BoxRec

I'm looking for guys who reached the top of the mountain, the success went to their head and they were never the same again.

Battling Siki - he beat Georges Carpentier, went on a self destructive rampage, lost his title in the next fight and lost more than he won for the rest of his career.

Buster Douglas an obvious one

Andy Ruiz

Although it was more the money than the success going to his head.

Also, not necessarily ‘top of the mountain’ but Kirkland Laing after beating Roberto Duran. Went AWOL, was out of the ring for a year, then got knocked out in his first fight back.

Leon Spinks

Hasim Rahman

Frankie Randall

Jake La Motta when he won the middleweight crown from Marcel Cerdan.
he later admitted that he had 'lost his demon" with that fight.

Rocky Graziano
(also "lost his demon" after he had won the second fight
with Tony Zale.)and really lost it forever after the knockout loss in the third fight.

Great topic.
And, some great examples here.
I’ll throw in Randy Turpin. Must’ve been a lot of expectations of big things after beating Robinson. He had some wins after that but never seemed to climb that mountain all the way.

Nicholas Walters bursts onto the scene with a devastating and dominant KO win over Nonito Donaire who was one of the Top P4P fighters in the sport at the time.

A few fights later Walters takes a loss to Lomachenko, and disappears from the sport altogether.

Honestly the amount of guys this sorta thing has happened to really drives home the point that as hard as it is to get it, it's even harder to keep it. Not just the title, but the fire inside it took to work hard enough to get there.

Thad Spencer beat Ernie Terrell in the WBA Heavyweight title tournament and was favored against Jerry Quarry in the semi-finals. Instead, he lost to Quarry and never won a fight ever again.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑10 Jan 2026, 13:57
Honestly the amount of guys this sorta thing has happened to really drives home the point that as hard as it is to get it, it's even harder to keep it. Not just the title, but the fire inside it took to work hard enough to get there.

This is what often separates the good from the great. So many fighters lose something after a loss or a big win. I guess with a loss many lose confidence and after a big win the money changes them or they are just happy with that and don’t ever have the same drive again.

Matthew Hilton

Yep guys who actually fought each other with similar later results.
Sean Ogrady, hammered Hilmer Kenty to win the title but never seemed to achieve anything like that again.
Johnny the Heat Verderosa impressively took out Ogrady here in Chicago but nothing really after

I’d throw Barry Mcguigan in there too.

Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

Expug wrote: ↑12 Jan 2026, 19:29 I’d throw Barry Mcguigan in there too.

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:15 Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

Good call.

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:15 Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

I do think Taylor was aided by the fact that Hopkins had kinda outgrown the Middleweight division, and was depleted of stamina somewhat. Because Hopkins looked a lot better, and rejuvenated when he made the move to Light Heavy which had probably been a long time coming.

It doesn't take away from Taylor's performances. He still did a top notch job against an excellent Professional, but I do think he had that extra advantage in his favor. Along with youth and speed, which is obviously huge in it's own right.

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:21

Expug wrote: ↑12 Jan 2026, 19:29 I’d throw Barry Mcguigan in there too.

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

I think there is still a biased towards the latest person and that goes for other sports as well. At the moment there is a lot of talk about Usyk being the best ever, when he had close fights with Chisora and Briedis. Usyk is very good, maybe even great, but he ain't the best to ever do it.

When Zidane was active, there was a lot of talk about him being the best footballer ever, but now his name doesn't get mentioned in that conversation.

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 17:37

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:21

Expug wrote: ↑12 Jan 2026, 19:29 I’d throw Barry Mcguigan in there too.

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

I think there is still a biased towards the latest person and that goes for other sports as well. At the moment there is a lot of talk about Usyk being the best ever, when he had close fights with Chisora and Briedis. Usyk is very good, maybe even great, but he ain't the best to ever do it.

When Zidane was active, there was a lot of talk about him being the best footballer ever, but now his name doesn't get mentioned in that conversation.

Very true. I also think that often times we aren’t completely honest with ourselves when it comes to jumping on a hype train. A fighter , or any other athlete for that matter has flaws , weaknesses that we might overlook.
“ The guy is one of the best of all time!”
“ Ya but, he sure gets hit with a lot of right hands”

Gerry Cooney after defeating Ken Norton.
(I remember reading that Cooney had said he had been "introduced" to cocaine afterwards during the victory party .

Expug wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 17:57

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 17:37

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:21

I'm going through a stack of Boxing News magazines at the moment from 1985, I've covered the Pedroza fight up to McGuigan's first defence against Bernard Taylor.

The hype is crazy. There are editorial features ranking Barry as a top 5 all time Featherweight and the readers are writing in to gush over the Pedroza fight for months.

It's a real eye-opener seeing how fans and media were so different pre-internet.

I think there is still a biased towards the latest person and that goes for other sports as well. At the moment there is a lot of talk about Usyk being the best ever, when he had close fights with Chisora and Briedis. Usyk is very good, maybe even great, but he ain't the best to ever do it.

When Zidane was active, there was a lot of talk about him being the best footballer ever, but now his name doesn't get mentioned in that conversation.

Very true. I also think that often times we aren’t completely honest with ourselves when it comes to jumping on a hype train. A fighter , or any other athlete for that matter has flaws , weaknesses that we might overlook.
“ The guy is one of the best of all time!”
“ Ya but, he sure gets hit with a lot of right hands”

A lot of people can't see the weaknesses until they cause you to be beaten.

witherspoon wrote: ↑13 Jan 2026, 05:15 Jermain Taylor, beat what (I, at least) assumed was a washed up Hopkins, but those wins just kept on getting better every time Hopkins fought again, for at least 5 years.

I never saw JT as sharp or as smart as he was in those fights with Hopkins.

I was thinking of him too. He was an example of someone who always seemed to fight up or down to the level of his opponent.

It's funny that, at the time, Taylor's win over Hopkins was seen as a passing of the torch from one generation to the next. But in the end Taylor actually ended up retiring before Hopkins, who was still fighting at the top level long after Taylor no longer was.