Unavenged losses that hurt careers

Nunn should have avenged the Toney fight after Toney improved simply because James became so good his career upstaged anything Nunn did after, Toney didn`t feel he was that good vs Nunn actually. Maidana was simply a better fighter than Broner and Tyson didn`t need to beat Douglas he just had to beat Holyfield who beat Douglas and all would have been forgiven. Hearns was hurt way more than these guys by not getting to avenge his defeat to Leonard at welter, by the time of the rematch they were both a lot slower and it didn`t mean as much. Terry Norris losing to Julian Jackson. Hearns losing to Hagler. Duran losing to Laing in terms of how British pundits viewed the fight. Curry v Honeyghan.

 

Wladimir K vs Puritty and Sanders comes straight to mind. Wlad is the only so called great heavyweight who never tried to avenge all of his defeats as far as I know.

 

Bowe w Lewis

Hagler vs Leonard

 

As great as he was and being born and raised in a gym, Jofre in 2 very close fights a year apart just couldn't get it done against Harada. Retired after the second loss ... Redeemed himself in his comeback at FW but still you wonder what if he beats Harada the second go ???

 

Wlad would have definitely beaten Puritty in a rematch, however I don't think he would want or would have beaten Sanders. Sanders absolutely destroyed him ala Foreman vs Frazier or Norton.

 

I agree...I've always thought that Sanders did indeed utterly destroy Wlad...without mercy or hesitation.

 

Unless you are a huge underdog and you perform above all expectations but still lose to the favorite, doesn't every unavenged loss hurt a career?

 

Pinklon Thomas not going back to beat Trevor Berbick
Wlad not avenging the loss to Sanders
Vitali not avenging the loss to Byrd
Ray Mercer not going after Holmes
Moorer not avenging the loss to Foreman
Barrera losing twice to Junior Jones
JMM losing to Freddie Norwood
Toney losing twice to Griffin and once to Thadzi
Spinks retiring for good after the no-show against Tyson
Pavlik falling apart after the boxing lesson Hopkins gave him
Forrest twice losing to Mayorga
Tszyu losing to Hatton
Breland L & D against Starling
Curry loss to Honeyghan
Nelson and Gomez for the losses to Sal Sanchez (he would’ve beaten them again)
Pryor loss to Billy Joe Young
Hearns’s 2 losses to Barkley
Calderon losses to Segura
Mares loss to Jhonny Gonzalez

 

Palomino fighting Benitez in LA or Mexico. (the original fight was in San Juan).
Zarate & Pintor vs Gomez in Mexico.

 

SRR never tried to avenge the Ralph "Tiger" Jones defeat.
Likewise, prime Emile Griffith must have felt one fight with Rubin Carter was enough!

 

Lomachenko vs Salido.

Despite it being his second fight, haters will bang the Salido drum until the bottom falls out.

 

Liston's first defeat was a split decision loss to Marty Marshall on Sept 7th 1954.
Liston stopped Marshall in 6 rds flooring him4 times ,onApril 21st 1955.
Liston again defeated Marshall by decision shut out on March 6th 1956.

Dempsey lost to Jim Flynn by 1 round ko and returned the compliment a year later.
Dempsey lost to Jack Downey on April 5th1915,drew with him on Dec13th the same year and beat him on Feb 21st 1916.
Not very far your knowledge goes is it?

 

You provided a lot of good examples. I forgot about JMM vs John and Tszyu vs Phillips.

That said, I disagree with a few of your choices, particularly Johnson vs Willard and Louis vs Charles. In Johnson’s case, I think he was emotionally drained from the “journey” of getting to the title and defending it in the face of extreme hate. I know the Floyd Lovers will say their man faces hate too, but the hate towards Johnson was real and could’ve turned to murder (lynching) at any moment.

As for Louis, he was at a point in his career where he would’ve never beaten Charles. I don’t think we can hold it against him for losing at the end of his career, to another ATG.

 

Nunn never fought at 160 lbs again.
Curry never fought at 147 lbs again

Jackson moved up to 160 lbs. shortly after beating Norris.

Norris would have been crazy to seek a rematch, anyway.