Besides Marciano which all time greats retired too SOON...

Wouldn't you give it to Lennox at the time?
I think Wlad wouldn't be able to take his shots, he was very green at the time that this fight was being negotiated.
I don't think Lennox should've stayed, but it would've been awesome, he was the last great ATG heavyweight, him or Tyson.

 

Jeffries in my opinion, continued to improve right up to the second Corbett fight and possibly beyond.

Damn shame he didn't decide to take a few more fights.

 

Marciano ISN'T on your list for the same reason.

 

Rocky Marciano has been dead for the best part of 50 years and you still spend much of your spare time obsessing about him. You are his most vitriolic critic, but in a bizare way he owns you.

If that isnt a mark of historical impact then I dont know what is.

 

Agreed, if he stayed around any longer he would have to fight Liston or Patterson at some point and we all know how either of those two fights would have turned out...:-(. Of course he would have made a fortune fighting Liston but preserving his undefeated record would have been the bigger priority IMO...

 

What's your top 10 heavyweight list KenNorton? :think
I have to say, your opinions are quite original to say the least.. underrating Liston, and even underrating Marciano.

 

I not sure Marciano would have made the 4 years undfeated waiting for Liston to come, I pretty sure Marciano would have lost shortly before Sonny came on the scene.

 

wned Ken Norton

 

I think Marciano beats everyone in 56...but loses by 57 to one of the faster younger boxer types like possibly eddie machen.

 

Eddie Machen isnt a bad fighter but not championship quality. I cant see Rocky losing to him. Hed find a way to win.

I wonder if one of those 1956 victims would include Marty Marshall?

That leaves patterson in 56/57, but can anyone really see him beating rocky with his chin? I say rocky pulls one out of the fire and still beats old age by retiring.

 

Eckhard Dagge - also he had a comeback a few years later, didn´t went well though
Henry Maske

 

all my picks have been dealt with already so im gonna throw this name in. I know he aint an ATG and i dont know the reasons behind his retiring so soon, but would Leo Randolph kinda qualify here?

 

Most of the fighters mentioned actually retired at the right time, or a fight TOO LATE.

Lennox Lewis definitely retired too late. He shouldn't have bothered with the Vitali fight, or Kirk Johnson (who he was original scheduled to meet). He looked very bad in his last fight. He would have been better off going off on the Tyson mega-payday.
Some people say that having Vitali on his resume enhances his legacy quite a bit, but the counter-argument is that Vitali's reputation was boosted immensely because of Lewis struggling to beat him.

Gene Tunney retired and married an heiress. In fact, I think he had promised her he'd retire. Tunney was already rich, and he was marrying into a very rich dynasty. With Dempsey retired, there was nothing in boxing that could pay Tunney the kind of income he could develop elsewhere. No incentive to carry on boxing.

 

Marciano is the type of fighter who would loose on the day when he got a bit too old to find a way to win this time.

I suspect that whenever it happened it would have been a bit of an upset.

 

If Lewis went out possibly, arguably, just one fight too late than that's a lot closer to perfect than so many fighters sadly mentioned.

It is very understandable, emtionally and financially, why it is so extremely difficult for even a great to retire; perhaps even more so for a great to retire. There's always one more payday and one more fight and one more cheering crowd, and the temptation to take one more bite of the pie is overwhelming.

I wish Holyfield had retired after the Byrd loss.
What he's gained since is not as much as he's lost.