What causes a fighter to lose it overnight?

[kick asner]

I was always curious how a fighter can be on top one day and then all of a sudden for no apparrent reason look like he is shot while he is still in his twenties or relativly young. I'm don't mean so much guys like Greg Page, Buster Dougles, or Tim Witherspoon. These fighters went into a sort of slow decline. You could see they were losing it, just not all at once. The examples I am thinking of are guys like Davey Moore who shot to the top and right back down again. Or John Conteh who appeard to be in the thick of things and just dissapeard. Saad Muhamed who was on a knockout terror only to lose it and become a stepping stone. Feel free to inject your theory or other examples of similar fighters.

[Ezzard]

I think it's to do with a fragile ego/personality and/or problems out of the ring.

Some fighters believe too much of their own hype and cannot get it back together after they've been beaten.

[BoxBuzz]

Actually I can understand with a fighters life how it could happen.....Now when a POSTER loses it here....that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[silkov]

I think with most fighters you can chart when things started to go wrong... some fighters on the other hand suffer a defeat which they never get over properly... Don Curry for instance was never really the same after the Honeyghan fight, Davey Moore never really got over the Duran loss... Wilfred Benitez was never the same after the Hamsho/Hearns fights... Conteh went into a slow decline after breaking his hand badly (which never fully healed) and going onto the party circuit... Mathew Hilton was one who lost it very quickly, but again it was due to lifestyle and a bad defeat (to Hines)
as for posters who have lost it!... 8)

[Jaclem]

..boxbuzzy..."kettle of fish".... clever and original..have you thought of copywrighting it?

[BoxBuzz]

..boxbuzzy..."kettle of fish".... clever and original..have you thought of copywrighting it?

I've given it thought....but I'd have to hire the "Wright" brothers for that....and they are too damned expensive these days.

[Expug]

Outside the ring distractions can play a big part in knocking a fighter off track.
Its hard to be a warrior with drama swirling around.
Its almost as if the wisdom of an older guy in the young fighters body would be the ideal combo.

[Jaclem]

..too many overnights with too many women....

[Flump]

How about Lloyd Honeyghan? He went from flattening Gene Hatcher in 40 seconds to looking like shite against Jorge Vaca. Can't think of another guy who seemed to lose it so suddenly. I know he won the rematch and scored a few more wins but his legs went to jelly.

[Controversial]

I was always curious how a fighter can be on top one day and then all of a sudden for no apparrent reason look like he is shot while he is still in his twenties or relativly young. I'm don't mean so much guys like Greg Page, Buster Dougles, or Tim Witherspoon. These fighters went into a sort of slow decline. You could see they were losing it, just not all at once. The examples I am thinking of are guys like Davey Moore who shot to the top and right back down again. Or John Conteh who appeard to be in the thick of things and just dissapeard. Saad Muhamed who was on a knockout terror only to lose it and become a stepping stone. Feel free to inject your theory or other examples of similar fighters.

I think it's definitley the money and too much partying. You have to be a special kind of person to be 100% dedicated to your career, and not many fighters can manage that. No matter how much talent you have if you stop training and abuse your body it will affect you.

I think the old fighters managed to have the number of tough fights they did because they were not earning million dollar purses. The money was nowhere near what it is today. Many had to fight because that literally put the food on their table. Can you imagine becoming a millionaire after one fight, all the exposure you get today and all these women throwing thereselves at you. It would be incredibly hard to turn away from all that and train with the same intensity as you did before hitting the big time. Thats why Tyson peaked so young. He was out partying all the time, sleeping about and abusing his body. He could have ruled the division for years but his hunger went.

[Expug]

How about Lloyd Honeyghan? He went from flattening Gene Hatcher in 40 seconds to looking like shite against Jorge Vaca. Can't think of another guy who seemed to lose it so suddenly. I know he won the rematch and scored a few more wins but his legs went to jelly.

Honeyghan wasn't that great to start with, and he was always on the inconsistent side.

Nah man .
Honeyghan is a good example .
He was on a real roll . kicking the shit out of Curry and defending the title solidly a couple times before getting beat by Jorge Vaca.

[kick asner]

I would say that Honeygan legitamatly fits the category. He was coming off wins against slick boxer Johnny Bumphus who he stopped in round two, and a win over diffacult opponent Maruice Blocker who although not a spectacular fighter was a solid workhorse type of guy who could out busy you, and on his best day a very diffacult fighter for most anyone. Keep in mind when Honeygan beat Curry, Curry was on a roll of major proportion. On the downslide for Honeygan he would also qualify for the category because he fell swiftly. In the Brealand fight he was not even competitive.

[Seamus]

I think another example is Matthew Saad Muhammad. In his first fight with Qawi, he was taking quite a beating, but I kept telling myself, Saad always rallies. This time though he was up against a guy who was absolutely relentless, Qawi never let up on the punishment, and there was no late rally. Saad never beat another decent opponent.

[Collins2000]

I'd say Curry himself is a better example than Honeyghan.

Before Honeyghan mugged him, astute boxing people were seriously talking about Curry being good enough to go up to middleweight and be competitive with Hagler! It sounds ridiculous now but that's how good many people thought Curry looked as undisputed 147 champ.

There wasn't much talk of that type of venture after the ragamuffin man had bashed him up...

[kick asner]

Curry cleary was'nt the same guy after the Honeygan fight but he did fight on after that and had some decent wins, fought a pretty high leavel of competion, won a title, and had some other title fights. He was nowhere near as dominent as he once had been but he stayed somewhat competive and did'nt quite just drop off of the map.

Where I might consider Honeygan's fall from grace a bit more swift is because against Brealand he clearly looked shot, and it was all of a sudden, where Curry's skills were clearly diminished I always had the sense he was still competitive.

[Flump]

I think another example is Matthew Saad Muhammad. In his first fight with Qawi, he was taking quite a beating, but I kept telling myself, Saad always rallies. This time though he was up against a guy who was absolutely relentless, Qawi never let up on the punishment, and there was no late rally. Saad never beat another decent opponent.

Saad had gone to the well so often that it was bound to dry up sooner or later. He certainly gave us some fantastic memories though.

[BoxBuzz]

What causes a fighter to lose it overnight?

1. Women
2. Women
3. Vacant/Women
4. Money
5. Crack Cocaine or other asundry biochemical mind altering substances
6. Being messed with by Promoters and Managers
7. Genetics
9. The smell of the crowd and fame in general
10. Life's responsibilites

[HomicideHenry]

I think another thing to list down is ring deaths.

I know Max Baer isn't really that great of an example considering he had alot of inconsitancies, but after he killed two men in the ring, Baer never did seem to be the violent-wild swinging-forever chasing the kayo fighter again.