around the 5th and it was a bad bet at the time to gamble on which Roberto showed up, I know.

 

Seem as though I read Toney was being fed intravenously for a couple of days leading up to that fight. I can believe it the way he looked, sluggish.

 

Wilfredo Gomez vs Salvador Sanchez...

I dont think he beats Sanchez anyways anyhow but had he been in a better condition he'd at least given us a better fight than Roberto Castanon did.

 

MA Gonzalez---Chavez. I thought Gonzalez won by a fair margin. But he fought like HE was the crowd favorite and did not press on the gas when he had his advantage. And just how often was the DKP fighter not getting any kind of benefit of the doubt? He had the guy and things were there for the taking. He has the whiskers to absorb everything, so why not press on the gas against the old guy?

Quartey--Vargas; another guy fighting like it was taking place in his backyard. He'd already been throught the DLH scorecards & here he is again doing the same things.

 

Also, Hagler wanted his biggest pay day (more than SRL) and let Ray have the ring size advantage. Marv lost before the fight started.

 

Howard Davis-Edwin Rosario, with his chin and having to fight in Puerto Rico, in retrospect, didn't have a chance.