Those shoulder injuries definitely didn’t any good for Vernon Forrest. He was also in his mid 30s by then. In addition to the brutal fight with Tito Trinidad, and later Oscar De La Hoya, those back injuries definitely hurt Fernando Vargas. His mobility was noticeably different.
Recently Loma’s never been the same since his shoulder injury, a couple of years ago. A similar injury finished George Groves.
I'm not sure eye injuries should even count in this, because that's a whole different type of injury, but there's a lot of guys who went from championship level to out of the sport in literally a couple of fights due to eye injuries.
Vitali Klitscho (back) and Ray Leonard (eyeball) both made successful comebacks, so might not be the answer you were exactly looking for, but both champions lost years off their careers and their primes. Even in their successful comebacks, they were never the same. Ray Leonard fought very sporadically after coming back, and always seemed to have a level of vulnerability. may be that was just because he was fighting bigger guys at the time, but he did lose quite a bit of his flash. Vitali on the other hand looked sensational in his first couple of comeback fights but quickly fizzled out. when he wasnt beating up on smaller guys like Adamek, he looked pretty ordinary and afraid to exchange. the Chisora fight in particular comes to mind. Fury and Haye both were able to aggressively take it to Chisora, but Vitali fought very timid and cautious by comparison. I may be the only fan who wanted to see Vitali vs Rahman in 2005, but I think that would have been a great fight. So would Vitali vs Brewster or Vitali vs James Toney, hell even Vitali vs Andrew Golota, all fights that could have happened had he not retired in 2005, and all fights that would have elevated his status more than any of the opponents he faced in his comeback. although I do have to give him credit for taking on an undefeated Chris Arreola early in his comeback, a fight I was in attendance for at the Staples Center, and even briefly crossed paths with the late Kobe Bryant on that evening
Care to elaborate on the Charkey Ramon “surfing accident” ecto55? I’m intrigued. I read that he hurt his back in a work place accident that ended his career. I have heard Mr Ballard did move in “colourful” circles though.
Ouch! I’d never heard that before but it wouldn’t surprise me either. A few of the Sydney based fighters from that era had interesting lives outside the ring. The Gatellari’s, Roy Thurgar, Charkey etc.. It’s a pity because Charkey was a real good fighter. I loved his Commonwealth title fight against Pat Dwyer. From memory he climbed off the canvas from a pretty hard knockdown to score an emphatic stoppage to win the title. A hard man for sure.
Staying down under; Jeff Fenech always had issues with his hands, but they became more chronic in the later years of his career, after spending 12 rounds smashing his fists against cement... sorry, Marcos Villasana's head!
My Aussie cousin Pat LaManna got seriously hurt in a match in Melbourne. He suffered brain damage and mobility damage. This was in 1972; he's still alive; he's had a decent life past his serious injury. His record at the time was 9-5.
Remember seeing one of the worst riots at Bowe Golota. Why Golota kept hitting low when he was taking Bowe to pieces, i do not know. Agree totally, slurred speech and reactions shot to pieces. Shame to see fighters go that way.
I also think it did too, he had Mate Parlov hurt in their June 1978 WBC Title bout but could not finish off Parlov and was on the short end of a decision in Yugoslavia. Same thing when he lost to Matthew Saad Muhammad a year later.
The Parlov decision was a shocker but you're spot on as usual. If John had let both hands go he wouldn't have needed the judges.
Reportedly, the "second" Gato Gonzales had a vicious car accident right after his 15 round title loss to Claude Noel. It was so bad that the other three passengers died and they assumed Gonzales was too until the began removing the bodies off of on top of him and discovered he was still alive by some miracle. How he came back and beat Arredando and went fifteen with Oliva is pretty remarkable in that light, but he was never the shining prospect after the wreck.