Fights that changed a fighter (for the better)

Louis v Schmeiling comes to mind, but for the most part I have serious reservations about your inference of causation. How exactly are we to know that a particular fight improved a fighter?

 

Ross Puritty's draw against Tommy Morrison. Puritty came into that fight a complete unknown with something like an 8-8 record against former WBO champ Morrison who was 41-2 at the time. Scored two knockdowns and earned a draw, then went on an impressive winning streak.

 

Steve Robinson - John Davison. 48 hours prior to the fight Robinson was a 13-9-1 journeyman working in a department store, with his boxing career going nowhere. A freak set of circumstances led to him fighting for a vacant WBO title, where he scraped a close win over world-ranked Davison. He then defended the title 7 times, including wins over world titlists McMillan, Hodkinson and Mackenzie, before headlining a fight at the Welsh national stadium against Naseem Hamed. Even after he lost he had a run at European title level that was a league above what he was doing prior to the fight with Davison.

Johnny Nelson - Carl Thompson. Nelson was regarded as a talented cruiserweight who was on a bit of a run after his bizarre world tour at heavy, but was generally most remembered for his abysmal world title challenges against De Leon and Warring. After beating Thompson for the WBO title he defended it 14 times, completely changed the perceptions of his career, and on the back of this landed a cushy number fronting Sky's boxing coverage.

 

I would say Patterson (after Liston) had a lot to prove and, IMO, did just that. How many fighters, after losing their title via two massive beat downs, actually came back strong for a number of years and, it could be argued, were better in their "second" career.

 

Nelson after Sanchez and believe it or not Hagler after Antefermo. Hagler realized coasting through after what he assumed would be a clear points win and depending on judges not to be blind or show favoritism is a disaster waiting to happen. Thus Destruct and Destroy was born. The rest is history.

 

most definitely the Julian Jackson fight. you could see the sheer talent N speed. you just KNEW Terry was going to become the future champion and no one was going to be able to stop him

 

sou

sounds good flash

 

Saoul Mamby after the draw with Harold Weston Jr. Strictly a journeyman before that, but getting a draw against a guy ranked in the top 10 maybe gave him more confidence or something because for the next 6 years his only losses were to ATGs (Cervantes, Duran) or highly questionable decisions (Marerro, Muangsurin).