Here we cite boxers destroyed mentally by one defeat

Wilder, Joshua

Iron Mike of course

 

Naz v Barrera was the first that came to my mind. The defeat seemed to evaporate whatever love Naz had left for the game and he didn't have what was required to mount much of a comeback.

 

Chavez Jr. vs Sexy Sergio
Chavez had a great work ethic when he actually got his ass to a gym, and that work ethic translated into relentless pressure in the ring. Well, after the Martinez fight Chavez struggled with making weight, and he rarely was as aggressive in the ring as he was before his first loss.
He even ended up quitting in several fights, and missed weight on a few occasions too.

 

Hardly a great victor, but what about Maidana smashing Ortiz and making him quit? He still fought to a decent level, but never lived to the hype

 

Good call. That was a serious soul snatching.

Tarver and Pavlik after BHop.

 

Up to a point...

But for me, he was already pretty much done by the time that fight even happened - struggling with weight, hand injuries catching up, etc.

There's plenty of fights people are naming here which just don't really count in my eyes - some are just fights where someone got exposed, some are fights where one of the fighters is clearly declining and basically done anyway... Yes, that final defeat might be the straw that breaks the camels back, but it's not really the same as a fighter in their prime (or not far off it) just completely losing their head after a bad loss and failing to compete at levels they'd previously been able to.

 

He was mostly done by that point due to the issues with his hands. He was at the point where he'd have to have his knuckes shot full of novocaine right before putting on his gloves to be able to throw at full power.

 

Prime Lomachenko was a specialist in this.

Nicholas Walters went from defeating Donaire, being very highly thought of, and many tipped for big things and to beat Loma. To early retirement aged just 30 and being out of the ring for 7 years. He's been back the last 3 years but he just isn't the same fighter/

Guillermo Rigondeaux was in the p4p list and had a massive hip hardcore and LDBC fanbase who tipped him to beat Loma with ease. Lomachenko took his soul, made him look like a bewildered novice without using size, just skills. And since then Rigo's confidence left him. and he forever has a face like a slapped arse.

 

Rhonda Rousey has been meek as a kitten after getting beaten to a pulp by the lovely Holly Holm.

 

Prince Nassem was my answer.

To me, Breland was never the same after Starling.

If we can mix in a win Camcacho was never the same after getting off the canvas to beat Rosario.

But its shocking no one has said Gerry Cooney yet.

 

In all fairness, Lacy blew out his shoulder.

 

It's hard to say sometimes because we all have feels and life can happen outside of boxing.
But Cleverly didn't seem to recover too well from the Kovalev loss.
Wilder was pretty devastated by his loss to Fury, but more so the third fight.
Proksa after GGG.

But let's get this right about Ward v Kovalev:

The first fight was to most observers won by Kovalev but yes there were some who scored it to Ward as it was close in the end. Still, it was generally observed that Kovalev had been robbed there.

The second fight was an illegal stoppage really, however it is likely Ward would have won that fight anyway as Kovalev was not doing anywhere near as well as the first and was obviously losing if I recall.

So Kovalev was really impacted by the robbery in the first rather than an actual loss.
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As for people who gave the first fight to Ward, let's remember that some pundits, even boxers like Liam Smith scored the first Canelo - GGG fight for Canelo. People have agendas of all kinds, but not always 'ethnic' directly. In the case of Smith, he was a fan of Canelo and Canelo 'winning' made his performance against Canelo seem better. Golovkin had also destroyed about three UK MW's and then Brook, so Smith probably didn't like that either. There were plenty of people who wanted to give the Kov-Ward result to Ward for their own anti-Kov reasons. Probably Paul Smith did for the same reason his brother gave Canelo the nod, it meant both he and the great Kov lost to Ward, and he had a Ward fetish too.

 

Mike didn't look mentally broken when he came back after Douglas. He had 2 quick KOs back to back + won two wars with Ruddock. Or did you mean the Holyfield fight?

 

Khabib snatched Conor McGregor's soul
He had lost before, but never before had a fighter been emasculated/spit on and his team attacked in front of such a live audience.

It was shortly after that fight that the **** allegations began and pictures where taken of him hanging around drug dens

I know someone who is friendly with a fighter at SBG and he says Conor is more off the rails than we can even imagine

I know this is a boxing forum, but that loss has absolutely destroyed him, due to how it unfolded and the deep hatred he and khabib have one another

 

Honeyghan vs Vaca comes to mind.....never was the same after that imo