Boxers with shocking downfalls

Your right in every respect, huge surprise to see posters include him in this topic.

 

Not so much a quick fall from grace, but a gradual slide into mediocrity was the fate of Elisha Obed, a multi talented LM of the early to late 70s , from memory, had an unbeaten run up to his title fight with the better than average Miguel De Oliveira, came away with the crown, couple of fights later lost his title to the dour, uncompromising, Eckhard Dagge, then was on the downward spiral of winning 1 losing 2, beat lots of nonentities, but lost the big ones, and then retired, at the time he was spoken of in hushed tones, for sure a long reign was in the making, not to be I am afraid.
stay safe guys.

 

I agree with every single point surf made but i guess the thing is that his fall was so steep and fast tho he'd done miles more than the other names. It was still downright shocking because he didn't age gracefully so much as become a shell overnight, virtually. It was FAST. It wasn't like, say, Holmes and Ali visibly and obviously slowing a bit fight after fight after fight he just went BANG!

 

Jeff Chandler gets a huge mention from me.

He was still in top form not long prior to losing to Sandoval.....he was just a zombie that night it was surreal. No life or energy.

No-one even begin to suggest that Sandoval was THAT good.

 

Fair play, you make a sound and insightful point, neatly laid out.
stay safe buddy.

 

Totally agree JT, I was about to post along similar lines.

 

Big John Tate fits the bill.

 

Eddie Babe Risko was a mob handled middleweight champion of the 30's
His manager thought a non-title fight with Jock McAvoy was an easy way to say sharp
McAvoy knocked Risko down with his first overhand right then dropped him a further 5 times until the ref had had enough.
After that the losses, most of them by ko piled up and Risko was finished

 

Wallace (Bud) Smith appeared to be getting set for a long reign as lightweight champion after years of winning and losing but fighting every top dog out there. He finally hit pay dirt when he received a long awaited title shot against long serving champ Jimmy Carter. Smith wins and repeats the win in his first defense. The future couldn't have looked brighter. However, that was the last fight he won. He went to the post 11 more times with 11 straight losses. What a fall.

 

Barry McGuigan.
Kirkland Laing
Leon Spinks.
Tyrell Biggs.
Anthony Small..

 

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I don’t get the idea that anyone was so good that they don’t fit the category … they do if they took a mighty fall. If a guy was terrible to begin with, he can’t really fall. But an ATG could fall farther, and if it’s a sudden drop-off rather than gradually tapering off (say Joe Louis) then it’s a massive fall.

 

I also have to include Meldrick Taylor here. Even though he had some wins after the first Chavez fight he was never close to being the same.

 

Not really.

He had suffered brutal ko's as an amatuer. Then the Weaver fight was really bad and ruined the guy. But Ace Miller had zero pull and influence on Arum and Tate was fighting anybody anywhere. there are just so many brutal ko's a guy can take and Tate had almost nothing against Berbick---let alone fighting just 3 months > the Weaver loss. up and comers and even w/o the Berbick fight, he was toast. too many good solid conteporaries at that time.

Surprised the Cooney camp never went after him seriously. He was the perfect opponent they were seeking===old name on their last legs.

 

What are the criteria of the question though? In the ring or out of the ring? Not saying how good they were but in terms of fighters whose careers were about to go the next level and then imploded:

Edwin Valero,
Tony Ayala Jr.
Ike Ibeauchi

And for different reasons
Kirkland Laing

 

Did he drink a lot?

My answer is Mugabi by the way. Was never the same after fighting Hagler.