BoxRec

looking at wladimir klitschko today, it is amazing he's currently the #1 guy at heavy after the sanders & brewster losses and being in trouble on more than one occasion vs peter. lack of competition is a definitely a factor but it's still a great career comeback. what other fighters have comeback from a bad string of losses in their careers to either win a title or be a top contender again?

Pazienza looked pretty finished at Jr Welter, then after the auto accident he won a belt at 54.

Guys like Freddie Pendleton were just mismanaged and compiled loss after loss early on while gaining experience and then had a good run with a belt.

Alan Minter lost his first 6 amatuer fights! And went on to be undisputed MW champ of the world! Also I think Henry Armstrong lost his 1st pro fight. Also I'd say Holyfield made a good comeback to wen beating Tyson, since he looked shot before, and then sprung that surprise. There are more that don't come to mind at the moment.

In the span of a single fight Archie Moore staged one of the biggest career comebacks in history.

James Toney was virtually forgotten though he remained active. Why? because Jones was taking all the oxygen. Only when we took our eyes off of Jones due to his stumbling did many folks find that James had not really faded as much as had been assumed.

sg1985 wrote:George Foreman.

That's got to be the motherlode. Klitschko's comeback is a good one --- he returned, topped the division, & did it while actively improving upon himself, but it has to be said, it is held back from being truly great as a result of the worst HW competition possibly of all-time.

Patterson deserves a mention here.

Two devastating, back to back one round knockout losses to Liston in '62 and '63, yet 5 years later he should have gotten the WBA heavy title against Ellis. One of my most bitter moments as a young, avid boxing fan was seeing that decision awarded to Ellis that day. Turned off the TV and stomped outside. Others can rationalize and analyze and try to persuade on how Ellis really won that fight, but it will be a load of crap. Patterson won.

Granted, a superior fighter in Ali was on the sidelines in '68 and Frazier would have surely devastated him, but Floyd was a true campaigner who will always be loved and respected.

Frankie Duarte
Johnny Tapia
Eugene Criqui
Craig Bodzianowski

Toney's was pretty remarkable. Many forget how low his career had gone after the two Griffith robberies and the loss to Thazdi, it looked like weight issues and a lack of focus would forever render him an ESPN2 level "where are they now" boxer.

Jimmy Braddock might be tops in this category historically. He'd been a legit light HW contender, then got embarassed by Loughran in his title shot, stock market crashes, he becomes a HW journeyman losing to the likes of Joe Sekya and Tom Patrick. This goes on until 1934 when he beat Corn Griffin and went on that winning streak all the way to the HW championship.

braddock is a good one but foreman regaining the heavyweight title 20 yrs and 1 week after losing to ali might be the greatest accomplishment in the history of the sport. will never forget when moorer went down.

i guess you could put robinson in this category as well when he came back after the maxim loss.

Duran ought to be mentioned here. After Leonard II he juts got old and fat very quickly. Looked lacklustre in his wins; pudgy and asleep in his defeats.

Beats Moore which was a great win.

Gets poleaxed by Hearns... Loses to journeymen. Slobs around the middleweights and then eventually, after every expert in the world thought he should have retired 5 years or more earlier, he beats Barkley.

Sort of did it twice.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:

sg1985 wrote:George Foreman.

That's got to be the motherlode. Klitschko's comeback is a good one --- he returned, topped the division, & did it while actively improving upon himself, but it has to be said, it is held back from being truly great as a result of the worst HW competition possibly of all-time.

That's not all that's holding it back. The other factors are:
1. He needed big bro to get rid of big bad Corrie Sanders for him
2. Despite outmatching most of recent competition, he's let them hang around the ring with him for anywhere from twice to fours times as long as they should've been there.
3. Going along with two, he fights scared regardless of whether his opponent can really crack or not.
4. Going along with one, his big bro Vitali pretty much overshadowed him by a. sending Lennox Lewis running toward retirement despite losing the fight, b. scooping up the Ring HW Championship by battering Wlad's conqueror and c. coming back after a 3+ year layoff and beating Peter far more easily than Wladimir did and continuing to win just as impressively despite being older.

If he had come back and avenged the Sanders loss it would help his legacy, but even more than that, if he'd just get these sad excuses for contenders outta there sooner it would help. Chambers should've been gone by the 8th round, and that's being generous. If he'd have just pulled a Ray Austin on guys like Chagaev, Rahman, Brock, and Thompson which I believe he was more than capable of then the American public would love him as much as Tunney simply because he doles out HW knockouts and takes out the fuckin trash as a HW champ should, not by cautiously jabbing at someone who can't hurt him.

Expug wrote:Frankie Duarte
Johnny Tapia
Eugene Criqui
Craig Bodzianowski

Duarte's comeback was great considering what he'd put himself through in the previous 10 or so years. I still remember a photo after the Davila? fight where his eyes are so swollen he could barely see, yet he's grinning like he'd just beaten a prime SRR. He was happy as shite just to be there

Bodzianowski...was he the guy that lost a leg in a motorbike accident? If so, great shout in mentioning him

Davey Hitlon jr. Canadian champ was the best he did whilst in his prime and wasted the most part of it boozing up.
Came back in the late 90's to KO Ouellet twice and went on to win the vacant WBC SMW belt just before going to jail. Think he was 37 when he beat Thobela.

Larry Holmes doesn't get much credit for his second time around. He beat Mercer and gave Holyfield and McCall all they could handle in their title matches. No where near the biggest but he gave it a solid run in his 40's.

If he had had a tune up and more time who knows if he could have given Tyson a better fight as well?

Ali?

herol graham did wonders after the ko loss to julian jackson; he whipped some very good fighters in style and dropped the champ before being worn down. herol deserves lots of respect for that. george foreman (obviously), evander holyfield has made some remarkable comebacks in an extraordinary career. thomas hearns came back more than once after being written off as did roberto duran. on a lower level michael gomez was written off as finished and came back and scored some great wins. johnny nelson lost a lot of his amateur bouts and (allegedly) was rubbish at the start of his pro career but did very well. nigel benn did great as well after some very hard losses + steve robinson showed the heart of a lion to get from 'have gloves will travel' to world champ and after losing to hamed had a very decent post champ career at a good level. (sorry there're so many)

another fighter that deserves mention here is oleg maskaev. bad string of losses in '01-'02 and eventually won a title. pretty good comeback.

Domestically Chris Edwards from something like 2-9-2 to 14-14-3 and a 2 time British Champion...

Man, all those years I lost interest in boxing are telling.

I've never heard of many of the fighters on this thread.

yancey wrote:Man, all those years I lost interest in boxing are telling.

I've never heard of many of the fighters on this thread.

Darling wrote:

yancey wrote:Man, all those years I lost interest in boxing are telling.

I've never heard of many of the fighters on this thread.

My main interest in boxing was the welterweights through heavyweights in the early '60s through early '80s.

yancey wrote:

Darling wrote:

yancey wrote:Man, all those years I lost interest in boxing are telling.

I've never heard of many of the fighters on this thread.

My main interest in boxing was the welterweights through heavyweights in the early '60s through early '80s.

Interesting that quite a few fans end up having an extended break from the sport.

Ezzard wrote:

yancey wrote:

Darling wrote:

My main interest in boxing was the welterweights through heavyweights in the early '60s through early '80s.

Interesting that quite a few fans end up having an extended break from the sport.

When the heavyweight title and other titles started getting divided up among several fighters at the same time, it was a huge turn off for me.

It seems to me this nonsense started sometime during the Larry Holmes era.

Too many weight classes, too.

His name escapes me, but there was a welterweight who had 1 fight in 5 years becasue of eye problems and then beat one of the greatest middleweights of all-time in a fight that he was not supposed to have very little chance of winning. Granted the guy he beat was no Davey Moore or Samuel Peter, but still it was pretty impressive.