boxer who too good to retire early?

I may be wrong but I believe Pirog had back issues. Retiring due to injury isn't retiring too early, it's retiring at the right time.

Leonard had a detached retina when he first retired, which was the right time. Coming back was the wrong time and his fight with Terry Norris proved it.

 

I don’t remember mentioning Leonard in my post .

 

No you didn't mention SRL I just brought him up as a guy who didn't retire when he should have. Probably should have made it a separate post. My bad.

 

Quite a common thing with boxers sticking around too long tbh though .

 

Marvin Hagler.

 

Marvin retired in disgust at the way he'd been robbed by Saccharin Ray Leonard . Leonard was supposedly acting as advisor to Donald Curry suffering from a detached retina but saw the chance to stab Don in the back & steal the Hagler fight for himself. This robbed Don of the fight he was planning for himself. In doing so Leonard is definitely not one of Texas favorite sons to say the least

 

My theory is Its a far better decision to retire one fight to early that one fight too late

 

Prince Naseem
Marcos Maidana

 

Martinez had serious knee problems, he was done at elite level.

 

He did not have knee problems when he beat Kelly Pavlik, at the age of 35.
Martinez was an athletic specimen while in his mid 30s.

 

Joe Mesi

 

Good call on Hamed. He was 28 when he retired and had alot more to give to the sport.

 

Dave Tiberi. Retired after receiving a criminally bad decision loss to James Toney in 1992. He was in his prime, mid 20’s. Offered 500,000 for a rematch (made 26k 1st fight) and declined. I didn’t know it until recently but he trained with BHop for that fight.

 

Rocky Balboa.


He just fought the fight of his life. He just done that. Drago really did a number on him and if not for brain damage and poor eye sight, Balboa could have made a few more defences of his title.

A million to one shot. But he showed the world he was one in a million.

 

Martinez was a fantastic fighter but I thought this thread was about fighters that retired too early. When Martinez retired, he was finished as a top fighter so no need to carry on.