Fighters who were never the same mentally after a loss?

Juan manuel lopez

 

That's a bit harsh on James Shuler. He died ten days after the Hearns fight. In all fairness, it was such a bad ko, you'd probably have been proven right if he had lived but you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

Whoops. You've already spotted it. Sorry Flash. I was being as quick as your namesake and didn't check the rest of the thread.

 

This is a notoriously difficult topic to discuss with any semblance of precision. The problem is that I hear a lot of fighters being "ruined" by a beating when they were simply "exposed" by better competition.

 

Jeff Fenech was never the same fighter after losing to Azumah Nelson the first time they faced each other.Nearly everyone who saw this fight says Jeff Fenech won nine out of 12 rounds from a backpedaling Azumah Nelson. Fenech consistently forced Nelson to cover up along the ropes with his aggressive attacks and only the first two rounds, in which Fenech had not found the range yet, could be given to Nelson. After hearing the judge’s verdict, Fenech, holding his son, cried. After watching a video replay, Fenech said what everyone thought, “What more could they want me to do?” Fenech got a rematch with Nelson a year later but was knocked out in the eighth round. More confusing than the result was the way Fenech acted and fought. Fenech looked like a totally different fighter. Gone was the ferocity that marked his ascent; now his chin seemed vulnerable (something not exhibited before) and it hastened Fenech’s exit from the pound-for-pound polls. After the Nelson draw, Fenech was knocked out in three of six fights, nearly unthinkable for such a world-class boxer. In subsequent steps up in competition, Calvin Grove and Philip Holiday, who are not known for their power, starched Fenech.

 

No they were just never that good to begin with. That's why Bowe fought them in the first place.

 

Ali vs Foreman, Ali vs Norton III both acknowledged they were diminished and never the same but for radically different reasons. Foreman because he was so thoroughlly beaten. Norton because he felt robbed.

Norton vs Young, after feeling jobbed he spiraled into drug abuse.