johnny nelson is the biggest rags to ritches fighter i have seen in my time watching boxing he turned pro and lost his first 3 fights then he was win some lose some for his next 20 fights many times fighting on the road and getting robbed he was very much a confidence fighter he was given an oppurtunity for a world title fight v james warring from memory / cant be 100% sure without looking it up / nelson froze and stunk the place out /back to trialhorse / then got confidence fought for the title again v carl thompson i think it was then went undfeated v 12 title fights and retired still champ when he was confident he was a completely different fighter to the negative runner he was when he lacked confidence in himself never stopped that i ever remember and he fought a lot of punchers now he is a very good analyst for uk boxing and quite witty and good at his job.
Didnt castillo have like 5 ko losses before floyd? Rungvisai was also stopped in his debut and second fight.
Avantidl Khurtsidze or however you spell that goddamn name. Arguello, Walcott, and Manfredy were all excellent shouts, as was Adonis Stevenson.
Tevin Farmer. Stopped in his first pro bout. Went 7-4-1 in his first 12 fights and since then is undefeated and a world champion now.
Good post and one that were I not the seasoned wasteman that I am today I probably would have struggled to come up with anything, so you can thank my use of ketamine and it's scientifically proven effect on improving memory moderation for the following statistics: Henry Armstrong got KO'd by Al Lovino in the 3rd round of his 1st professional fight in 1931. Max Schmeling got TKO'd by Max Diekmann in the 4th round of his 5th professional fight in 1924. Bob Foster got TKO'd by Doug Jones in the 8th round of his 10th professional fight in 1962. Harry Greb got KO'd by Joe Chip in the 2nd round of his 7th professional fight in 1913. Funnily enough I can't really think of any more recent examples apart from Wlad getting TKO'd by Ross Puritty in his 25th fight but he was arguably already fairly well known as a HW prospect at the time.
Jack Johnson was TKO'ed in his 4th fight by the famous Klondike "The Black Hercules" Haynes (5-2). 1899-05-06 : Klondike Haynes beat Jack Johnson by TKO in round 5 of 6 Location: Howard Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA Referee: Malachy Hogan According to the Chicago Tribune this was one of six bouts put on at the Howard Theatre by the Illinois Athletic Club. "...Johnson, a long rangy colored man from Springfield, looking something like Fitzsimmons in black, showed up well at the start, but weakened under the steady but ponderous attack of 'Klondike'..."
David Haye an obvious one. Gassed and got bombed out by Carl Thompson early in career and then unified the Cruiserweight div against Mormeck in Paris (getting off canvas) and Beat Valuev in Germany to Win a HW strap nearly knocking the giant down in last round. Great fighter shame it all ended losing to a mediocre fighter twice mainly due to injury.
