Which modern fighters had the quickest sudden fall from their prime?

Captain Hook

 

They're not excuses. It's what happened and takes his wins into proper context.

Rico still performed better in his second professional fight than a "prime" Dubios did in his two against Usyk.

 

Taylor hit the bottle after the Catterall fight, it's fairly common knowledge.

 

Ngannou performed better in his 1st boxing match than Wlad or Wilder did against the same opponent. It doesn't mean nearly as much as you think it does.

I see them as excuses. The vast majority had Miller doing better against Ruiz than Parker did, and obviously far better than AJ 1. Hrgovic may well have lost without the butts, and should have done better avoiding them, as well as doing better at avoiding punches and hurting Dubois. AJ was 34 and on a hot streak, regarded by most as being as good or better than ever. Wardley was on a good streak, beat Parker and was a dangerous puncher.

I would not be confident of Rico winning any of those fights and he would certainly not go 4-0 there, let alone with 4 KO's.

 

Maybe RJJ. He rode a wave and made history by winning a HW title against John Ruiz; after that he came back down to LHW for an unconvincing win against Tarver, followed by a brutal KO loss against the same man and a subsequent career of mediocrity against fighters who couldn't hold a candle to him in his prime (Calzaghe and Hopkins excluded.)

 

Kovalev and Pavlik fell off pretty hard.

 

Ngannou lost. Wilder actually got a draw against Fury and more knockdowns in 2/3 of his fights.

Miller v Ruiz was a draw. Parker beat Ruiz.

Hrgovic lost by being fouled repeatedly, end of story.

AJ was past his prime, his "hot streak" not being particularly special in the grand scheme of things.

If you don't think that Rico, who gave Usyk his toughest fight at heavyweight, is capable of beating far less skilled opponents like Dubios then I'm not sure what to tell you. He isn't basic like Ngannou is, and actually has a competent team in his corner who can make a game plan.

 

This is just cope for results not going as you hoped they would. Dubois is better than Parker, end of story.

Rico got dropped heavily and stopped by the worst Usyk to have ever fought in a pro ring. Now he has lost his element of surprise he is probably going to lose badly.

 

Tim Tszyu

 

It's not "cope" I'm just not entertaining revisionist history.

What IS cope is you trying to downplay Rico's performance. He gave Usyk his hardest fight directly after Usyk nailed Dubios to the canvas in 5 rounds.

If Dubios was better than Parker he wouldn't have ducked him either, so nice try?

 

Alberto Machado was 27 when he upset Jazareel Corrales to the take the WBA 130lb title. He then managed two title defenses before Andrew Cancio sprang an upset on him. In fact Cancio did so twice, knocking out Machado in back to back fights.
Machado never recovered. At the age of 28 he had seen his peak, going 2(2)-2(2) afterwards, before stepping away from the sport in 2024. He returned last year and is now 2-0 against two total bums.

 

These are memorable recent ones to me. Some were more about development.
Tim Tszyu
Jordan Thompson
Ellis Zorro
Jack Massey
Gilberto Ramirez
AJ
Errol Spence

 

After reading the responses to this thread, I’ve decided on not exactly sure what modern means. I was thinking that it meant not old timers. But it seems to mean pretty much current people. Nevertheless, I’m gonna throw in somebody from the somewhat distant past and go with Donald Curry. The Lone Star Cobra was considered the number one boxer in the world for about two years in the mid-1980s. He was stopped by Lloyd Honeyghan and won just a bit more than half of his fights for the rest of his career.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what Rico does now
I'm of the opinion he will lose to anyone considered top 5
Dubois would eventually batter him after maybe a few hairy moments

Rico imo has a lightning in a bottle moment and good on him

I terms of the thread topic in recent years Joyce and RJJ

 

I consider anything in the last 50 years as recent and a fighter i consider fits the criteria for this thread
Charlie Magri