Fighters that went downhill after first loss

[Controversial]

It doesn't have to be a title holder, any fighter that started off as a prospect or looked promising and after their first loss were not the same or just became a regular loser.

[Noxy]

Johnny Melfah, if I remember right.

[gilgamesh]

Jeff Lacy (after Calzaghe, he was just a guy that used to look like he had potential)

Francisco Bojado

Dominick Guinn

Alfonso Zamora

[Perseus]

Jermain Taylor

[Ambling Alp II]

Donald Curry.

[Bodyshot3]

Prince Naz was never the same after the MGM-Las Vegas Barrera encounter.

It was such a painful, even embarrassing night which I don't he ever recovered from.....all the swagger went, the desire ebbed and he needed to get away from boxing. Barrera - lets be honest - boxed his ears off.

Naz beat the decent Calvo about 13 months later (his last fight) but something was also badly missing and a pre-Barrera Naz would have surely gone right at Calvo and aimed to finish it early-spectacular.

Hamed had money in the bank and was always more of a family guy and thoughtful person than was sometimes recognised and also how he portrayed himself ......but the Barrera loss was assuredly a shock to the system and Hamed disappeared from view.

[HomicideHenry]

Hamed is one of those boxing superstars I never quite understood why people thought he was so great unless the British are simply all about the flash and the presentation.

Usually when it comes to these kind of questions I'm always reminded of white hopes or hype jobs who were build up as the next heavyweight champion only for them to fall short. David Price is one of the more recent examples I can think of that. I think retrospectively his career would have been much better had he never been pushed to be a world beater and just settled for being the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion kind of like Henry Cooper was for years and years.

[Jaywheel]

David Reid ( I know they rushed him because of the eye, but he was never the same after Trinidad)
Edison Miranda
Lucian Bute

[Controversial]

I'm not sure if there was a reason he stopped fighting but WBA welterweight champ Crisanto Espana was 30-0 (25 KOS) before being stopped by Quartey, he had one more fight nine months later that he won on points but then retired.

Edit: Just found Ring interview and says the following...

Next came a fight with unknown mandatory contender Ike Quartey in Paris, France in June 1994. “I was confident I was going to win but I don’t know what happened,” admitted España, who had his moments but was stopped by the relentless Ghanaian fighter in the 11th round. “I don’t have any excuse. I am comfortable in my own skin because I lost to a great fighter like Quartey.”

España fought just once more, nine months later, a six-round decision over Paul Wesley. He had hopes of reigniting his career stateside.

“I tried to fight in U.S. but when I went from Ireland to Las Vegas there was nobody waiting for me,” said España, who retired with a record of 31-1 (25 knockouts). “I was lucky there was an English boxer who recognized me and took me out to eat. Luckily, I had a little bit of money and was able to get a room and food and return back.

“Eastwood told me not to fight any more. I didn’t train anymore and that’s pretty much how my boxing career came to an end. It’s unfortunate.”

[Nile4000]

Alex Ramos

Greg Page

Michael Dokes

Mac Foster.

[Bodyshot3]

Hamed is one of those boxing superstars I never quite understood why people thought he was so great unless the British are simply all about the flash and the presentation.

Usually when it comes to these kind of questions I'm always reminded of white hopes or hype jobs who were build up as the next heavyweight champion only for them to fall short. David Price is one of the more recent examples I can think of that. I think retrospectively his career would have been much better had he never been pushed to be a world beater and just settled for being the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion kind of like Henry Cooper was for years and years.

Hamed was slotting good American and Latin American fighters with titles to their name for fun mate....and had the titles to show for it.

He was a whole world away and leagues above David Price and had moved beyond British, Commonwealth and European assignations very early. Give his record another review.

That was why he was paired with Barrera in a huge Vegas fight.

[AngryGoon38]

"Jorge Luis Gonzalez".
He would be the ultimate proverbial example.
After the devastating KO Loss to Bowe, that was the wrap for Jorge.
He went 4-7 for the remainder of his carear, following that loss which ended his 27-0 start.

"Duane Bobick" would be another proverbial example. Started out at 38-0, before taking on Ken Norton in 1977 and losing by a Brutal first round Tko. My Dad told me that he got punched in the neck, and wasn't able to recover from there onwards.
The times I've watched that bout I couldn't Really spot the neck punch but I remember my Dad being quite certain about it.
He saw the fight live on tv. I was just a 7 year old non sports fan kid at the time, who was probably playing with my star wars or shogun warrior toys.

"Arthur Pelkey", A Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought from 1906-1918..? He would also be a proverbial example of this thread topic. Even though he wasn't undefeated himself at the time that he won against an undefeated superstar prospect. Pelkey easily Ko'd Luther McCarthy, A great prospect at the time, but something was Very off with the whole scenario. McCarthy stayed down and remained in a deep state of unconsciousness after being Ko'd, and seemingly so easily as well.
In this bout of Pelkey taking on hot prospect McCarthy in 1913, McCarthy apparently had already had a semi broken neck entering the bout. From A flukey training accident.

He(McCarthy) apparently didn't realize how serious it was(His neck injury)and therefore didn't forfeit, as he should've. And certainly would've, had the proper realistic awareness and diagnosis of the situation been there. No footage of the bout remains, but I remember reading a good amount about it, way back in the day, and what happened to Pelkey's boxing carear following the tragic in the ring death of McCarthy.
Pelkey went on to lose 20 of his next 21 bouts. And then he passed away soon thereafter.

[Controversial]

"Jorge Luis Gonzalez".
He would be the ultimate proverbial example.
After the devastating KO Loss to Bowe, that was the wrap for Jorge.
He went 4-7 for the remainder of his carear, following that loss which ended his 27-0 start.

"Duane Bobick" would be another proverbial example. Started out at 38-0, before taking on Ken Norton in 1977 and losing by a Brutal first round Tko. My Dad told me that he got punched in the neck, and wasn't able to recover from there onwards.
The times I've watched that bout I couldn't Really spot the neck punch but I remember my Dad being quite certain about it.
He saw the fight live on tv. I was just a 7 year old non sports fan kid at the time, who was probably playing with my star wars or shogun warrior toys.

"Arthur Pelkey", A Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought from 1906-1918..? He would also be a proverbial example of this thread topic. Even though he wasn't undefeated himself at the time that he won against an undefeated superstar prospect. Pelkey easily Ko'd Luther McCarthy, A great prospect at the time, but something was Very off with the whole scenario. McCarthy stayed down and remained in a deep state of unconsciousness after being Ko'd, and seemingly so easily as well.
In this bout of Pelkey taking on hot prospect McCarthy in 1913, McCarthy apparently had already had a semi broken neck entering the bout. From A flukey training accident.

He(McCarthy) apparently didn't realize how serious it was(His neck injury)and therefore didn't forfeit, as he should've. And certainly would've, had the proper realistic awareness and diagnosis of the situation been there. No footage of the bout remains, but I remember reading a good amount about it, way back in the day, and what happened to Pelkey's boxing carear following the tragic in the ring death of McCarthy.
Pelkey went on to lose 20 of his next 21 bouts. And then he passed away soon thereafter.

Nice!

[elmersalsa]

Miguel "Happy" Lora. He was an exceptional and complete fighter, went downhill after losing his WBC World Bantamweight Title to Raul Perez of Mexico in 1988.

After that, Lora was never the same.

[Ambling Alp II]

"Jorge Luis Gonzalez".
He would be the ultimate proverbial example.
After the devastating KO Loss to Bowe, that was the wrap for Jorge.
He went 4-7 for the remainder of his carear, following that loss which ended his 27-0 start.

"Duane Bobick" would be another proverbial example. Started out at 38-0, before taking on Ken Norton in 1977 and losing by a Brutal first round Tko. My Dad told me that he got punched in the neck, and wasn't able to recover from there onwards.
The times I've watched that bout I couldn't Really spot the neck punch but I remember my Dad being quite certain about it.
He saw the fight live on tv. I was just a 7 year old non sports fan kid at the time, who was probably playing with my star wars or shogun warrior toys.

"Arthur Pelkey", A Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought from 1906-1918..? He would also be a proverbial example of this thread topic. Even though he wasn't undefeated himself at the time that he won against an undefeated superstar prospect. Pelkey easily Ko'd Luther McCarthy, A great prospect at the time, but something was Very off with the whole scenario. McCarthy stayed down and remained in a deep state of unconsciousness after being Ko'd, and seemingly so easily as well.
In this bout of Pelkey taking on hot prospect McCarthy in 1913, McCarthy apparently had already had a semi broken neck entering the bout. From A flukey training accident.

He(McCarthy) apparently didn't realize how serious it was(His neck injury)and therefore didn't forfeit, as he should've. And certainly would've, had the proper realistic awareness and diagnosis of the situation been there. No footage of the bout remains, but I remember reading a good amount about it, way back in the day, and what happened to Pelkey's boxing carear following the tragic in the ring death of McCarthy.
Pelkey went on to lose 20 of his next 21 bouts. And then he passed away soon thereafter.

Nice!

Have not heard that Bobick got in hit in the neck against Norton. I remember that fight as a kid. It was on NBC in primetime during the week. It was very hyped up fight. I have heard that he was hit in the adams apple. Watching the fight, he got hit a lot of times and it's hard to pinpoint one shot. Will have to watch it again sometime.

With Bobick, and Gonzales, it is obvious now that they simply weren't that good. They built their win/loss records against weak competition. They each made a huge leap in competition, and both got beaten badly.
Maybe they would have improved their skills more if they had gradually fought tougher and tough competition before taking on guys like Norton and Bowe. Doubtful they ever would have been great fighters though. They simply got exposed.

Bobick and Gonzales perfect examples of why win/loss records and stats in boxing can be very deceiving.

[gilgamesh]

Hamed is one of those boxing superstars I never quite understood why people thought he was so great unless the British are simply all about the flash and the presentation.

Usually when it comes to these kind of questions I'm always reminded of white hopes or hype jobs who were build up as the next heavyweight champion only for them to fall short. David Price is one of the more recent examples I can think of that. I think retrospectively his career would have been much better had he never been pushed to be a world beater and just settled for being the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion kind of like Henry Cooper was for years and years.

Hamed was slotting good American and Latin American fighters with titles to their name for fun mate....and had the titles to show for it.

He was a whole world away and leagues above David Price and had moved beyond British, Commonwealth and European assignations very early. Give his record another review.

That was why he was paired with Barrera in a huge Vegas fight.

Hamed does fit this thread though.

After 1 loss he basically just kinda lost interest in Boxing it seemed.

Felix Trinidad was similar. What was he 40-0 coming into the Hopkins fight? Something like that. After that he was 2-2.

Now I think that's the weight class as much as anything, but he was also a guy who seemed to mentally unravel due to losses.

[Controversial]

Hamed is one of those boxing superstars I never quite understood why people thought he was so great unless the British are simply all about the flash and the presentation.

Usually when it comes to these kind of questions I'm always reminded of white hopes or hype jobs who were build up as the next heavyweight champion only for them to fall short. David Price is one of the more recent examples I can think of that. I think retrospectively his career would have been much better had he never been pushed to be a world beater and just settled for being the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion kind of like Henry Cooper was for years and years.

Hamed was slotting good American and Latin American fighters with titles to their name for fun mate....and had the titles to show for it.

He was a whole world away and leagues above David Price and had moved beyond British, Commonwealth and European assignations very early. Give his record another review.

That was why he was paired with Barrera in a huge Vegas fight.

Hamed does fit this thread though.

After 1 loss he basically just kinda lost interest in Boxing it seemed.

Too much money I think, he was only 28 so really just entering his physical prime. He cited hand problems too, said he couldn’t punch the way he used to.

[Bodyshot3]

Hamed does fit this thread though.

After 1 loss he basically just kinda lost interest in Boxing it seemed.

Felix Trinidad was similar. What was he 40-0 coming into the Hopkins fight? Something like that. After that he was 2-2.

Now I think that's the weight class as much as anything, but he was also a guy who seemed to mentally unravel due to losses.

Definitely agree on that Gilgamesh....which is exactly why I pinpointed Naz for this particular thread

My beef was that Hamed was not a hype job - he bashed-up some top people, often without breaking sweat - and was not a David Price Brit-Commonwealth-Euro fighter. That was badly cheapening Naz, his titles and his massive talent.

Price I am sure.....would be the very first to admit he was several leagues below Hamed.
He never got remotely close to headlining at Vegas or MSG.

The hugely dispiriting Barrera loss was a fight that was either going to force Naz to rethink his boxing, lifestyle and management and come back far harder.....or he was going to never recover and walk away his considerable earnings.

He waited a while before facing Calvo and that fight was telling. I watched it - it was a big deal at the time with a heap of publicity - and although Calvo was well-beaten it suggested Hamed had lost some of his spark and vital confidence.

As a young Yemeni in Yorkshire - who had created a huge, larger-than-life character to sell tickets and fought in a certain way that involved a massive degree of risk - I can understand why the Barrera loss represented a full stop.

Quit now, you've had a great run and Prince Naz act is not sustainable,

[IKSRTFO]

Fernando Vargas never seemed as confident after the Trinidad loss. He was up for the DLH fight, but was more emotional than actual confidence.

[Syntax Error]

Jeff Lacy.

After Calzaghe literally slapped him silly, he never really regained that fearsome reputation he had previously.

[Controversial]

Jeff Lacy.

After Calzaghe literally slapped him silly, he never really regained that fearsome reputation he had previously.

Good shout

[keithmoonhangover]

Wladimir Klitschko?

[Caractacus]

Mac Foster
Ron Lyle
Gerry Cooney

[keithmoonhangover]

Wladimir Klitschko?

OK, it wasn't funny.

[keithmoonhangover]

Clooney
Tyson
Moorer
Curry
Frank Tate
Ali (mainly because of the ban)