Fighters who declined rapidly.

Poor wee Benny, he was blind drunk against aurel toma and his weight had ballooned in his last recorded fight
Only a couple of years after winning the title in two rounds with 11 knockdowns.

 

Indeed. Would have remained at the top a lot longer had he steered clear of his toughest opponent - Jack Daniels.

 

Wee Benny was superb, on the ***** of his feet in and out, slashing left hook.
Beautiful to watch

 

Jung Koo Chang

 

Davey Moore
Milton McCrory
Eddie Davis.

 

I'll pull one from way out left field -

Sugar Ray Leonard.

Tho on in years he had not taken much punishment in his irregular fights. He sped past a Duran that had just beat Barkley and then after a layoff of just over a year was done well and truly. Granted it was his first genunely fast young guy for eons but gee he looked really old suddenly, and it was by no means anticipated.

Pretty sure the cocaine might not have helped.

 

Nonito Donaire. Before the rigo fight, He was rated as one of the best p4p fighters in the world. He hadn't lost a fight in 12 years.

 

Hamed had looked poor for quite a while upto his ass kicking by Barrera.

 

Mando Ramos - of course this had to do a lot with his lifestyle and burning the candle at both ends which all led to his absolute thumping from Chango Carmona. Left the ring on a stretcher and was losing to clubfighters thereafter at the age of 24.

Bud Smith - was at his absolute peak winning the title from the great Jimmy Carter and successfully defending against him - both over 15 rounds. And he never won another fight. I think it was something like 9 straight losses before he packed it in. He might be the perfect choice for the original question because Bud never had a really prominent punch and was very reliant on skill, which he had in abundance, despite never the glossiest of records. But even those losses after the Carter fight were tough matches. I recall 3 losses to Joe Brown, a loss to Duilio Loi and several others were all world class, so the slide wasn't the steep fall of Ramos who went from world class to club-fighter. So it depends on criteria.

 

Morales just fell off a cliff after the first Pacquiao fight.

Goes from having his career defining performance to almost immediately being shot, slow, worn out and drained.

At 29 years old too.

 

Aaron Pryor was prime one night and then done the next it seemed.

 

I'd love to know exactly when the crack-cocaine addiction set in. We know he was addicted during his 2 year break.

 

Jeff Chandler was a massive one for me. He was a fabulous Bantamweight but like many of the time got caught up in heavy drugs. His career was going along great before he suddenly looked washed up and over the hill overnight. He was caught with a bit of cocaine all the way back to 1981 and i have no doubt whatsoever it caught up with him, and fast.

I was a huge fan and he was absolutely the goods.

 

I think it set in by '85.

One of the boxing magazines did a story on him and it was reported he was found in a crack house and was emaciated.

It probably started after the Hinton fight in early '85.

I think the long layoff was due mostly to this crack addiction.