Promising prospects who were never the same after suffering quick KOs

tommy morrison was never the same after running into mercer.
zab judah also comes to mind.
and while not a k.o, naseem hahmed was never the same after the beating he got from berrera

 

Super Zab.

 

Morrison's best performance was years later against Foreman. Going into the Mercer fight both fought each other already in the ams but even that wasn't enough for Morrison to stop doing charity boxing matches and filming a Rocky movie and photo shoots going into that fight.

If anything it made him more aware of losing which once again didn't stop him from late night drinkathons and taking a few more L's ....Not sure if Morrison was ever consistent coming back after the few losses he had .

 

Lubin has not been himself aside from stopping Ancient Ishe

 

Victor Oganov

 

Izu Ogonoh. A sad loss....

 

my boy christian carto

 

Some HW debacles off hand......

Tim " Hebrew Hamer "Puller. A few losses bf fighting Chris Byrd but was pulling some winning streak ,he called Byrd "Tweety " holding up a Tweety bird toy in his pre interview but Tweety Byrd knocked him out in 95 and Puller went on to lose 2 fights to Witherspoon and Savarese after. Puller actually came back in 2013 in a losing effort.


Daniel Dancuda . Most don't know but this was Rooneys second HW under his wing after M.Tyson. this guy was good ,had a very promosing future and retired after his loss to journeyman Jimmy Thunder in a fight I remember he was looking past. Took on more seasoned fighters Tubbs and Donald early on. He had size,speed and power ,very good am background at 6'4 or so could have provided much better then he showed . I believe he got involved in a murder or something not long after ? Retired in 95 with only 19 fights the last one being Tuesday night fights ( a long lost boxing platform for those who weren't around in that time ) I have this fight on VHS somewhere.

Courage Tshabalala .Many comparisons to young M. Tyson got 15 K.O's in 19 fights bf taking his K.O loss ..after that no key wins and retired in 2005 with 30 fights getting stopped a total of 3 times.

Malik Scott. Not sure if he should be included but he got knocked out in his first step up fight to chisora /wilder take your pick but im pretty sure it was after the Chisora fight he decided he would fight like he was on egg shells from there. Is he still active ? Hasn't fought since 2016 with Ortiz ,hes probably done at any significant fights, hes a case where he lost late bc he never actually fought top guys coming up,he was also ranked 25th in that Wilder elimination bout. lol

Gerry Cooney. Took a huge step up in class from Holmes in a very close fight more then people think. He was still a prospect in ways even in his 26th fight at that time so I included him here. Cooney took 2 years off and that was a wrap. Had he kept with it and dedicated ,I believe he sees a championship belt.

Buster Mathis Jr. Ran into motivated Mike in 95 and ........

 

Amir Kahn against Prescott

 

Francisco Bojado was never the same after losing by decision to the journeyman

 

A few people are saying Zab, Zab won another belt at JWW then went on to become the undisputed WW champion (however brief) after his KO loss. He also dropped back down and won another belt. Zab's best success was arguably after the Kostya loss.

Not a quick ko loss but:

Owen Beck: He was undefeated (although unheralded) going in against Monte Barrett. He was beaten on throughout that fight, stopped and never the same. He eventually became one of the most shot active fighters I've ever seen in my life.

 

Zab and Khan cant really be in this category. They were both world class operators even after been knocked out

 

Jeff Lacy
Sorry edit!
He wasn't knocked out!

 

Morrison went on a 10 fight win streak with 9 KOs after Mercer and then won a world title

Judah and Naz had both made numerous world title defences before losing to Tszyu and Barerra…. hardly promising prospects at the time.