Fighters who skip the downward slope!

[rjj tszyu]

By this I mean who seemed to be pretty much on top of their game (or at least their opponents) one fight and then the next without much warning just seemed to have lost all their zap? I mean normally you can see that a fighter isn't quite the same anymore and then he gets beat up but now and again you get a sudden shock!

The best two I can think of are Erik Morales and Roy Jones. Morales beat Manny Pacquiao and then fought a lesser opponent in Zahir Raheem and got beaten quite comfortably. At first I thought he had just underestimated Raheem but then Pacman kicked his ass twice and then David Diaz beat him and it was clear he had just lost it.

Roy Jones dstroyed Clinton Woods in his last LHW fight before moving up to claim a HW strap against the greatest HW fighter ever John Ruiz (I am joking). But when he dropped back down to 175lbs he had a real hard time with Antonio Tarver who had already been beaten by a former Jones victim in Eric Harding. At the time I once again thought that it was just Jones underestimating Tarver and I thought he really would school Tarver in the rematch, but when Tarver KO'd the once "untouchable" Jones and then Glen Johnson repeated the feat it was clear that the former p4p #1 had lost it.

Can you guys think of any other fighters who fell from grace as violently and suddenly as these two?

[The Fightfan]

Roman Karmazin comes to mind. He seemed to fight the fight of his life against Kassim Ouma then his next bout against Spinks it seemed he barely had a pulse. I know that's an odd pick but in recent memory he comes to mind.

[CGM]

Jones had a tough time in the first Tarver fight, but looked reasonably sharp in the 2nd fight. Maybe not at his best, but not totally "lost it" either. He just got caught. It happens. Against Johnson he looked horrible though.

Good question and surprisingly tough. Maybe Tszyu. Taylor didn't really impress after Hopkins. Trinidad maybe. He looked OK agaunst Mayorga, but was a basket case against Wright.

[Spicoli]

Good twist,usually its the ones never the same after a toughie/after getting ko'd but to be at the top one day and then just fizzle out??Agree with CGM,tough one.I was thinking Taylor as well but he kept it real tight with Pav in 2nd.What about a Aaron Pryor,Off 2 huge kos of Arguello and then,not so much afterwards?.

[CutMeMick]

Margarito should be the freshest in our minds.

Nobuo Nashiro wins the title vs. Castillo then loses to Munoz. (To be fair Nobuo had no business wining the title in the 1st place)
Buster Douglas beats Mike then nothing after that.
Foreman blasted Norton in 2, then that same year Ali did a number on him.
Joachime Alcine looks really good vs. Simms then get's blasted by Santos.
Paul Williams beats Margarito then goes on to loose to CQuintana.

[killersheep]

I'd say Kassim Ouma definately fits this bill, he looked phenomenally exciting, he moved up to fight Taylor, and he lost so we figured he was just too small to be effective, but when he came back down and got outworked by K9, something had definately changed his output wasn't even half of what it usually was against an opponent that he could land double his normal workrate against.

Mike Oliver too, he went from really slick to getting caught in his coming out fight against Lopez to looking like a fish out of water flopping out of control.

[CGM]

Margarito should be the freshest in our minds.

Nobuo Nashiro wins the title vs. Castillo then loses to Munoz. (To be fair Nobuo had no business wining the title in the 1st place)
Buster Douglas beats Mike then nothing after that.
Foreman blasted Norton in 2, then that same year Ali did a number on him.
Joachime Alcine looks really good vs. Simms then get's blasted by Santos.
Paul Williams beats Margarito then goes on to loose to CQuintana.

Yeah, Foreman looked like a klutz against Ali.

[killersheep]

Margarito should be the freshest in our minds.

Nobuo Nashiro wins the title vs. Castillo then loses to Munoz. (To be fair Nobuo had no business wining the title in the 1st place)
Buster Douglas beats Mike then nothing after that.
Foreman blasted Norton in 2, then that same year Ali did a number on him.
Joachime Alcine looks really good vs. Simms then get's blasted by Santos.
Paul Williams beats Margarito then goes on to loose to CQuintana.

Was it just me, or did Simms look very unmotivated in that fight? I remember having an all in bet on Simms, and he looked lazy from the start and never got up for the fight. It was very dissapointing because he had just dismantled Rivera and seemed to have momentum on his side going into that fight.

[CGM]

Good twist,usually its the ones never the same after a toughie/after getting ko'd but to be at the top one day and then just fizzle out??Agree with CGM,tough one.I was thinking Taylor as well but he kept it real tight with Pav in 2nd.What about a Aaron Pryor,Off 2 huge kos of Arguello and then,not so much afterwards?.

As I recall, Pryor developed some unsavory lifestyle habits not long after Arguello. Drugs I think, though I could be mistaken. I remember he took a bullet from a woman (maybe his wife?) but I'm not sure where his career was at when all this stuff started to happen.