what are the most impressive wins where the losing fighter was aged 40 years old or older? I guess Taylor's win over Hopkins counts considering what Hopkins went on to do afterwards. Parkers win over the 40 year old Zhang is also impressive considering Zhang had just destroyed Joyce, who was widely regarded as a top 5 heavyweight at the time. I guess Holyfield's win over 42 year old Big George counts too considering George beat Moorer and arguably Briggs afterwards.
To state the obvious, Archie Moore and Bernard Hopkins both remained a very substantial scalp, long after they turned 40.
It would be Wilder over Ortiz if Ortiz was 41. An interesting thing a lot of the examples I thought of were exactly 40 years old Goddard, Thompson, Skelton 40,40,40. Or they were 39. This exercise made me realize how much of a difference 40 and 42 has been. Kabayel over Zhang who was 41 was a title fight and is the highlight of his career thus far. Firpo v Willard. Hes also 41. People treat that like a landmark win for Firpo right? We are probably forgetting some fighters who were still good in their 40s but not title good. I feel like theres lots of guys in their early 40s who are on runs that get beat? We've got to be missing some. Patterson v Moore? I feel Pattersons a nightmare for any LHW though.
Alexandro Santiago against 40 years old Nonito Donaire. Zolani Tete against 43 years old Omar Narvaez. Lester Martinez for his professional debut he was against the old but still dangerous former two weight classes world champion Ricardo Mayorga 46 years old. Manuel Charr (Mahmoud Charr) against Aleksandr Ustinov in 2017 for the WBA Regular Heavyweight Belt when Ustinov has 41 years old, because if I remember well a lot of peoples believed that the Russian was the favorite for this fight. Masataka Taniguchi, Reymart Tagacanao, Yuya Tanaka and Shuri Oka against the dangerous boxer from Thailand Phai Pharob 41-42 years old. Because he is still very powerful and knocked down recently some decent boxers like Kantaro Juri. Wachirasak Waiyawong for the ABF Super Lightweight belt against the former IBF Flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng 42 years old, because Amnat was favorite against this journeyman. Georgiy Yunovidov against 40 years old Evgeny Romanov in Bridgerweight. Ryoichi Taguchi against 39-40 years old Alberto Rossel in WBA Light Flyweight championship. Ayanda Ndulani against Nkosinathi Joyi 40 years old for the IBO Minimumweight championship.
To me it's more impressive than alot of people make out. If they never would've fought I guarantee alot of fans would've picked Foreman to beat Morrison due to him being an aggressive power puncher with a below average chin. The fact Morrison fought a very disciplined fight for 12 rounds which wasn't the norm for him. To me makes it a better win than maybe what some people believe.