It's such a shame he and Pintor reigned concurrently and WBC/WBA politics kept them from a showdown. It would have been a real legacy builder for one of them and quite possibly both.
Pacquiao--a two year layoff after the Thurman fight where he looked exceptional, and he appeared sluggish and old against Ugas. Granted two years isn't "overnight", but at 40 years old a fighter can't afford to have that long of a layoff and expect to perform on all cylinders.
Jel, this one is quite true. I once spoke to Zale at a fight show and found him very forthcoming (an interview would have been fun). I asked him about the Cerdan fight and he said the night before the fight he was doing an ad-hoc shadow box in his kitchen and he said everything was firing perfectly. The next day when he started the warm-up he said he was falling over himself. He was quite emphatic that "It was just gone!" Clearly the epitome of its gone overnight. I will also mention Mando Ramos on this subject matter. He had been burning the candle at both ends for a few years and was well into Wine, Women and Bongs. Aside from getting his skin shredded in back-to-backs with Ismael Laguna and Sugar Ramos, he just wasn't taking things seriously anymore and it was evident where the dip occurred. To me, it was between the first and second Carrasco fights. He bombards Carrasco first time around and can only manage a couple of controversial split decisions in II and III. Of course, the final punctuation was getting ripped to shreds by Carmona in his next fight, which was the day after spending the night in the LA drunk tank. But again, it was pronounced between Carrasco I and II.
I disagree. Thurman had his tune up before fighting Manny. He was good to go, no excuses. 40 year old fighters can't take two year layoffs and expect to perform at their peak.
He got his ass kicked in that tune up and was screwing around in the casino deep into the night before the Pac fight.
It’s the reason he retired. After the fight he had a surgery done without telling anyone and retired. He did so because he thought they might talk him out of it and was told he’s risking his eyesight. I’d have to find or ask the exact specifics but it was something like that.
I’m having him sign the programs from the Chandler fights which Jeff has already signed. Apparently he’s doing well.
There are many reasons for this to happen, and happen it does. Sometimes it's loss of interest and the poor training habits follow that. Buster Douglas comes to mind immediately. After the Tyson fight it seemed that his motivation was gone, overnight.
Margarito, for example, did cataract surgery and continued fighting. Surgery was a little bit less advanced in the 80s, but I think he could’ve gotten it done.
Does seem to happen a lot with HW's a big payday and the motivation goes added to the fact you are obviously able to weigh in at whatever you want to. If you cut corners in training it's only often at the weigh in we see how badly, Douglas out of shape for Holyfield. Ruiz in the rematch with Joshua. Also mentally Tim Witherspoon was the same weight he was for Boncrusher Smith as he was for Bruno but having been habded a cheque for peanuts after Bruno when he thought he was getting around a million bucks, his head and heart were gone fighting under King. Understandably so.
Watch Meldrick Taylor in March 91’ against Aaron Davis, and then watch his 3 fights in 92’ against Glenwood Brown, Terry Norris, and Cristano Espana. It’s a very drastic decline.
