Hero To Zero - Who Had The Fastest Fall From Grace?

[Trojans44]

Always think of Alex Arthur in this context. Went from being a sky goldenboy to absolute nobody after losing to Cook. Never had a meaningful fight again.

[roy]

Not necessarily a fall from Grace, but James Hare went from one or two fights from a world title to... well poor almost overnight.

that covers a multitude that does. Hare was an establised Brit Champ for a good while, I'd say he had a very solid career. Yes he looked nothing like his former self at the end.

I don't recollect Hare ever being British Champ. Maybe you meant he was British and a champion (of the Commonwealth) .

[stevedoc]

a fighter i felt a bit sorry for was gary mason he only lost once if i remember right and that was to lennox lewis in 40 odd fights . he ended up skint through bad money management losing money on a jewellery shop .
i had lunch a couple of times with gary about a year before he died and he seemed a really nice bloke he was working on a stall at a market but seemed happy as could be .

[n1ebf]

Not necessarily a fall from Grace, but James Hare went from one or two fights from a world title to... well poor almost overnight.

that covers a multitude that does. Hare was an establised Brit Champ for a good while, I'd say he had a very solid career. Yes he looked nothing like his former self at the end.

I don't recollect Hare ever being British Champ. Maybe you meant he was British and a champion (of the Commonwealth) .

correct, sorry. Comm, WBF, European, but got beat by David Barnes for British.

[stujones]

Samwise,

I know what you are saying but that was more a reflection on how high Tyson was looked upon as opposed to how low Douglas was considered.

As you say Buster gives up a big lead against Tucker who gave Tyson one of his hardest fights. Douglas, IMO, was an independent top tenner at the time of the Tyson fight.

People talk about the 40/1 odds now as a reflection of Douglas not deserving the shot, I would say Holyfield aside everyone in the top 10 would have been around 40/1. There was certainly worst title challengers than Douglas.

[Old Jack J]

Not necessarily a fall from Grace, but James Hare went from one or two fights from a world title to... well poor almost overnight.

that covers a multitude that does. Hare was an establised Brit Champ for a good while, I'd say he had a very solid career. Yes he looked nothing like his former self at the end.

I knew James back then. Used to come over to see us fairly regularly back in the day. If he could punch he would have given it a right go at the top level. Cosme rivera gave James a real beating at Huddersfield. He was never the same after that. He admits that himself.

He used to spar with Naz and you could see that in his movement in the ring. The mutual friend which connected us was a former matchmaker who said that hatton wouldn't fight him because james would outbox him. I think thats why he was retired though. DD

[azzman]

Has anyone had a bigger fall from grace and the redemption like Enzo Mac?

[orbtastic]

Eubank had a pretty good tail-end career turnaround where he had a lot of people actually rooting for him.

[palooka]

Margarito went down in opinion very quickly. Don Curry was talked of as a superstar and very high in P4P rankings until Honeyghan mullered him, when McCallum knocked him out a year later that was that.

[stujones]

Has anyone had a bigger fall from grace and the redemption like Enzo Mac?

I think people are maybe going a little over the top with the Enzo Mac redemption - he is just a commonwealth champ who has got a SHOT at the world title. His loses (McKenzie dodgy stoppage aside) have been at world level - he was beating Afolabi at the time of the stoppage and there is a case that Ola should be a world champion now.

Beats Braehmer and then we can start talking about how big his redemption has been, lose and he is just a fighter who through his name and contacts got a lucky shot at the title.

[big lennox]

McCall had a single defence, a UD against Larry Holmes in America, and lost it almost a year to the date he won it.
Domestically, Gary Woolcombe (Champ) ran into Ryan Rhodes (challenger), who it turned out was a very long way from being on the deline. I think Gary might have boxed once after that, then I never heard about him again, he was still only in his early/ mid 20s I think.

Gary failed a brain scan if I remember

ah cheers Johnny, I didn't know this. Yes you are correct Parsons, 3 wins after that, I looked it up. I felt a bit sorry for Woolcombe that night, I think not many people outside Sheffield thought Ryan Rhodes might do that to the champion. It was a ghastly knock out.

Didn't Gary help Ryan out with sparring after their fight? That's what I like about this sport.

[Chambers2]

Jeff 'Left Hook' Lacy.

He went from 'The New Tyson' to an over-rated chump in 40 minutes or so

[The Law]

Kelly Pavlik springs to mind. Fall from grace in the sport of boxing and outside of the ring. I hope he gets well soon.

[SamWise72]

Samwise,

I know what you are saying but that was more a reflection on how high Tyson was looked upon as opposed to how low Douglas was considered.

As you say Buster gives up a big lead against Tucker who gave Tyson one of his hardest fights. Douglas, IMO, was an independent top tenner at the time of the Tyson fight.

People talk about the 40/1 odds now as a reflection of Douglas not deserving the shot, I would say Holyfield aside everyone in the top 10 would have been around 40/1. There was certainly worst title challengers than Douglas.

It's both. For sure he was legitimately top 10, but people would have picked him to lose to many of the rest of the Top 10. Chris Arreola is in Boxrec's Top 10, but how many of the rest of the top 10 would you fancy him to beat? On top of that, Tyson seemed like he could knock out an Himalayan mountain in a couple of rounds. I don't remember it being frowned on as a bad match, but I also don't recall anyone thinking Douglas could win.