How Can A War "Ruin" A Fighter?

thanks, JG. :good

 

I think it's mainly mental..... though in prolonged beatings it can become physical too.

Trinidad and Hopkins are the best recent examples of men that ruin their opponents, Trinidad beat them up physically, Hopkins mentally. Of Hopkins' opponents recently, how many were actually the same afterwards?

Trinidad was all but done
De La Hoya was never the same
Taylor never repeated that form (save for a few rounds against Froch)
Wright pretty much retired
Pavlik hasn't done anything since really

etc etc

Other fighters have mental fragility that renders them all but done, Ricky Hatton hasn't been the same sort of person he was before the Mayweather fight - I've been saying this for a while, long before his battles with the sniff.

 

Some really good posts, cheers fellas

I think that the body has only so much 'petrol' , if you sprint all your life you will have less petrol than some one that sprints and walks.

Wars, draining weight and bad living will use a lot more petrol than a guy like say, Hopkins who has not been in that many wars and has always looked after his body.

Some bodys are born with more petrol than others thou'

 

Something about going tops and reaching that level where you are fighting harder than you ever have and could mentally makes a fighter lose some skills. Hagler and Hearns were never the same after their fight. Actually that fight seemed to hurt Hagler more than Hearns. Hearns fought 25 more times and Hagler only 2 more times, but neither guy was ever the same. Holyfield did fight Qawi in a war and fight for years, so he might be the exception.

 

Exactly!

Mugabi was never the same after Hagler. Corrales wasn't the same after the first Castillo fight.

Only guy who I can think of who literally went to hell & back several times was Bobby Chacon! His fights with Boza-Edwards, Limon, were amazing. Sacrificed way too much in them!

It HAS to have a detrimental effect on a fighter!

 

hell for a good example of a war ruining a fighter watch corrales-castillo...both fighters were ruined that night...diego never won another fight and castillo has since been stopped a couple more times, can't make weight, and is basically a shell of himself

 

One sign of a great fighter is the ability to come back after a nasty beating. Tunney vs Greb is probably the best example. The vast majority of fighters aren't able to mentally handle something like that, they just aren't tough enough.

 

Hagler was actually looking old,slow and shopworn in the Martillo Roldan fight which was before Hearns.

 

Roldan was quick and that is why he did so well with top guys. With Fletcher and Kinchen he hit them easily. You wouldn't think a wild swinging guy like that would demolish two guys like that, but he did. It was the speed and style. As for Hagler and Roldan, I don't think he looked old as much as Roldan had underrated speed. He hit Hagler and Hearns and even Nunn with some punches. Roldan's speed and awkward style confused Hagler and Hearns both. I think the Hearns fight excited Hagler and woke him up a little and he fought one of his best fights. After that he didn't look the same and went down dramatically. Against Mugabi I thought he looked soft and he didn't look like he wanted to be there anymore. With Ray I feel he felt he had to take the fight, but he didn't want to really. I think he put his all out for Hearns and after his long career that was all he really had in him.