That wasn’t really his choice though. He kind of got black-balled by Don King after the Tyson demolition iirc and was forced into retiring because he couldn’t get any decent fights.
Klitschko. He came back in good shape and gave a great effort in a losing battle and ended it there. I don't believe any fighter should ever retire undefeated. Push your limits until you know what your limits are. And when you get there, don't drag it on fighting lower quality opposition when you know you won't ever make it back to where you were.
My grandfather told me off for calling it a spatula when I was kid, for using America words. He said a spatula is only for fish, and that its called a fish slice or an egg flip. Still don't know if he was taking the **** or not.
I’ve been saying this for years Hell, a win over Holyfield and maybe a Rahman or Oquendo type would push him higher He was so, so stupid to go back to 175, he had multiple easy pickings at HW to beat and get paid while doing so AND enhance his career He beats Rahman, Oquendo, Toney, Holyfield for sure, maybe even Tua, since he was slowing down pretty bad around that time
He was slowing down at lhw but he would be by far the fastest hw, and he didn't have to get real big either because the cw limit wasn't 200 so he could've kept his speed and still amazing reflexes as relative to hw
So few fighters retire at the right time. I really think it should be recognised and celebrated more when they do. Lennox Lewis was heavily criticised, for example, for not rematching Vitali. I think we should praise the fact that LL knew he was declining - and bowed out before he got trapped in a downward spiral. Imagine if Roy Jones had done the same after Tarver 1? Instead he struggled for years to find a graceful way out. It's so hard for these warriors to walk away because it's all the know and what they excel at. So my default position is to expect most fighters to go on too long - and praise those who retire at a good time. I don't think we, as fans, make it easy for them sometimes - as we always seem to want more.
Froch and Groves probably. Froch knew he was losing motivation and it could have gone bad against Golovkin at that point I think. Groves also seemed to run out of motivation, but much earlier because of making that guy handicapped, so got out. He could have taken big money fights for a while even after the loss to Smith.