Fighters That Won The Battle But Lost The War ?

Barbarians often win in the short term.

 

Ohh Nice. good approach and best list according to the title.

 

Don't you mean 3?

 

Ohh Nice. good approach and best list according to the title.

 

Tarver vs. Jones I

 

Rocky Marciano says: "Hello."

 

Ali took more out of himself than Frazier did in FOTC, realistically Ali wasn't going to come back after being floored by that left hook and KO Frazier, he suffered such a tremendous blow and got up so fast in an attempt to make it appear that he was completely unphased which was not good for his condition

 

Hearns v Leonard 1

 

True but that's one of the greatest wins in HW history. It defines Frazier's entire career.

 

The Bowe-Holyfield trilogy? Bowe won 2 of 3 fights (the 1 loss being a very close fight) and put more of a beating on Holyfield than vice versa in those fights, but had less left afterwards. Bowe’s poor training/eating habits certainly didn’t help either.

Bowe’s next 2 fights with Golota….Golota kicked Bowe’s ass but ultimately lacked the heart/mental stability and lost the fights by quitting/snapping.

First one to come to mind.

 

Didn't know that. Thanks. Same situation that happened with Leonard after Hearns, though Leonard did return to the ring ( Multiple times) it definitely changed the course of his career.
Cheated us out of some great fights when he was prime.

 

Unfortunately for Leotis if they fought about 10 years later they had surgery that could have corrected the detached retina ala Leonard and Earnie Shavers.

 

Roberto Duran vs. Ray Leonard.

He was well ahead through 13 rounds of the first fight, lost the last two and then most of the next 20 rounds they fought over the years.

 

That isn't fair. Frazier's untreated high blood pressure (combined with the general trauma to the body of a 15rd fight) is what took him to the hospital. Had modern blood pressure drugs that an athlete could take been invented prior to that fight, Frazier would have been no worse off than Ali. Modern day, he'd have popped an ACE inhibitor (like lisinopril) every morning and been as fine as one can be after going through a fight like that.

Ali took a far worse beating than Frazier.

 

Tae-shik Kim vs. Roberto Ramirez. Kim takes a split decision and then collapses after the fight with a blood clot on his brain. Never fought again.

How about Michael Watson vs. Nigel Benn? Watson exposes Benn's limits, and as a reward he gets a fight with Mike McCallum. Benn ends up getting a world title shot of his own that same month, except that his comes against Doug DeWitt. That worked out pretty well for him.