BoxRec

Mike Tyson

You could say Tyson wasn't the same going into the Douglas fight

Vernon Paris

Jeff Fenech.
He totally dominated Nelson only to be screwed over for a draw. He didn’t have the same energy or hunger leading into the rematch and was stopped in 8.
After a layoff he came back and got knocked out by Calvin Grove - a decent fighter but not somebody Fenech should have lost to.

Les Norton wrote: ↑13 Feb 2025, 00:46 Jeff Fenech.
He totally dominated Nelson only to be screwed over for a draw. He didn’t have the same energy or hunger leading into the rematch and was stopped in 8.
After a layoff he came back and got knocked out by Calvin Grove - a decent fighter but not somebody Fenech should have lost to.

Great call. You’re correct. French , I thought was going to be difficult dominant for much longer. The Nelson rematch was really disappointing I thought. Jeff seemed like a different guy

Lamar Clarke
Duane Bobick
Gerry Cooney
John Tate
Mike Tyson
Kelly Pavlik
Deontay Wilder
Roy Jones Jr (The Tarver Loss) (Griffin bout/DQ Loss doesn't count, imo)

Pedro Vilella

robbydecker wrote: ↑14 Feb 2025, 12:55 Lamar Clarke
Duane Bobick
Gerry Cooney
John Tate
Mike Tyson
Kelly Pavlik
Deontay Wilder
Roy Jones Jr (The Tarver Loss) (Griffin bout/DQ Loss doesn't count, imo)

Some of these guys (like Bobick and Cooney) were stepping up in class and started fighting much better competition. It's hard to say if they really declined after their first loss or were just losing and not looking so good because their opponents were so much better than they were on their way up.

Tate always seemed like a weird case. He has already shown that he had some ability before the Weaver fight. It looked like he was going to be fighting Holmes in a big unification fight. (Tate was the WBA champ and Holmes the WBC champ.) We would have had one champion and not all the WBA champs that followed. Too bad that didn't happen.
Tate actually looked good for the first 14 rounds of the fight against Weaver.
Then after the Weaver fight, he was actually running away from Berbick in their fight. than he disappeared.

Joe Louis (he had lost his first fight as an amateur)

Willie Monroe - I don't know if his loss to Hagler was his first, but it was the beginning of the end of him being a contender.

I was about to say Barry Mcguigan, I thought his 1st loss was to Steve Cruz ,but after checking he had an earlier pts loss to Chris Eubank's elder brother Peter, never knew that ,ever day is a school day

JackSprocket wrote: ↑26 Jan 2025, 09:07 You could say Tyson wasn't the same going into the Douglas fight

I don't think he was the same after the Spinks fight, but that's his fault.

Joe Frazier is a good example, but the big one for me is Foreman. Some boxers have such an invincible mindset, that when they lose, they're never the same again. While the true greats like Ali and Leonard used the loss as fuel to win the rematch.

Scypion wrote: ↑03 Nov 2025, 02:56 Willie Monroe - I don't know if his loss to Hagler was his first, but it was the beginning of the end of him being a contender.

They fought three times, the first time they fought Monroe was 32-3-1 and Hagler lost. Hagler beat him twice after this.

Ingemar Johansson

orbtastic wrote: ↑13 Dec 2024, 10:00 .........
Trinidad
..........

Is that true, or did he just move up in weight, where his power wasn't as effective?

39-0 at light-middlle
3-3 at middle, but spread over nearly 7 years, with two retirements thrown in.

nickcat0 wrote: ↑18 Nov 2025, 07:30

orbtastic wrote: ↑13 Dec 2024, 10:00 .........
Trinidad
..........

Is that true, or did he just move up in weight, where his power wasn't as effective?

39-0 at light-middlle
3-3 at middle, but spread over nearly 7 years, with two retirements thrown in.

It was the power thing mainly. He wasn't a skilled enough boxer to be able to outbox most Championship level bigger guys, his punch bailed him out against superior boxers at the lighter weights. It couldn't at Middle.

Big John Tate

He had some good wins after his first loss, but I don't think Tommy Morrison ever completely recovered from his KO by Ray Mercer.

John Tate is the poster boy for this.

Jose Baret.