Which fading/faded fighter's last(few) fights have permanently changed your perception of them

Povetkin.
He's gone up in my estimation showing his class against decent strong young fighters, while being close to shot.

 

I try pretty hard to never hold anyone's past prime performances against them. To me, it's a bonus if they can give us something extra after they're past their best, but if the younger, fresher fighters get the best of things, it's just the way things go. When it goes right, as with Pacquiao beating Thurman, or Holmes beating Mercer, it's thrilling, even if that's the exception to the rule. Sure, most of these cases are times when the fading fighter should have hung up the gloves beforehand, and they end up either having to fight on for financial reasons or want to keep going out of the lifestyle or personal pride, but I personally prefer to make my assessment based off of the peak accomplishments than the end of the road.

 

His last fight showed me that he was better than I had realized.

 

Michael Spinks.
Seemed wrong to see him beaten in such a humiliating affair. He deserved more dignity. Part of the annuls of boxing history... but I never cared for that particular chapter

 

I don't judge fighters based on what happened when they are shot. In the case of Hopkins it's even more absurd to do so. I look at him and think it's amazing he retained championship form for so long

 

Yes.

It's always interesting to hear someone call a fighter a "great" fighter when he spent two-thirds of his career losing or completely mediocre because he fought too long.

Yet, some fans will bash other fighters who had otherwise stellar careers for a couple losses.

It's difficult for me to call someone a "great" when in the vast majority of a career that went on way too long, they weren't, no matter how incredible they were at one point in time.

I tend to hold fighters in higher regard if they were excellent for MOST of their careers, not just for a few years in a career that spans decades.

 

I don't hold one loss in his last fight against Michael Spinks at all. Particularly when it came in a divsion two steps up from where he was undisputed champ.

But I was a far bigger fan of Matthew Saad Muhammad when he was a rising contender and at the top of the light heavys, and his career fell off the cliff. I believe 14 of his 16 losses came in the last decade of his career and most were at light heavyweight where he was so good earlier. That was brutal. When I saw him on the USA Network against Andrew Maynard, I was really depressed. That sucked.