I am beginning to think they did. I have never thought either was a world class fighter but it seems they have both fell head first into mediocrity since the fought each other.
mesi wasnt allowed to box , barrett was mediocre. Mesi was never put in with a champion, barrett failed that test more than once. There careers are not as much alike as you portray. Mesi was a "young" heavyweight, barrett was a veteran/journyman. BOTH were world class fighters!
I disagree completely with this thread. First off Barrett's career wasnt ruined. He simply got old and this is easily seen. and his losses after mesi were against Rahman and Valuev, 2 world class/championship fighters. Mesi's career wasnt ruined by defeat, it was "put on hold" by injury caused by big shots against a world class former champion.
No, not at all. Barrett went on to pull off a big win over Guinn, who at the time was undefeated and very well-regarded, then knocked out then-undefeated Beck in an excellent fight. Those were two of his career best performances. It wasn't until almost two years after the Mesi fight that Barrett first looked like he might've been slipping, that being against Rahman, but that could have been because he and Rahman were good friends and didn't like the thought of fighting each other. I think it was the 14-month layoff at the age of 34-35 after the Rahman fight that really finished Barrett as a contender. As for Mesi, he looked great for the first eight rounds against Jirov. It was those last two rounds that did the career-impacting damage, and even then, Mesi is still undefeated and has been pretty impressive in his last couple outings. We should get a better idea what he really has left come the Williams fight.
I agree with this. Barrett/Mesi wasn't particularly brutal. Barrett would go on to perform well against Guinn and Beck, then lose to Rahman and Valuev. He was a B level fighter all the time, he wasn't ruined by Mesi. If anything, Mesi may end up being ruined by that 10th round against Jirov, not by Barrett. Honestly though, Mesi looked in good shape earlier this year, if he gets medical clearance, I could see him making another run at the top 10.
Good call on Jirov being the end of Mesi. Jirov basically beat the snot out of Mesi and damaged him for good in the span of a few minutes.
jirov did not beat the snot out of mesi, look at the final punch numbers , mesi was making jirov look like an amateur for 9 rounds clearly outboxing him, mesi got caught with a series of shots and was put down but still won the fight on my card, BTW there are 10 rounds in that fight, mesi won 8 of them
Fighting Jirov is a career ender for most boxers. Even when they win, they lose. He knocked Toney right into the heavyweight division and then chased him down for a rematch! At least Jirov's had the sense to return to cruiser. I liked to watch Mesi but I think he should quit. You just don't recover from that kind of brain damage. Well, hardly ever. Doesn't Barrera have a steel plate in his skull? Or was he born with a steel skull and they just added some bone later to make him into a cyborg?
Mesi looked as good (and bad) as he ever did in th Jirov fight. That and the inactivity ruined him. For Barrett, it was his own mediocrity that ruined him. He didn't look more punchy after Wladimir. In fact, the best run of his career came after that fight.
