Which fighter had the greatest short time prime

Kovalev looked like a Greek God for 3-4 years.

Terry McGovern among old timers.

 

Dmitry Pirog, Harry Simon and Ike Ibeabuchi were still in their prime when their careers were halted

 

Jimmy Young maybe? He looked really good between 1974 and 1977. He beat Lyle and Foreman and argubly beat Ali, Norton and Shavers too.

 

Definitely McGovern. Shows up all of a sudden and beats a bunch of top Bantamweight contenders, before destroying the undefeated Bantamweight champion of the world in a single round.

Moves up at Featherweight and breaks George Dixon, the man who at the time was considered as possibly the single greatest fighter who ever lived, before defending the title against top FW contenders in Gardner and Santry.

Then the mad lad moves up again at Lightweight and beats a superb Lightweight champion in a mere 3 rounds. And if you don't believe it was fixed, he then beats the other fighter who was considered by some as the greatest fighter who ever lived at the time in Joe Gans.

All in 2 years' time.

 

Barry McGuigan shone bright for a brief period

 

This. Hes like one of them stars(the ones in space) that shone super bright for a very short time.

Denver Ed Martin is another one. He became "washed" at the youngest age of any major HW.

 

Napa Kiatwanchai,looked like superman for going 2-0-1 vs Hiroki Ioka,then fumbled hard.

 

Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson.

 

The pressure cooker styles of Frankie Warren and Curtis Parker had them burning out early. Also the incredible speed of Halimi Gutierrez had the same result. Mando Ramos had a brief prime but that was because of his lifestyle.

 

Someone mentioning Panchito here? Nice.

His war with Garza is very good,and he earned me my respect for fighting with such height disadvantage for that fight.

 

Not sure I'd go as far as saying he looked like an ATG, but David Reid was pretty good during his prime, which didn't last very long.

 

Buster Douglas - whose prime lasted all of one fight!

 

Jackie "Kid" Berg had a run of wins that included victories over hofers Canzoneri, Kid Chocolate, & Billy Petrolle over a 2-3 year span before Canzoneri ended the streak by sparking him in a rematch.

 

Frazier