champions who lost their title and career due to personal demons

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by boza81, Nov 27, 2010.


  1. boza81

    boza81 Member Full Member

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    I can think of two fighters who lost their titles, not to an opponent in the ring, but to personal demons. A great example is Aaron Pryor. He descended into abject drug abuse in 1985-1986. reportedly wasting away to 130 pounds, and was finally stripped of his IBF Junior Welterweight title. Rumors of his drug abuse surfaced as early as 1983, and people were wonderinj why he vacated the WBA title and after grabbing the vacant IBF title fought infrequently and against soft competiion. Another example is Tomas Molinares. After koing Marlon Starling (albeit controversially) in early 1988, he was stripped later that year and was reportedly placed in an insane asylum. I don't think he ever fought again. Can anyone think of any other champions who lost their titles in such a sad way. I know other fighters have been stripped of titles for various reasons, usually political, but these two cases stand out to me as especially sad. Especially the Pryor case because because he was a top pound for pound fighter, and could have accomplished even more with potenital fights vs. Camacho, Mancini, Leonard, etc.
     
  2. boza81

    boza81 Member Full Member

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    oh yeah, Edwin Valero, earlier this year.
     
  3. bodhi

    bodhi Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Eckhard Dagge.
     
  4. TBooze

    TBooze Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Benny Lynch is a rather obvious example.
     
  5. AlFrancis

    AlFrancis Boxing Junkie Full Member

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  6. turpinr

    turpinr Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    as well as being flyweight king he'd have won the bantamweight title for sure if he'd kept himself together.he was a hard wee *******
     
  7. scartissue

    scartissue Boxing Junkie Full Member

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  8. RockysSplitNose

    RockysSplitNose Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Probably Johnny Honey Boy Bratton fits into this - heart breakingly sad story - too much tragedy and then finished up in an asylum aswell - think he'd started behaving oddly and getting mail from hitler that kind of thing prior to losing title to Gavilan
     
  9. Johnstown

    Johnstown Boxing Addict banned

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    does stanley ketchel fit in?....i think needing ***** too much can be a personel demon......
     
  10. doug.ie

    doug.ie 'Classic Boxing Society' Full Member

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    mike dokes ?

    i seen flashes of brilliance in him in the early days
     
  11. Titan1

    Titan1 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    That was definitely my pick also.Leon Spinks is also a good choice, and maybe Greg Page.
     
  12. techks

    techks ATG list Killah! Full Member

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  13. lora

    lora Fighting Zapata Full Member

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    Jung-Koo Chang was similar to Pryor, only making a comeback after ending up broke.
     
  14. boza81

    boza81 Member Full Member

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    How so with Greg Page, other than he didn't train properly in his prime, and then hung on way too long at the end and got brain damaged? Was there some other issues other than training that hindered his prime? Dokes definately fits the bill as his drug abuse in the early to mid 80's cut short his prime.
     
  15. Titan1

    Titan1 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Father issues, potential drug ones.