"You're not a winner anymore. There's only one thing left. Let's make some money from the losing."

It’s unfortunate how true those words are for so, so many fighters

 

Benny Paret Is one I think of for the thread title quote. 1-4 perhaps 0-5 in just over one year against a murderers row of Fullmer, Griffith and Ortega.

 

I like it when one of these losers who are 'past it' get the eye of the tiger again and beat the snot out of the guy they are supposed to be a stepping stone for.

 

Danny Williams springs to mind

 

It’s an occupation in the final analysis. A way to put food on the table and make ends meet.

I knew a guy who managed a fair to middling I think junior welter back in the day. Carefully matchmade, but he got paid for every time he stepped up and paid well.

Manager told me they had a heart to heart after he lost a few and it was clear what his ceiling was — basically ‘stay in this a few more years, let me match you and when you retire you’ll be able to buy a small home and never have a house payment again.’ He achieved that and got out with his wits, something like15-10 record or something like that as I recall but you’d recognize most of the names of the people who beat him.

 

What I love about the sport!

 

Shouldn´t the coach tell him "let´s make some money coaching now." ??

That´s what Eddie Futch did with Freddie Roach. He saw Freddie was ****ed up and had not the talent to became a champion.... he made the guy a coach and I´m sure Freddie made so much more money coaching than he ever did fighting....

 

The 1962 version of "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (with Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, and Mickey Rooney) IMHO is WAY better than the 1956 version (with Jack Palance, Keenan Wynn.) Might be the greatest boxing movie of all-time. Quinn gives an amazing performance as Mountain Rivera (and Jackie Gleason was GREAT as Maish Rennick--Gleason was a very underrated dramatic actor!!)

 

Probably the greatest modern example.

In 2004, Williams was a 31-year-old, nine-year-pro, and a former British and Commonwealth champion, who shockingly knocked out Mike Tyson, got a top 10 world ranking and fought Vitali Klitschko for the title.

Finished the year 32-4 (in 36 fights)

Over the next 19 years, he fought another 53 times ... losing 29 of those (more than half of them).

His last fight took place in 2023 when he was 50, and he lost a four-rounder in Estonia.

Brutal.

 

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Laugh if you must but Francois Botha was 46-4 at the age of 40 having fought Wlad, Lewis, Holy, Tyson, Moorer, Schultz, and did well against several of these. He was a bit underrated, a tough, skilled guy who had the heart and mind for the game. He finished his career 2-7-1.

 

Danny Williams is a good one. But the first fighter I thought of, which came to mind on this very good subject, was Raul 'Lobito' Montoya. Started his career in fantastic fashion. By beating fighters like Clemente Sanchez, Frankie Crawford, Javier Ayala, Eddie Linder, Ray Adigun and DelFino Rosales, who was coming off a KO over top contender Arturo Lomeli, Montoya was world-ranked from '69 to '71. After that it seemed Team Montoya resigned themselves to trading off on Montoya's fantastic jaw and make money against the top contenders, which they did. In 10-rounders he went the distance and stayed on his feet against Esteban DeJesus, Alfonso Frazer, Ruben Navarro, Ray Lampkin, Randy Shields, Jimmy Heair, Monroe Brooks, Hector Thompson, Al Ford and Ray Lunny. At one point was 42-5-1 but finished with a record of 46-26-3

 

Ironically, Tyson made way more money in his late “make some money from losing” phase but I don’t think his name has come up.