Perfect (or close to it) retirements.

Edre Jofre .. After losing to Harada, he retired. After taking 3 years off , he came back and went 25-0 and won another tiltle and at FW beating Legra. What a great career

 

Khaosai Galaxy. Undefeated for 10 years with 19 title defenses when he decided to hang them up.

 

Brian Mitchell deserves a mention. After losing his 7th fight, he never lost again going 45-1-3. And late in his career after drawing with Lopez, he comes back to beat him that same year.

 

Pretending Mercer's "WBO" (relinquished or otherwise) title makes him any sort of champion while Holyfield was undisputed champion is disingenous.
You were around in the era, so you know as well as I do, that WBO belt meant nothing.

Aside from Mercer, you're talking about losses being successes.
You're talking about an old, flabby, out-of-shape former-great (a sad caricature of his old self, for the most part) "enhancing his legacy" by spoiling his way through a few fights.

I think your viewpoint possibly stems from an under-rating of PRIME Holmes.

Honestly, old Holmes looked pretty bad, man. Have another look.

 

Larry Holmes finally retired for good after a grotesque fight with Butterbean, at age 52 (and not a nice-looking 52 either !).
You can count back from there, plenty of dreadful spectacles.

Holmes is the least man I'd hold as example for choosing a "perfect" time to retire.

 

In some ways, Tyson Fury.

Beat long-reigning HW world champion, who was undefeated for 11.5 years and defended his title 18 times.

Then retired undefeated with perfect record 25-0 at the age of 27. Never took real punishment in any fight.

 

Vitali Klitschko didn't have many big names on his resume though it has to be said that the division wasn't exactly overrun with big names during his time at the top. After retiring Lennox Lewis (or so Vitali fans tell me) , he eventually won the title and defended it a few times before injuries forced his retirement. Came back a few years later and won back the title in his first fight back and then went on to defend it a further 9(?) times before retiring yet again, this time on his own terms and choice of timing. All things considered that was as good a way to end his career as he could had hoped.

Hopefully the recent rumors of a possible comeback are totally unfounded.

 

I understand what you are saying but I think it goes against the grain of your other examples, and against the common-sense meaning of "perfectly timed retirements".

Lots of old former greats had some "successes" in their sad declining stages, a decade or more past their primes. Joe Louis in 1950-'51 beat some ranked fighters. Evander Holyfield arguably beat a "top 5" when he fought Valuev in 2008, at a dreadful stage of career.
Holmes might not be as bad but it's still not good.

I just don't see Holmes post-1985 (barring the Spinks rematch) as a good example. For him to have a perfect retirement he should have retired prior to Spinks 1, OR after Spinks 2.
Everything after 1986 was "old man" stuff.
And, unlike the Foreman example, Holmes already had a lengthy reign and fully satisfied career in his own era, plus he never captured the world title again in any comeback anyway.

 

George foreman! Seems to have suffered no ill effects and made alot of money.

 

I think he was misunderstood/misquoted recently.
He was saying he thinks he can beat AJ, and says that's just his natural feeling to avenge his brother, but he also said he's doing other things now so there's no possibility of him coming back to prove it.

I think that's what he was saying. His English isn't as good as Wladimir's, hence the misunderstanding.

 

Is it too late for Foreman vs Holmes?