Fighters improved by their first loss?

[coghaugen11]

Benn and Haye

[coghaugen11]

Benn was as wild as anything you’ve seen in that Watson fight. Laughably wild even. Going to America to start sparring (he never sparred) and learn to not waste punches though made him look near impossible for a non-mover type to beat.

[jameswilson]

Odd one and odd reasoning but I’d say Lee Selby.

Nobody talks about that loss pointing out the mistakes (in the same way Lennox gets pillared for a weak chin or Haye for a poor engine) made and afterwards he went on a run that ended with a World title and several defences.

[mickey1975]

Corolla, a few times improved.

[Verdi]

Canelo

[Verdi]

David Haye

[NoScoutingReports]

I think Jay Harris will have taken a lot from his first defeat against Julio Cesar Martinez, has only fought once since admittedly however he looked comfortable and he will have learnt a lot from stepping up a considerable amount for that fight. Hope to see him in plenty more exciting bouts in the coming years, maybe even becoming a regular challenger up at Super Flyweight.

[NoScoutingReports]

JoJo Diaz came back well after losing to Gary Russell Jr and reached his goal of becoming a world champion by beating Farmer, his fight against Rakhimov next month should be good.

[Counter-puncher]

I think Jay Harris will have taken a lot from his first defeat against Julio Cesar Martinez, has only fought once since admittedly however he looked comfortable and he will have learnt a lot from stepping up a considerable amount for that fight. Hope to see him in plenty more exciting bouts in the coming years, maybe even becoming a regular challenger up at Super Flyweight.

good post

[dr_devious]

Azumah

[Deserter]

Azumah

Great call.

I'd throw McGuigan and even Vlad into the mix as well.

[Deserter]

Oh and I'd add in Watson and Barrera (I know it was two losses back-to-back with Jones, but they really were the making of him)

[dookus]

Wladimir Klitschko (although it took another two losses for the finished article to emerge)

[THEBUTCH]

Kosta Tszyu improved after Phillip's outlasted him in a big upset.

[Coco]

MAB

[bennie]

It wasn't his first loss but John Lyon lost his first ABA final to Repton's Terry Barker in 1980. Southpaw Barker (the father of Darren) picked Lyon apart and won by a country mile at the end of three rounds on an amazing night at Wembley in which Frank Bruno, Mark Kaylor, Terry Marsh and the Gilbody brothers were also crowned ABA champions. Lyon came back to win an incredible eight ABA titles, a record number that will probably never be beaten.
As for Barker, he fell in love and drifted out of the sport.

[Autobarn]

Nigel Benn

Definitely. I’d say he was improved by his first two losses.

[THEBUTCH]

Bennie, what club was Bruno boxing for when won the ABA's ?

[Coco]

Bennie, what club was Bruno boxing for when won the ABA's ?

Sir Philip Game

[THEBUTCH]

[bennie]

Bruno was only 18 when he won the ABA heavyweight title but it's a bit of a shame that he wasn't selected for the Olympics in 1980. A 19-year-old Mark Kaylor was picked at middleweight and it did him no harm and Liverpool flyweight Keith Wallace was also sent at 19. An interesting result in the preliminaries in Moscow is Pete Hanlon's 4:1 decision over Antonio Esparragoza of Venezuela. Esparragoza later proved an outstanding WBA featherweight champion. Ray Gilbody was eliminated by Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico, another man who made a real name for himself in the pros. Smooth Liverpool southpaw Tony Willis won our only medal when picking up bronze at light-welterweight. He was outscored in the semi-finals by Italy's Patrizio Oliva, who then won the gold medal and also the Val Barker trophy as the best boxer in the Games.
Barry McGuigan really flopped when an unknown Zambian outpointed him in the preliminaries. McGuigan just couldn't get off. Ireland's Hugh Russell proved a real surprise package by making it to the flyweight semi-finals, where he lost to Peter Lessov of Bulgaria, who won the gold. Liverpool welterweight Joey Frost blew away a couple of opponents, to the delight of the Russian crowd, before an East German outscored him. Uganda's John Mugabi blasted his way to the welterweight final and then dropped a decision to brilliant Cuban southpaw Andres Aldama, who had lost in the light-welterweight final four years earlier to a certain Sugar Ray Leonard. The real star of the Games was once again Teofilo Stevenson at heavyweight, who joined the great Laszlo Papp by winning his third gold medal. Perhaps Stevenson was the reason Bruno wasn't selected.

[margaret thatcher]

Where they protecting Stevenson from Bruno?

[bennie]

Where they protecting Stevenson from Bruno?

The other way around. Stevenson would have knocked out a young Bruno.

[margaret thatcher]

[REEVE]

Anth crolla