Fighters who had their best achievements past their prime

This is still the best boxing performance I've seen from a man in his mid-40's, despite Hopkins' efforts in the Pavlik fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKQwO9QxM1M

 

James Braddock defeated Max Baer in the twilight of his career.

 

What about De la Hoya in 2000?


Anyway,

Jersey Joe Walcott stopping Ezzard Charles to become HW Champ at age 37.

 

His performance against Barkley was breathtaking. Okay, Iran was certainly not on Hagler's level, but Duran was 37 and fighting a big, robust guy who fought arguably his best ever fight.
That left hook he took in the 8th was a monster that spun him half around, but Duran took it very well and later scored a knockdown that was a study in precision punching.

I nominate Hearns' fight with Virgil Hill. Hearns was also years past his best but clearly beat the consensus best 175'er out there.
I was worried for Tommy before the fight, but he made it look easy.

 

Hard to top that really. Was his defeat to Hagler perhaps the most impressive losing perfomance ever? Could well be.

 

What about Lennox Lewis taking the skin out of Vitali Klitschko's face? I thought Lennox looked really old in this fight, I'm not sure what people consider his best achievement but I've always liked this fight to be one of them, considering that Vitali was probably in his prime that night?

Ali is the obvious choice as someone already mentioned him. The Rumble in the Jungle and Thrilla in Manilla some ten years after his prime... unbelievable.

 

Agreed - I think his peak was at around 5 years earlier as a light heavy. :good

Mike McTigue also springs to mind, beating Battling Siki.

 

Probably the definitive acheivment imo:good

 

Oliivares, past his prime post bantam IMO. Won 2 fearherweight titles. Ko'd Bobby Chacon twice, a young Jose luis Ramirez and gave Arguello the fight of his life.

 

AlFrancis great shout with Olivares his KOs of Chacon are great wins for him no one evr managed that on Chacon again.

Duran is the definitive choice for me

 

He was, but it's hard to say when Giardello was genuinely at his best. During his "prime" years he was inconsistent, sometimes his conditioning and training habits were questionable, and he too often was drawn into slugfests. The first Tiger title fight is the one fight where I felt he finally put all of his tools together.

Moore essentially had two careers, one as a middleweight, one as a LHW/HW.

As he middleweight, he always showed promise, but his career kept getting derailed, first by illness/injuries that forced him to take time off, then by a few embarrassing upset losses (ie: Booker, Burley), with the result that he never did live up to his potential. He also was unable to get a title shot because the title was frozen during the war.

As a LHW, I would say Moore showed his best form in the years just before he won the title, say around '46 to '51. I feel he steadily declined from that after winning the title, but he still showed good form for some time to come.

 

Thanks for your take there M2S

 

Yes, very much so.

 

Yeah i think that is a very nice one indeed, maybe underrated considering you are the only one who has replied to me on the count of it.