Rough Patches In Fighters Careers

Roberto Duran went 2-3 in a period from 80-82.

Archie Moore went 6-4 in one period in 1948, including a first round KO loss.

 

the first few years of mike weaver's career was difficult... he lost quite a number of times.... but he also learned from those early failures.

 

Moore also had a pretty rough period from around mid '43 through '44, which included a KO loss to Eddie Booker and his much-celebrated ass-whupping at the hands of Charley Burley. Prior to that, he had been considered one of the leading MW contenders.

Fritzie Zivic had a notoriously rough patch early in his career in which he lost 8 fights in a row. He also had a similarly rough patch toward the end of his career, in which he lost 12 of 13 fights.

Dick Tiger lost four fights in a row after moving from Africa to Britain.

Kid Gavilan had a rough time between his title shot loss to Robinson and his eventual win of the title, in which he lost several fights on controversial split decisions. At one point, he lost three out of four straight fights.

Joey Giardello had a few rough patches in his career. Early in his career, he went 5 straight fights without a win (2 losses and 3 draws). At another point, he lost three straight fights, including a brutal stoppage by Spider Webb. His roughest patch followed his title shot draw with Fullmer, after which he lost 4 out of 5 fights.

Speaking of Fullmer, he went through a rough patch early in his career when he lost decisively to Gil Turner, Bobby Boyd, and Eduardo Lausse in a short span of time.

 

A weight drained zapata quitting against Chang, then jumping up from junior fly to Bantam and giving an awful performance against Harold Petty, then dropping back down to Flyweight and losing a debatable decision to Laciar in a fight where it seemed like the Argentinian wanted to win farmore than him.

 

MIjares clearly didn't have all the ingredients to be great, or he wouldn't have lost to Vic and faded away like this.There was something missing.

 

I guess I mistook Mijares's arrogance and over-confidence for calmness and collectiveness in the ring. He didn't have the mental tools I thought he did to be great. I guess he just couldn't deal with true pressure and/or power either, especially when he couldn't deter the opponent. He honestly had me fooled for a while though, because it was clear he had excellent skills. Big shock what has become of his career. I learned my lesson with him.

 

After losing the middleweight title, LaMotta added to his legend with a stunning late career reversal. Seemingly finished after losing to Murphy and Hayes, then drawing with Hairston (all following the Valentine's Day Massacre), he immediately avenged all three blemishes with ten round UDs over each opponent, a remarkable rebound from such a high profile four match winless streak. (Then, he ran into Danny Nardico, but still managed to win two more fights. A lot of people are still under the mistaken impression that Nardico retired him. Jake's career died hard.)

To me, it's always most interesting when somebody rebounds from a late career slump like LaMotta's.

In the case of Machen, hanging tough against Frazier (and getting prematurely robbed of a chance to last the distance) and handing Quarry his first defeat actually add to his resume. 3-7-1 does look bad on paper, but he acquitted himself honorably, and packed it in on a suitable occasion, when Kirkman stopped him early for only the second time in his career. (Continuing after Kirkman took him out would have been futile and self delusional.)

 

But his run of form was very, very good, and he showcased some virtuoso performances.

Okay, he was starched by Darchinyan but he's an awkward vicious puncher. These things happen. The two subsequent losses at Bantam (Of which I have only seen the 2nd and the opponent whos name escapes me looked very ordinary) may just be a case of him needing to go back to Super Fly.

He's still young. I feel if he retired today he'd still be a very awkward proposition H2H for the top ten super-flys. He has a mixture of fluid combos and awkward defence/movement. He was always hittable, though before Darchinyan had showed a fairly reliable chin. I've seen him dropped by a Japanese opponent but he got straight up and didn't seem that badly affected. Darchinyan is an awesome hitter for the weight as well.

I feel the need to stick up for Mijares, I think he had a pretty decent go at it:good

 

I thought so as well, but he definitely didn't live up to his potential, or what I thought he could've been.

 

You might think that I'm speaking in hindsight, but there were actually a few times before the Darchinyan fustigation when I wondered what all the fuss was about where Mijares was concerned. Not to imply that I thought his career would wind up like this, but I was far less surprised than most when Darchinyan did what he did, largely because Mijares seemed to have the attributes that people said but not to the extent that they said IMO, particularly his defensive nous and calmness under fire.

It could be that Darchinyan was just a horrible matchup for him stylewise to the extent where irreversible damage has been done.

 

Mickey Walker had rough patches just before and after he held the WW title. Before fighting for the title, he had lost a string of "newspaper decisions" in no-decision fights. Following his loss of the title to Pete Latzo, he was also busted up and stopped by Joe Dundee.

 

Come on lads, if this thread tells us anything, it's that a career is not over with a few defeats, even in quick succession. Mijares can comeback, he just tried to take on to good of an opponent in a new weight division too soon after being beaten badly by Vic. Whether or not he can come back down to Super Flyweight and rekindle his career remains to be seen, but Barrera came back from back to back losses, Cristian just needs to improve, work on things in the gym.