BoxRec

Pipino Cuevas and Mike Tyson seemed to have the shortest primes ever.

Name some other boxers who were great for a short period of time then their primes ended and they went into oblivion.

To be fair there was a time when Mike Tyson was past his prime but still relatively good.

IronKidDynamite wrote:Pipino Cuevas and Mike Tyson seemed to have the shortest primes ever.

Name some other boxers who were great for a short period of time then their primes ended and they went into oblivion.

I wouldn't call Pipinoes 4 year and 12 title defences reign as world Welterweight champion as being amongst the shortest primes ever!.... Cuevas had one of the longest reigns amongst the Welterweights and while he was still young when he hit the slide he was world champion at just 18 years and 7 months old when he won the title.
There are many other fighters who had very much shorter peaks and reigned for far less time, ....Leon Spinks, Al Singer, Randolph Turpin, John H Stracey, Barry Mcguigan, Mark Breland, Matthew Hilton.... all these fighters had comparatively short title reignes and far shorter 'peaks' than had been expected of them.

Alfonso Zamora. From 1973-1977 he was 29-0 (29). Was destroyed by Carlos Zarate and went 4-4 (3) after and finished 33-5 (32).

Mando Ramos burnt out very quick... had the talent to be a long time champion but succumbed to drink problems.....

Shortest primes could be classed as just not being good enough to hold onto the title for long enough, or just lucky to win it in the beginning..

tonyevs wrote:Shortest primes could be classed as just not being good enough to hold onto the title for long enough, or just lucky to win it in the beginning..

Exactly. The only way a fighter's prime can be truly cut short is if they either have a long layoff or go through a Taylor-Chavez type war which just takes the fight out of their bodies.

How the hell did Tyson suddenly 'get out' of his prime for the Douglas fight?? Cause he was having woman problems and had changed trainers??? Give me a break.

It's been said that Riddick Bowe's prime consisted of the 12 rounds of the first Holyfield fight. (He did fight at a reasonably high level for a while before and after though).

While I'm sure most would disagree, the Junior Featherweight Carlos Navarro looked (when I saw him) like some kind of, if not future great, then at least a future genuine (WBC/WBA/IBF) world champ. And it all went horribly wrong....

I suppose Navarro would go down as a "never was", though...

There are a lot of champions who seemingly have had the talent to reign for a considerable time but do not due to an unexpected loss etc.... Barry Mcguigan comes to mind... many thought he would be champion for quite a while till he was upset by Cruz and then his career was never quite the same again. Often holding onto world titles is harder than winning them...... or rather it used to be before all these fake titles.... back in the days when most World title fights were just that.... hard competitive fights...

dempseyfire wrote:
The only way a fighter's prime can be truly cut short is if they either have a long layoff or go through a Taylor-Chavez type war which just takes the fight out of their bodies.

Yes, Meldrick Taylor had his prime beaten out of him in that fight...if only he would have tried to use his incredible hand speed and reflexes as a boxer instead of a slugger...what a sad, sad waist of incredible talent...he could have been great...as it was, he still beat Chavez...Richard Steele should have been reprimanded for stopping a fight with 2 seconds left...not enought time for Chavez to cross the ring and throw another punch!

According to a math-nerd friend of mine, the shortest prime is 2.

"2 is the only even prime, which makes it the oddest prime of all." --Donald Knuth

dempseyfire wrote:How the hell did Tyson suddenly 'get out' of his prime for the Douglas fight??

I'm surprised nobody nominated Douglas here, his 10 rounds against Tyson would be even shorter then 12 rounds of 1st Bowe-Holyfield

Wad Klitschko

david reed, he primed at the olympics, hes was on the down side of his career soon after he went pro, too bad, my old coach bill mertz had him at a national event and said he hit harder than most of the heavyweights on the same team

John Mugabi

Oh yeah, and Rocky Balboa - "What about my prime, I didnt even have a prime, Mick"

bollocks wrote:honk land, nut

shrimp roe test.

Oh yeah, and Rocky Balboa - "What about my prime, I didnt even have a prime, Mick"

Rocky Balboas really fell from grace in Rocky 4. I mean the guy who was supposed to be champion of the world was fighting a 1-0 novice. Whats up with that?