The fighters that for one reason or another quit in the ring, then managed to get there careers back on track. The one that stands out prominent in my mind is Roberto Duran. After pulling out against leonard citing stomach cramps? He went on to win a few more major fights. The leonard fight was to a degree put behind him. Which other fighters have successfully done this?
Vitali Klitschko quit in the corner after 9 rounds in a fight that he was winning. The injury did turn out to be legitimate but still, at the time and afterward he was almost universally labelled a quitter with no heart.Took a fight against Lennox Lewis before he began to salvage his rep and is now generally regarded as being one of the toughest titleholders of recent times.
Slightly different angle, but both Jim Braddock and Ingo Johansson won the heavyweight title after being disqualified for "not trying", which you can argue is an even bigger hit to credibility than quitting. The late Genaro Hernandez quit against De La Hoya, and then did virtually the opposite when he refused to take the easy way out after taking an illegal blow against Azumah Nelson and carried on to win a decision.
Well, if not trying is going to be included, then you have to include Larry Holmes in the 1972 Olympic trials where after being dropped early by Duane Bobick, he couldn't or wouldn't fight back and just held on and was eventually disqualified for excessive holding in the third round. Anyone who saw that at the time, that suggested that Holmes would turn pro and go on to be one of the greatest heavyweights ever would have been thrown into jail for being on drugs or blind drunk.
Yes , was talking about the vitali fight earlier Ken. He did extremely well to come back from the Bryd loss. Some times it looks worse to throw in the towel than be actually ko'd. There's a stigma attached to it, no heart etc. But credit to vitali, he came back.
That's a great example of how "heart" isn't necessarily a binary thing that fighters either have or do not. Holmes proved his resolve many times over against Norton, Weaver, Spoon, Shavers, Snipes etc. Fighters can develop heart; fighters can also lose it. Fighters can have it one night but not the next, and vice versa. There are some of course who are consistent to either extreme, but a lot of fighters operate in the grey area where circumstances and variables take over.
He took a lot of stick for the De La Hoya fight, so it was nice to see him get vindication with a career best win.
There is the case of sonny liston. Growing up in atrocious conditions, falling in with the bad guys, doing jail time. Went head to head with Cleveland Williams twice. Destroyed Patterson twice. Goes up against a former light heavy that was dropped in his last fight.. Even if you d have predicted liston to lose against clay, would you in all honesty have predicted sonny sitting down at the end of the sixth and not coming back out?! No way no how.
