Fighters who had a great career past-prime?

Old foreman had a great second career

 

Hopkins - in terms of physical prime, he was probably past prime by the Trinidad fight when he was 35 and he'd obviously go on for 15 more years

Calzaghe - he wasn't as fast in his early career when he unified against Kessler and then you have Hopkins and Jones wins on top of that.

Duran - obviously

Holyfield - depends when you want to measure this one from

Mayweather - much slower after his 2 years out and was probably slower at welterweight than he was at 130lbs anyway. Certainly not prime in my book and he was 38 against Pacquaio

Robinson - again after his comeback he didn't have the same engine to fight for 3 minutes

Ali - probably past prime, at least after Zaire but probably before

 

Sam Langford
Jack Britton
Henry Armstrong
Archie Moore

 

langford and Moore are great picks

 

Ali,in fact his best wins were past his prime

 

Bob Fitzsimmons beat two best HW contenders (Sharkey and Ruhlin) when he was 37 years old LHW. Then at the age of 40 he beat LHW champion (George Gardner) and defended his title against ATG light heavyweight (Jack O'Brien).

 

MAXIM

 

Eder Jofre... went 25-0 after losing to Harada, including becoming a 2-division champ.

 

Chacon reinvented himself after moving up to 130. He was still fallible, but undeniably had his most memorable ring moments in the last few years of his career.

it seems strange to think of it, but the January 1984 fight against Mancini, which was supposed to represent a real passing of the torch of the older generation (Chacon) to the hungry young lion waiting to take over (Mancini) yielded an unexpected result. The fight ended as predictably as one might think, with Mancini stopping Chacon fairly easily, but it marked the last time the young lion would win a fight. It also marked the last time the aging has-been Chacon would lose a fight. He went on a tear after that, winning many more before retiring unbeaten after the Mancini loss.

 

Yeah, Chacon’s early 80s resurgence was what put him up a level for sure. Pure heart.

 

Hopkins, Moore, Ali, Jofre, Duran stand out and I’d say Olivares too though perhaps not to their extent. His prime was probably beaten out of him by Herrera and Hafey but he got some great stuff done after that.

Marquez is another. I think he was already past his prime by the time of the Barrera fight yet that’s the best run of his career. Barrera had a great post prime too.

 

Both Klitschko’s and Lennox Lewis

 

Hopkins, Moore, Foreman, Pacquiao, Mayweather, Wladimir, Lewis, Duran, Ali.

Probably others. But all of those were able to adjust once their athleticism begun to drop. All were able to stay at a very high level for a very long time.

 

Holmes