What boxers have hated...

It's pretty well known that Max Baer turned on boxing after the Frankie Campbell tragedy. In his son Jethro's words, "He though it was horse****." Maxie wanted to be an actor, so much so that for his championship fights he wore the robe used for his character in, "The Prizefighter and the Lady," Steve Morgan.

Willard was hardly in a joyous mood once Jack Johnson was counted out. The new champion immediately began to step through the ropes and out of the ring, only to be stopped and herded back in by the celebrants of his newly won title.

Mike Spinks and Ray Leonard attempted to do other things after winning gold medals, but were inexhorably drawn into the professional sport as a path of least resistance. Leo Randolph was never shy about proclaiming of that as a profession, "Boxing is a terrible sport!" ASAP, he got out of it to become a truck driver. Palomino seemed more interested in real estate and acting, using boxing only as a means to an end (as many others do). It was only in middle age that Carlos resumed it for kicks.

Robinson wanted to make it as an actor and dancer, but it didn't pan out after the Maxim fight, so he had to return to doing the one thing he did do better than everybody else.

Griffith apparently enjoyed working out, but didn't appear that enthusiastic and motivated about competition even before the Paret tragedy.

Perhaps a better question would be, "Which top performers enjoyed boxing most?," as many of them were simply gifted with the physical ability to excel at it, or were simply pushed into it at an early age. (The Benitez, Ayala and Quarry clans, for example.) Stribling was preordained as a boxer by "stage" parents, for example, as was O'Grady. (While barely out of his teens however, Sean was already providing color commentary with Sal Marciano on ESPN, and has now been working as a boxing broadcaster longer than he'd been alive when he retired from the sport.) It would seem that many merely tolerated it as a necessary evil.

 

Did that happen to come after he started losing?

 

I used to read Buster Douglas didn't like boxing and was force fed by his dad.

 

Billy Douglas certainly had high aspirations as a contender himself, sharing the ring with three LH champions and a host of top contenders. Dynamite Douglas was Jerry Martin's last opponent before The Bull dropped James Scott from the unbeaten ranks, barely a year before Buster debuted as a pro. I have no doubt that after he passed 40, Billy was living his aspirations through his son.

 

Roy Jones.

 

Joe Bugner was a safety first practioner who had no appetite for getting in the trenches with an opponent.

 

Many boxers have said they detested boxing ,Ive allways ben sceptical about this,I dont beleive you can rise to the top in such a hard game and not have a fierce attraction for it,Tunney for instance
,when asked late in life what he would like to be remembered for,and he had been a successful bussiness man ,said " I am a pugilist,and I am very proud of that"

 

and me..jeez.....

 

That was later in his career.

 

Michael Spinks is an obvious pick.

Leonard, it's kind of hard to tell. I don't think he liked boxing it's self, but loved being the star too much.

I get the impression that Marciano didn't like it either, but he always yearned to be rich and famous, and he just happened to be great at fighting.

Holmes didn't really like it at first, but once it got him out of poverty and he became rich from it, he liked it.

 

Leonard loved the limelight and performing well. Not sure he liked the whole business of fighting.

Hagler was one individual who loved the sport. I can mind he said in an interview years after the Hearns fight, talking about after he floored Hearns during the 3rd round "If this guy gets up I'm going to kill this guy, thats the mentality you need or you won't be successful"

Hagler had a split personality. His half brother Robbie Simms stated that every year at Christmas Hagler would take his belts out a case, lay them under the tree, say a few prayer, then put them away again. He was just obsessed. Trusting people was a problem for him as well.

While training at Cape Cod on the coast, Hagler would workout during the day, run along the beach, then at night he would watch fights or sit on his porch alone staring out at the sea.

Hagler loved the sport, make no mistake about it.

 

I get the sense that Larry Holmes has had a love-hate relationship with boxing.

 

Alex Stewart and Michael Moorer.

Moorer likes fighting when he's hurt, but he's never on a mission to impress otherwise.

Stewart will trade and bang with you if you don't destroy his confidence.

No willingness to make an exciting fight. Only fighting when they feel they have to.

I would have to say these two. These guys could really mark and maim their opponents. The fact that that they did it only under certain circumstances makes me think they were not enjoying what was going on.

 

Nigel Benn, I'm sure, lost a bit of his will to destroy after the McClellan incident.