Thread: Boxers who should have gone out on a high but didnt.

What made me think of this was bhop after his win against tarver. He should retire now on a high. H faces a big chance of a loss against winky and a further bruise to his legacy.
Others who should have quit on a high but didnt include,

Morales after first pac fight.
Ali after third frazier fight.
Trinidad after Mayorga.
Foreman after Moorer

There are heaps of others. Any other obvious ones?

Tyson after Seldon

Joe Louis after Joe Walcott

Leonard after La Londe

Leonard - Lalonde is a great one. Great moment for Leonard and a great fight.

De La Hoya after Mayorga?

Originally Posted by amat

Leonard - Lalonde is a great one. Great moment for Leonard and a great fight.

De La Hoya after Mayorga?

I thought some cheeky person might say that.

Holyfield after the 3rd Ruiz fight.
RJJ after the 1st Tarver fight.
Eubank after Wharton.
Norris after Rupa.
Napoles after the 1st Muniz fight.
JCC after the 2nd loss to ODLH.
Duran after Lawlor.

this thread was made for us to take shots a oscar.

Leonard after Hagler would have been great. Even Leonard after Duran 3.. Then he had to diminish and go down to 154 and lose and then Norris demolished him . By the way, the win over Lalonde was not great to me. Ray got a lightheavyweight champion to weigh in at 167- 8 pounds lower than his weight. So Lalonde was not a champion at 168 at all and not even ranked.. Then Ray fights for the 168 and 175 title when Lalonde is not the strong lightheavy he would have been had he weighed in at 175. And how did he fight for a vacant title at 168 when neither guy ever fought at that weight. Ridiculous. That fight was BS. Sorry to say this. I love Ray Leonard, but that was not fair at all to have a guy fight for two titles and the guy he is fighting weighs 8 pounds less than he should have . Ray was a great fighter but dirty. He knew Tommy Hearns was fighting James Kinchen for the WBO title on the previous Friday night at the Las Vegas Hilton and Ray fought Lalonde 3 days later on Monday at Caesars Palace... In both cases people never really regarded those as title winning for Ray,, and Tommy won the WBO title which was not as recognized as the WBC< IBF or WBA.. Funny thing is after 19 years the WBO title Tommy won is almost recognized as a real title, so in a way the years are proving that Tommy really won a title at 168.

RJJ after copping the HW belt

Roberto Duran after beating Barkley

Sugar Ray Leonard after beating Hagler or Lalonde

Nigel Benn after beating Gerald Mc

Roy Jones after beating Ruiz or after 1st Tarver fight

Muhammad Ali after beating Fraizer in 3rd fight

Everytime we have a thread like this, I always give the same response:

It's much easier to list the fighters who did go out on a high and retire at the right time than to list to the ones that fought too long. Because virtually every great fighter in history has fought too long.

I was about to say, "Naseem Hamed", but changed my mind.

Yes, his last BIG fight was a globally resounding, humiliating loss, and his only and last fight afterwards was an appalling 12 round display of bumbling against some 35 y.o euroscrub who managed to steal a few rounds. You could say his former glory SHOULD have carried him to great heights.

There again, we can all say, "If only he'd stayed with Ingle", "If only Cus D'Amato didn't die so soon", etc. Barrera managed to restyle himself utterly for that fight. Hell, even that bullhead Morales learned to throw a single jab every minute for a short while in '02/'03.

Nas didn't adapt because he couldn't, which is why some bright spark finally caught up to him.

Gatti after Daamgard...but hell still beat Gomez.

Originally Posted by BoomBoom

Gatti after Daamgard...but hell still beat Gomez.

Gomez has a chance thats for sure, but I think Gatti should still outclass him even at this stage. It will be a good opportunity for Gatti to go out with a win.

Originally Posted by Hulk

It will be a good opportunity for Gatti to go out with a win.

He wont, I think after that fight he still has 2 more fights that he needs to cover for his contract with HBO.

Originally Posted by CutMeMicK

Originally Posted by Hulk

It will be a good opportunity for Gatti to go out with a win.

He wont, I think after that fight he still has 2 more fights that he needs to cover for his contract with HBO.

Feliciano and Augustus anyone?