He got some quality wins in his title reign like Castillo (fair verdict), Rudkin (I had Rudkin by a point), and a non-title win over a post-prim but still dangerous Medel, but fizzled out. The Olivares fight may have taken a lot out of him and in reality he should have already moved up. He was all but cutting limbs off to make weight.
Sumbu Kalambay, from the Graham win through the Nunn loss. That's a little under two years from 1987-89. Turned pro late and didn't reach the top of his game until 6-7 years in. By that point he was in his thirties, so the clock was ticking. Clearly wasn't the same by 1990, when he was in competitive fights with Euro-level boxers.
Sonny Liston’s wasn’t particularly short, but according to many on here he had the biggest drop-off in the shortest span. He was unbeatable in July 1963, when he battered Floyd Patterson the second time. By February of the next year, when Ali handled him with relative ease, Sonny had aged approximately 40 years and was a shopworn shell of his former self.
Nobody said he aged 40 years. This is hyperbole but it is true he was not at his best. He was in his mid 30s at the EARLIEST and had fought just over 5 minutes in the last 3 years, and he'd also come into the bout with a (recorded) shoulder injury. He'd also been drinking heavily, and neglecting training. He was likely past his prime for the Patterson rematch as well, as he rarely trained for the bout.
He had fought 5 minutes in the last 3 years because he was so freaking dominant the heavyweight champion of the world couldn’t last 3 minutes with him. Then next fight he’s old and just a faded reflection of himself. After the two Ali fights, he won 14 fights in a row and 15 out of 16 — extending his career another 5 years in pretty decent fashion. None of them were ATGs but they weren’t all taxi cab drivers either. And you’ll notice a lot of the better fighters of the day didn’t say ‘well Sonny is an old man but would be a good scalp on my record, so I’ll fight him.’ In fact didn’t Yank Durham pointedly keep Joe Frazier away from him? It’s revisionist history. If his shoulder was that bad he should have brought it up at the physical and had the fight postponed. If he was drinking instead of training, that’s on him — odd timing to suppose he only took up drinking after he became champ, though. But Ali handled him exactly one fight after his two destructions of Floyd Patterson and there’s no way he lost that much in that span. It’s funny, Sugar Ray Leonard fought one fight in 5 years and beat Marvin Hagler and the revisionist history on that is ‘well Ray was frozen in ice like Captain America and actually getting younger all that time while Marvin was getting older’ — whereas with Sonny he’s no longer sharp from not fighting (which apparently didn’t benefit Marvin even against a basically retired welterweight lol). Here’s the truth and it has always been so: Winners adjust, losers make excuses.
Junior Witter, won a world title lost it quick - never hit the same heights again. Carlos Maussa had his prime beaten out of him while getting banged about by Cotto and Harris even though he won a belt. Then went to war with Hatton in an ugly fight but in all of those he went rounds finished up getting smashed in a round by Victor Ortiz who should also be on the list. Kell Brook is another - mis management cost him his career and legacy
The Leo Randolph mention was perfect. Dethroned an experienced champion and then lost, retired and disappeared like last night's thunderstorm. How about we add Richie Sandoval to that list? Same resume. Elisha Obed had a very brief prime that people who saw him during that 2-3 year period still rave about and he dropped off a ledge. Eddie Gazo did in fact have a brief "prime" but you'd never have believed it if you saw him play helpless punching bag against Hearns and Mugabi.
