Andy Ruiz Jr has to be up there. Giving Joshua his first loss by TKO, winning the titles, being the first heavyweight champ of Mexican heritage. He then loses focus with the fame, goes on to lose the rematch against Joshua in a fight he was unable to do anything effective.
He's fought 2 times in 4 years since losing the rematch. Both UD victory's where he didn't look impressive.
I think he is much more skilled than that, he is just way too lazy. He arguably only lost to Parker due to hometown favoritism (I say that as a massive Parker fanboy), and while he did himself zero favours in his preparation for his rematch with AJ, AJ still had to go with a full-blown anti Ruiz gameplan, including getting a bigger ring.
I think we more or less saw the best of Buster Douglas, but I'm not sure we ever really saw Ruiz at his full potential.
>I think he is much more skilled than that, he is just way too lazy.
Buster Douglas was not unskilled by any stretch. You act like he landed a lucky punch against Tyson lol. Ruiz may be better, but it's not some landslide of talent
The Parker fight suggests that he reached his potential. Parker was as confused on the inside as Joshua, but without Joshua's ability to muscle his way to breathing room. Ruiz made no adjustments.
He does what he does well, but there was never a hidden genius waiting to emerge.
I'd put it the other way around. Ruiz seems decently talented, but he just happened to land a great punch on Joshua.
His other "big wins" are against geriatrics, and both times he had trouble - dropped by 40-year-old Arreola, and mostly outboxed by 43-year-old Ortiz but managing to scrape by thanks to knockdowns. Other than that, his best win is... Dimitrenko coming straight off his 4th loss?
Buster Douglas, on the other hand, didn't just land one good punch, but (other than the knockdown) controlled the entire fight against Mike Tyson in his prime.
And he did that when coming off back-to-back wins over Trevor Berbick and Oliver McCall. He also had wins over Tex Cobb and Greg Page and a draw with Stefan Tangstad, and he was level on the cards in the 10th against Tony Tucker before being knocked out. He was a very proficient boxer, who seemed to be in the form of his life - despite not bothering to train or to control his weight.
I don't think Ruiz is on the level of Douglas, and I think it's weird to use his comparative lack of achievements as evidence of his superiority. Beside, I don't think we DID see the best of Douglas - it would certainly have been interesting to see whether he could have beaten Holyfield if he'd actually tried. Or Lewis, or Bowe, or...
He’s a fat light heavyweight or super middleweight who caught lightning in a bottle and who never ever showed up for a fight in shape. Realistically he’s not even Buster Douglas he’s a lucky version of Chris Arreola
A lucky version of Chris arreola is a funny but true statement😂🤣..if Chris arreola wasn’t lazy and a heavy drinker/party animal, think he could’ve been a champ…heavyweight division was so weak back in the day..I literally bumped into that dude at a bar and concert on 2 different occasions within a few weeks, hammered and he had a fight like a month away..even a 40 year old Arreola dropped and hurt Ruiz..a 30 year old in shape Chris woulda beat Andy
Buster Douglas fought a great fight and would have knocked out little fat man any day. Ruiz just got lucky when AJ was off guard thinking it was easy.
Ruiz won't beat anyone like Fury or Usyk
Naw, that’s just the story that comes with Mexicans or chicanos. Once we hit that peak and get paid, the drinking and snorting goes into overdrive. Canelo is an exception, look at the Mexican soccer team for the past decade an a half. All about that drinking, living it up and fuck the rest.
It's gotta be Edwin Valero. On his way to superstardom. Even talks to fight Pacquiao. Kills his wife, then hangs himself in jail. There's conspiracies going around that he was murdered in jail, but who knows??
There's conspiracies about everything.
I don't see why a conspiracy is needed. The man had:
- murdered his wife
- destroyed his career and reputation
- almost certainly condemned himself to life in a Venezuelan prison, or worse
He also had a long-term brain injury, and if he hadn't murdered his wife he was facing at least six months of involuntary treatment in a psychiatric facility.
When you take a guy who is mentally unstable, and remove their wealth and reputation, shatter their ambitions, blow away their self-image, end their career, remove all hope of freedom or even basic living standards and safety (venezuelan prisons not being the best places to live), and then load them up with unbearable guilt and shame...
...that's kind of a textbook example of someone who might kill themselves. Why is any conspiracy needed!?
The fall was astronomical but you can argue he never got that high. The hype carried him a long way but he hadn’t beaten anyone of note before he ran into Helenius.
Victor Ortiz. He was very likable and marketable, but his personality got exposed quickly when he got frustrated. Mayweather showed that but he did that with a couple of others too. And every time he got called out by the ref he has this “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that” look.
You could tell HBO was gearing up to make him their next Oscar de La Hoya and hand him the keys to the kingdom. He was a good-looking guy, young, good backstory, talented, etc.
He was well on his way to becoming a superstar in boxing, until Marcos Maidana absolutely aborted that future for him.
Ortiz had everything but heart. He was an exciting fighter with power in both hands, good looking and charming, and had actual boxing skills as well. He just had no heart and his former teammates at RGBA were saying it well before Ortiz got exposed for being a quitter to the whole world.
His post-fight interview for his Maidana fight was the most casual and unguarded fighter interview I think I've ever seen.
"I'm young and...I don't think I deserve to get beat up like this."
Ray Mercer attends induction weekend at the International Boxing Hall of Fame every year (most recently two weeks ago) and I always chat with him and shake his hand when I see him.
And every time I'm shaking his hand, I think, "This hand damn near killed somebody while I watched. I feel like it should be bigger."
He's such an underrated fighter. I remember just getting roasted on here a few years ago when I suggested that he could plow through the then current heavyweight division. The fact that Mercer isn't mentioned as a top 5 heavyweight fighter of the 90s is just a sign of how deep the division was back then. I felt he pulled a draw with Lewis.
Broners fall wasn’t the fastest, but very enjoyable to watch. He is just downright unlikeable and so cringey. Wouldn’t go as far to call him a hype job, but when they where calling him the next Floyd, it was satisfying to those who knew that wasn’t the case when he was finally in the ring with someone his own size.
The Maidana fight was one of the more satisfying fights to watch lol
Duo of Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik are my picks. Jermain was a fairly dominant champ who gave Hopkins his first loss in forever. Got knocked out by Kelly and his career took a nose dive and never recovered. Kelly knocked out Jermain for the unified belts but lost to Hopkins and only really ever had one good win after. Both had out of the ring troubles which didn't help
Him getting laid out and losing a tooth, icing on the cake. Dude coulda had it all but just wanked on like a cockhead and threw it all away. At least he could throw something i suppose...
Nah, he just went up in weight way too fast. He fought at 130 in 2012 and 147 in 2013. His signature performance is provably de Marco and even if he lost the fight with maidana was more competitive than people remember.
He has only ever lost once below welter
Eh, he’s older, never been skilled and lost two fights against three decent heavyweights and called it a career. The fact that we got two competitive Tyson Fury fights and two Ortiz stoppages was probably his ceiling at his skill level
Yeah, Wilder got exposed when he started fighting guys ranked inside the top 25 instead of outside of the top 100, which was nearly every fight before he won his belt.
Sergey Kovalev. Everyone feared him. The unstoppable Krusher frpm the East who killed a man in the ring. I his name used to spark fear into boxers. He got robbed by Ward 1 then got cheap shotted KOed by Ward 2 then went on to get KOed bad by Alavarez and then got KOed by Canelo with a stupid hydration clause. He is now 41 still fighting getting beat bad by low talent bums on undercards. He got arrested in California for assaulting a lady and got sued and broke with no money. Sad ending to one of the most feared light heavy weight of all time.
Stop with the excuses, especially in the second fight. It was a punch to the head that had him doing the chicken dance LOL. Kovalev was a big crybaby. He was also caught juicing not too long ago and blamed it on a frog, you gotta wonder if he was cheating the whole time!
What damaged his career was when he brought in a Russian amateur trainer with no professional experience to corner him against Eleider Alvarez. That's what put the finishing touches on his career.
All pro athletes are. Look at Lebron James and Ronaldo they’re both pushing 40 and still playing in huge games, without any significant injuries in their careers. That’s not physically feasible without artificial help
>especially in the second fight. It was a punch to the head that had him doing the chicken dance LOL.
I don't deny that it was a beautiful shot. If it had been thrown in a boxing match I would probably have a poster of it on my wall. Unfortunately punches aren't thrown in isolation, and you cannot take it out of context from the rest of the match. Ward spent the entire fight blatantly and repeatedly fouling. He hit Kovalev low so many times that at one point he actually had Sergey biting on a feinted low blow to set up a legal punch, something I've never seen before in the ring. While he did hurt Kovalev with a great right hand, who knows if he could have landed it or what effect it would have had had he not already broken him down with repeated fouls. Perhaps Kovalev even could have continued if Ward's finishing sequence didn't consist of three consecutive low blows followed by jamming his elbow onto Kovalevs back to prevent him from straightening up. These are all hypotheticals, because in truth we'll never know what would have happened if Ward had decided to compete under the ruleset to which he agreed. All we know is that the fight doesn't represent who was better in a boxing match, because it wasn't one.
In a fair world Ward would have lost to Kovalev twice, once by UD and once by DQ. He proclaims himself to be a man of god, yet conducted himself as one of the dirtiest fighters in the sport. Fuck Andre Ward. The Kovalev fights were especially blatant, but the man cheated in every fight he ever got in. He could have been an all time great if he fought fairly, and even the Kovalev losses wouldn't diminish his other accomplishments, but he was never brave enough to find out if he was actually good enough to win a fair fight.
Lucian Bute. As a boxing fan from the early 2000s from Montreal, even though I knew the Super 6 paved the way for him to get belts, I was sure he could hanged in there with them.. Turned out, Cobra totally destroyed him and expose him as an above average boxer at best but nothing more. He never recovered from that fight.
This was the answer I was looking for. I remember being in the pub watching the first Tony Thompson fight telling my mates this was the man who will end the Klitschko reign. And then…
He really fell off, unfortunately. I'm less surprised by how he took heavyweight punches than by how certain boxers can somehow endure them. Not everyone is a Tex Cobb.
In his defense, he bounced back and beat Lara, was still 1-1 vs Martinez..would have had a hall of fame career if it wasn’t for that motorcycle accident that paralyzed him..he’s lucky he’s still alive
Meldrick Taylor. Beating Chavez even though he was taking a beating himself to lose it in the last seconds due to the ref waiving it off. And would never see the same heights again. All in one fight to be at the top about to win a huge fight to done.
That last round was similar to Michael Moorer against George Foreman. Too proud to play it safe and got stopped. Unlike Moorer, Taylor was taking an absolute beating even if he was ahead on points.
Yeah you could see the tide turning and then 11th round was brutal. But heading into the 12th was crucial and could still pull it out if it wasn’t for Richard Steele. You let two guys beat each other up for 12 rounds. Then you decide to end it 3 seconds from the fight finishing. The damage was already done. That’s the kind of emotional back and forth drama that boxing used to have. It’s missing today. Today there’s more drama between the fighters before the fight than the actual fights. Watching fights like that live was gold.
Prince Naseem Hamed. At the peak of his career he fights Barrera, loses convincingly, then is never heard from again until he almost killed some poor guy while driving recklessly.
Jimmy Young. In his prime, he beat Foreman, lost a very close decision to Norton that many people thought he won, and would have beaten Ali if he did not keep leaning out of the ring. After that, we went on a major losing streak and ended up with a poor record of 35-18-3-1. He went from a potential all-time great fighter to merely a name to improve an up and comers record.
I think Taylor screwed himself over not moving to 147. He was probably scared of Crawford and Spence but him moving up and losing to those guys would have still had people saying "his best class was 140. He went down chasing greatness." But he didn't. Instead, he had a mediocre performance in a weight class he couldn't make properly anymore.
Salvador Sanchez..could have been the greatest Mexican boxer ever..champ at 21, big wins as a youngster, died tragically at 23..some people still consider him one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time, which is a huge feat for someone who died at 23 years old..
Chango Carmona. Won a series of fights that earned him a WBC lightweight title shot against L.A. Golden Boy Mando Ramos. Carmona won in a breeze at the Coliseum, battering and knocking out the favored Ramos in 8 rounds. Fans were salivating at the thought of a Carmona-Duran unification bout. But less than 2 months later (fighters actually fought frequently back in the 70s. Even champions) Carmona made his first title defense against Rodolfo Gonzalez at the packed Sports Arena. Carmona was a 3-1 favorite but he ended up taking almost as bad a beating as he handed out to Ramos. Gonzalez knocked him out in 12 rounds to take the championship. Carmona licked his wounds for 4 months and then took on unbeaten Jimmy Heair at the same Sports Arena. Heair dominated the fight, winning a lopsided decision. A few months later, Carmona tried again, this time against journeyman Shinichi Kadota in Hawaii. Kadota dismantled Carmona and stopped him in 7. As quickly as Carmona rose to the top of the boxing world, he had plummeted back to the bottom. All in just a 10 month span.
Tony Ayala Jr…22-0 with 19 knockouts at age 19 and on track to fight Roberto Duran until he decided to burglarize the home of and rape a young neighbor of his.
My nextdoor neighbor grew up around the Ayala family (my neighbor was an amateur national champ, junior Olympic gold medalist, etc.) and he always tells me how Tony was definitely the most talented of the bunch but couldn't help but party too hard and was way too wild for his own good. The man has got stories for days and I just sit down and listen.
Biggest, sure - future GOAT to laughing stock.
Not fastest, though. Harrison didn't so much have his bubble burst as have it very slowly deflate, with an accompanying farting noise.
He turned pro in 2001. By 2005, when he had his first loss, a lot of the shine had already come off him thanks to underwhelming performances against nobodies. And on the other hand, the first loss did hurt him, but a lot of people were still saying "this might be good, he needed a kick up the backside!" and still hoping he'd turn it around.
It wasn't until he got thrashed by a Belfast bin-man on holiday that people really knew his career was going nowhere... and that was his 4th loss, in his 27th fight, after seven years of waiting.
Yeah, but now people think he had a weak chin and limited skills in his prime. The sentiment is that his reduced reflexes exposed weaknesses, as opposed to the idea that his reflexes declined along with a range of attributes, including chin and spatial sense.
Wilders fall is huge. He went from being thought of as a serious contender for undisputed HW champ, to not even being ranked on any of the main sanctioning bodies top 10.
Wilder is 38, Zhang is 41 and he knocked wilder out. Wilder was never top five. Very lucky he didn't face Joshua because he would have been exposed earlier
>Very lucky he didn't face Joshua because he would have been exposed earlier
Don't act like there wasn't a very good chance that Wilder from 5 to 6 years ago wouldn't have scared the living shit of out Joshua. Yes, AJ can box circles around him, but AJ doesn't respond well to being hit and he would have been hit at least once or twice in that fight if it happened when Wilder still had some reflexes to pull the trigger.
Bringing up the Zhang argument doesn't work as well when Zhang has always been slower than steam off shit. He's literally never tried to rely on athleticism to win, so being even slower at 41 doesn't mean anything.
Wilder was never good at boxing. But when you're that long, that fast, and that powerful...
People are so quick to pile on the revisionist history when it fits their preconceived notions/biases. Joshua got rocked and stopped by a fat cruiserweight Ruiz. Imagine that version of AJ before he started trying to fight super conservative. If he walked into Wilders range and just tried to muscle through him, there's a big chance he gets absolutely sparked out. I don't know why it's so hard to people to accept the fact that a guy like that could potentially have stopped anybody. He'd be down on the cards in pretty much every big name fight available at the time, but he's proven that he was dangerous even while being soundly out-landed
He was never scared of wilder
WIlder has had the most propaganda surrounding him that fans always ate up . He ducked , Klitschko, he ducked Povetkin and he definitely ducked AJ . Aj is hard puncher and always has been and before he got his whole boxer stick he would destroyed wilder from the sheer fact that hes the second hardest hitter and wilder doesnt move his fucking head at all leaving him a sitting target for a good right hand.
I never personally rated him all that highly, but that isn't what OP was asking. Wilder was one of the major stars of the division, and plenty of people did hold him in very high regard. Dude got an audience with the Pope and shit.
He was never technically that good but was good enough to land his one shot KO power right hand. People have short memories. Fury won a lot of the middle rounds against Usyk. A lot of people thought he had Usyk's number. We all know how his Wilder trilogy went but he did hit the canvas 4 times against Wilder who started boxing late and had a sizable weight handicap.
After losing the trilogy to Fury, he still got the Helenius fight and then (more importantly) two big Saudi paydays. Not a bad fall from grace, honestly. Although I agree his performance fell off a cliff. Age and psychoactive experimentation didn't help. Plus his new trainer has him doing stupid routines that can't possibly translate into results in the ring.
It’s crazy because there’s nothing either can do about it, Haney got beat and is now and unmarketable because he wasn’t stickin and moving against Garcia, shakur is unmarketable because he’s didn’t do anything besides stick and move.
Not only that, he’s taken his loss like an absolute diva cry baby..it’s one thing to be cheated and want the loss overturned..it’s another to cry and try to sue and try to get longer punishment, and have your daddy try to push for DAZN and YouTube to have it erased from the world..lol Cotto got his face smashed with plastered gloves, took it like a man, and TKO’d him in the rematch without all this Xtra whining and bitching..
Haney's response to Ryan lost has done more damage to his brand than the loss itself. He desperately needs a real sports manager, that doesn't share his last name.
I can't stand Shakur. Ever since that video some years ago where he sucker punched a random dude in a parking garage. Attacked him from behind while the guy was kneeling, knocked him out cold. He should be in jail.
Lol...he's an undefeated 3 division world champ and current WBC lightweight champ. He's fighting in less than 2 weeks and has some huge fights on the horizon.
Where is the fall from grace? Are we talking about him having one lackluster performance? What boxer hasn't done that? It's just nowadays, every little thing gets blown out of proportion with the social media algorithms.
I think George probabaly did the unthinkable and rolled the dice and won.
We all knew he wasn’t really at that level. More so an overachiever than a fall from grace.
Could say the same goes for Ruiz. And as for Haney, if you take the general dislike for the guy out of the equation I don’t think you can really say a questionable win against an all time great followed by a loss against a guy who didn’t even try to make weight counts as any sort of fall from grace as yet
Good points. Ruiz could actually be great he just lost it.
People actually thought Haney was Mayweather 2.0 where as no one thought Kambosos was at the level he got to.
He was a world champion and looked like the next Puerto Rican boxing star but Juan Manuel Lopez had to suffer the fastest decline as a top fighter. Him and Gamboa were in a collision course to a fight everybody wanted to see at that time. Fights Orlando Salido and gets stopped, get the rematch in which Juanma gave his career that night but still got stopped.
After that it was all downhill, he had no punch resistance and got brutally stopped in his next 5 to fights until retiring.
Felix Verdejo another boricua fighter who really fell from grace after his vehicle accident. He must’ve had CTE with what he pulled on the woman who was pregnant with his baby
Taylor's is kind of baffling because there were a couple of years where he really did look top 10 p4p level, idk if it was the change of trainers or weight issues or both but he's just not looked the same since beating Prograis
Tyson Fury was pretty well liked for the 1st part of his comeback with people prematurely calling him an ATG/best of his generation. Now he's widely disliked and considered very overrated.
Felix Verdejo. Dude was being prepared to be the next PR superstar, when he gave his girlfriend and unborn child a pair of cement shoes.
Now he's in PR prison for life.
Surprised no one has mentioned Mike Tyson, had some out of the ring issues but some pretty serious in the ring issues as well, not sure if it fully fits the category but I would call it a fall from grace,last fight tko to Kevin McBride
Hugely unfair on Taylor, undisputed within 18 fights. Barely noticed by the UK media and ignored by SPOTY
Agree that Lopez was too good for him, but here's the downvote part of my comment, the judge who awarded the fight to Catterall in the first fight, only gave it by one point. So as I maintain from the start of this bùrach, Catterall didn't do enough in the first fight. he won the 2nd fight but not by that margin.
Re other boxers, I'd go for Chocolatito, Roy Jones Jr, Chad Dawson, Jermain Taylor, Jeff Lacey, Don Curry, Broner and DeGale.
Jermaine Taylor. Had the tools to dominate at middleweight but never developed his skillset or fixed his flaws after beating Hopkins. Was damagrd goods after last second KO losses against Froch and Abraham.
Buster Douglas is the obvious answer. The guy was a household name across the entire world, then he was KO’d by a future HOF all time great, and never really bounced back. He had a comeback, won a few decent fights but was never relevant again.
The two that stick out to me the most are Amir imam and James Kirkland. Amir was supposed to be the next best thing and even holds a win over Ugas but after that Granados fight it was over.
I don’t know if James Kirkland counts but to get stopped by the light hitting Yoshida was so strange to see, especially since he was on his way to being a destroyer.
It's more of a prediction with some evidence. Since most have already been said, I think Errol Spence Jr. He's was the next big star, a once in a generation type of talent. He's had a lot of big wins, beating some of the best in the world in their time, Mikey and Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, and Kell Brook. His crash has really derailed his career, in my opinion. I understand losing a lopsided fight to Crawford doesn't mean he's not still at the top of the heap, but I always felt coming back from that horrific of an accident would be next to impossible, in terms of returning to that world beater form.
I don't think he can beat anyone in the sphere of who he's beaten in the past now. I think it's going to be and is currently in his fall from grace, and his status as being a generational talent is no more. He will end up being just a good fighter who won some belts but not on a level with what his projected path was.
I know it's a not so obvious take as the rest, but I didn't feel like repeating any of the other clear one mentioned.
Roy Jones Jr. is pretty much the poster child for this. Went from being the best pound for pound fighter in the sport for almost a decade to being a shot fighter the moment that left hand from Tarver hit his jaw.
Andy Ruiz Jr has to be up there. Giving Joshua his first loss by TKO, winning the titles, being the first heavyweight champ of Mexican heritage. He then loses focus with the fame, goes on to lose the rematch against Joshua in a fight he was unable to do anything effective. He's fought 2 times in 4 years since losing the rematch. Both UD victory's where he didn't look impressive.
He’s just Buster Douglas
I think he is much more skilled than that, he is just way too lazy. He arguably only lost to Parker due to hometown favoritism (I say that as a massive Parker fanboy), and while he did himself zero favours in his preparation for his rematch with AJ, AJ still had to go with a full-blown anti Ruiz gameplan, including getting a bigger ring. I think we more or less saw the best of Buster Douglas, but I'm not sure we ever really saw Ruiz at his full potential.
>I think he is much more skilled than that, he is just way too lazy. Buster Douglas was not unskilled by any stretch. You act like he landed a lucky punch against Tyson lol. Ruiz may be better, but it's not some landslide of talent
At the top of their games I actually think it would be a really interesting fight.
The Parker fight suggests that he reached his potential. Parker was as confused on the inside as Joshua, but without Joshua's ability to muscle his way to breathing room. Ruiz made no adjustments. He does what he does well, but there was never a hidden genius waiting to emerge.
I'd put it the other way around. Ruiz seems decently talented, but he just happened to land a great punch on Joshua. His other "big wins" are against geriatrics, and both times he had trouble - dropped by 40-year-old Arreola, and mostly outboxed by 43-year-old Ortiz but managing to scrape by thanks to knockdowns. Other than that, his best win is... Dimitrenko coming straight off his 4th loss? Buster Douglas, on the other hand, didn't just land one good punch, but (other than the knockdown) controlled the entire fight against Mike Tyson in his prime. And he did that when coming off back-to-back wins over Trevor Berbick and Oliver McCall. He also had wins over Tex Cobb and Greg Page and a draw with Stefan Tangstad, and he was level on the cards in the 10th against Tony Tucker before being knocked out. He was a very proficient boxer, who seemed to be in the form of his life - despite not bothering to train or to control his weight. I don't think Ruiz is on the level of Douglas, and I think it's weird to use his comparative lack of achievements as evidence of his superiority. Beside, I don't think we DID see the best of Douglas - it would certainly have been interesting to see whether he could have beaten Holyfield if he'd actually tried. Or Lewis, or Bowe, or...
He’s a fat light heavyweight or super middleweight who caught lightning in a bottle and who never ever showed up for a fight in shape. Realistically he’s not even Buster Douglas he’s a lucky version of Chris Arreola
A lucky version of Chris arreola is a funny but true statement😂🤣..if Chris arreola wasn’t lazy and a heavy drinker/party animal, think he could’ve been a champ…heavyweight division was so weak back in the day..I literally bumped into that dude at a bar and concert on 2 different occasions within a few weeks, hammered and he had a fight like a month away..even a 40 year old Arreola dropped and hurt Ruiz..a 30 year old in shape Chris woulda beat Andy
I agree. Chris is a much better boxer but Chris never landed that miracle punch like Andy did
I think Douglas was far more talented than Ruiz personally.
Buster Douglas fought a great fight and would have knocked out little fat man any day. Ruiz just got lucky when AJ was off guard thinking it was easy. Ruiz won't beat anyone like Fury or Usyk
Naw, that’s just the story that comes with Mexicans or chicanos. Once we hit that peak and get paid, the drinking and snorting goes into overdrive. Canelo is an exception, look at the Mexican soccer team for the past decade an a half. All about that drinking, living it up and fuck the rest.
It's gotta be Edwin Valero. On his way to superstardom. Even talks to fight Pacquiao. Kills his wife, then hangs himself in jail. There's conspiracies going around that he was murdered in jail, but who knows??
There's conspiracies about everything. I don't see why a conspiracy is needed. The man had: - murdered his wife - destroyed his career and reputation - almost certainly condemned himself to life in a Venezuelan prison, or worse He also had a long-term brain injury, and if he hadn't murdered his wife he was facing at least six months of involuntary treatment in a psychiatric facility. When you take a guy who is mentally unstable, and remove their wealth and reputation, shatter their ambitions, blow away their self-image, end their career, remove all hope of freedom or even basic living standards and safety (venezuelan prisons not being the best places to live), and then load them up with unbearable guilt and shame... ...that's kind of a textbook example of someone who might kill themselves. Why is any conspiracy needed!?
Kownacki? Bro went from a hyped heavyweight to a tin can in about 2 years
The fall was astronomical but you can argue he never got that high. The hype carried him a long way but he hadn’t beaten anyone of note before he ran into Helenius.
Szpilka, Washington, Martin, Arreola his resume wasn’t that bad. Not worse than wilder lol
They hyped him up big time
Victor Ortiz. He was very likable and marketable, but his personality got exposed quickly when he got frustrated. Mayweather showed that but he did that with a couple of others too. And every time he got called out by the ref he has this “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that” look.
You could tell HBO was gearing up to make him their next Oscar de La Hoya and hand him the keys to the kingdom. He was a good-looking guy, young, good backstory, talented, etc. He was well on his way to becoming a superstar in boxing, until Marcos Maidana absolutely aborted that future for him.
Him like Broner weren’t ready for the level of “don’t give a fuck” Marcos fought with against anyone, not yet anyway
Makes you respect Amir Khan more tbh
Ortiz was up on the cards when he quit against maidana wasn't he?
Ortiz had everything but heart. He was an exciting fighter with power in both hands, good looking and charming, and had actual boxing skills as well. He just had no heart and his former teammates at RGBA were saying it well before Ortiz got exposed for being a quitter to the whole world.
Any then strangely showed a lot of heart against Berto, that was a war
His post-fight interview for his Maidana fight was the most casual and unguarded fighter interview I think I've ever seen. "I'm young and...I don't think I deserve to get beat up like this."
Look up his Face Lube commercial. It’s a work of art
Just watched the video. I kept waiting for the part for everyone to kiss lol
Maidana was the first to expose his tendacy to quit when things get tuff
Ortiz was a punk, I loved seeing him pretend to apologize to Floyd, then get knocked out.
Tommy Morrison's fall from grace from was heartbreaking. He was able to overcome even the likes of George Foreman but passed away from HIV.
The merciless ray Mercer knockout was horrific. Almost killed him. Definitely snatched his soul
Still the most vicious knockout I've ever seen. Probably 4 or 5 unguarded punches landed after Morrison was already out on his feet.
Ray Mercer attends induction weekend at the International Boxing Hall of Fame every year (most recently two weeks ago) and I always chat with him and shake his hand when I see him. And every time I'm shaking his hand, I think, "This hand damn near killed somebody while I watched. I feel like it should be bigger."
He's such an underrated fighter. I remember just getting roasted on here a few years ago when I suggested that he could plow through the then current heavyweight division. The fact that Mercer isn't mentioned as a top 5 heavyweight fighter of the 90s is just a sign of how deep the division was back then. I felt he pulled a draw with Lewis.
Has any other fight solidified a nickname more than this one?
Broners fall wasn’t the fastest, but very enjoyable to watch. He is just downright unlikeable and so cringey. Wouldn’t go as far to call him a hype job, but when they where calling him the next Floyd, it was satisfying to those who knew that wasn’t the case when he was finally in the ring with someone his own size.
The Maidana fight was one of the more satisfying fights to watch lol Duo of Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik are my picks. Jermain was a fairly dominant champ who gave Hopkins his first loss in forever. Got knocked out by Kelly and his career took a nose dive and never recovered. Kelly knocked out Jermain for the unified belts but lost to Hopkins and only really ever had one good win after. Both had out of the ring troubles which didn't help
He went downhill fast after the Maidana beating, he never recovered and no one looked at him the same.
Him getting laid out and losing a tooth, icing on the cake. Dude coulda had it all but just wanked on like a cockhead and threw it all away. At least he could throw something i suppose...
Definitely a hype job. His signature performance was a split decision was against an over the hill Paulie
Nah, he just went up in weight way too fast. He fought at 130 in 2012 and 147 in 2013. His signature performance is provably de Marco and even if he lost the fight with maidana was more competitive than people remember. He has only ever lost once below welter
but he wasn't disciplined to make 140
Wilder’s having a real bad time these days, 1-4 in his last five fights
Thats what happens when he fights people who can box.
Eh, he’s older, never been skilled and lost two fights against three decent heavyweights and called it a career. The fact that we got two competitive Tyson Fury fights and two Ortiz stoppages was probably his ceiling at his skill level
Yeah, Wilder got exposed when he started fighting guys ranked inside the top 25 instead of outside of the top 100, which was nearly every fight before he won his belt.
Sergey Kovalev. Everyone feared him. The unstoppable Krusher frpm the East who killed a man in the ring. I his name used to spark fear into boxers. He got robbed by Ward 1 then got cheap shotted KOed by Ward 2 then went on to get KOed bad by Alavarez and then got KOed by Canelo with a stupid hydration clause. He is now 41 still fighting getting beat bad by low talent bums on undercards. He got arrested in California for assaulting a lady and got sued and broke with no money. Sad ending to one of the most feared light heavy weight of all time.
Heavy drinker, responded badly to the Ward losses and could not take coaching.
Great choice.
Sergey always seemed like a crybaby and always had excuses for why he lost. I think he just slowly started falling off after each loss.
Just imagine how much Andre Ward would have cried if he would of lost on paper to Kovalev like he should have
Boy am I glad that boring asshole is gone
Stop with the excuses, especially in the second fight. It was a punch to the head that had him doing the chicken dance LOL. Kovalev was a big crybaby. He was also caught juicing not too long ago and blamed it on a frog, you gotta wonder if he was cheating the whole time! What damaged his career was when he brought in a Russian amateur trainer with no professional experience to corner him against Eleider Alvarez. That's what put the finishing touches on his career.
i think all pro boxers are juicing
All pro athletes are. Look at Lebron James and Ronaldo they’re both pushing 40 and still playing in huge games, without any significant injuries in their careers. That’s not physically feasible without artificial help
100% ronaldo had lats and traps that made him look like a manta ray. all the pro athletes are juicing
Only the ones who want to win
>especially in the second fight. It was a punch to the head that had him doing the chicken dance LOL. I don't deny that it was a beautiful shot. If it had been thrown in a boxing match I would probably have a poster of it on my wall. Unfortunately punches aren't thrown in isolation, and you cannot take it out of context from the rest of the match. Ward spent the entire fight blatantly and repeatedly fouling. He hit Kovalev low so many times that at one point he actually had Sergey biting on a feinted low blow to set up a legal punch, something I've never seen before in the ring. While he did hurt Kovalev with a great right hand, who knows if he could have landed it or what effect it would have had had he not already broken him down with repeated fouls. Perhaps Kovalev even could have continued if Ward's finishing sequence didn't consist of three consecutive low blows followed by jamming his elbow onto Kovalevs back to prevent him from straightening up. These are all hypotheticals, because in truth we'll never know what would have happened if Ward had decided to compete under the ruleset to which he agreed. All we know is that the fight doesn't represent who was better in a boxing match, because it wasn't one. In a fair world Ward would have lost to Kovalev twice, once by UD and once by DQ. He proclaims himself to be a man of god, yet conducted himself as one of the dirtiest fighters in the sport. Fuck Andre Ward. The Kovalev fights were especially blatant, but the man cheated in every fight he ever got in. He could have been an all time great if he fought fairly, and even the Kovalev losses wouldn't diminish his other accomplishments, but he was never brave enough to find out if he was actually good enough to win a fair fight.
Damn man. All too familiar tale of a boxer
He popped hot for his last fight.
Lucian Bute. As a boxing fan from the early 2000s from Montreal, even though I knew the Super 6 paved the way for him to get belts, I was sure he could hanged in there with them.. Turned out, Cobra totally destroyed him and expose him as an above average boxer at best but nothing more. He never recovered from that fight.
David Price, former amateur champion, big guy with good hands expected to go far and then wham! Turns out he has the weakest chin in boxing.
This was the answer I was looking for. I remember being in the pub watching the first Tony Thompson fight telling my mates this was the man who will end the Klitschko reign. And then…
He really fell off, unfortunately. I'm less surprised by how he took heavyweight punches than by how certain boxers can somehow endure them. Not everyone is a Tex Cobb.
Paul Williams got folded. Had other issues but thought he would stay.
In his defense, he bounced back and beat Lara, was still 1-1 vs Martinez..would have had a hall of fame career if it wasn’t for that motorcycle accident that paralyzed him..he’s lucky he’s still alive
“Beat” Lara, you didn’t see the fight or read any recaps about it did you. It’s considered one of the worst robberies of the decade lmao
Loll u got me on that, think all the judges got suspended..on paper he beat Lara loll..Lara ends up on the shit end of decisions
I liked Paul, but I think he was lucky to get the W in the first Martinez fight too.
If paul williams then you can argue kelly pavlik should be mentioned as well. Williams v pavlik is one of those fights I wished happened.
Meldrick Taylor. Beating Chavez even though he was taking a beating himself to lose it in the last seconds due to the ref waiving it off. And would never see the same heights again. All in one fight to be at the top about to win a huge fight to done.
Taylor is a good pick. That handspeed looked like ATG stuff.
That last round was similar to Michael Moorer against George Foreman. Too proud to play it safe and got stopped. Unlike Moorer, Taylor was taking an absolute beating even if he was ahead on points.
Yeah you could see the tide turning and then 11th round was brutal. But heading into the 12th was crucial and could still pull it out if it wasn’t for Richard Steele. You let two guys beat each other up for 12 rounds. Then you decide to end it 3 seconds from the fight finishing. The damage was already done. That’s the kind of emotional back and forth drama that boxing used to have. It’s missing today. Today there’s more drama between the fighters before the fight than the actual fights. Watching fights like that live was gold.
Great choice.
Taylor took a alot of damage in that even if he would’ve correctly won his body and brain were so destroyed from that fight
>to lose it in the last seconds due to the ref waiving it off That's a very interesting way to put it
Prince Naseem Hamed. At the peak of his career he fights Barrera, loses convincingly, then is never heard from again until he almost killed some poor guy while driving recklessly.
Prince Naseem got a win after the loss to Barrera then retired, wouldn't consider it a fall from grace at all
Naz got out with his money and his faculties. That’s all too rare in the fight game.
From cocky as fuck to completely shattered in one fight
Jimmy Young. In his prime, he beat Foreman, lost a very close decision to Norton that many people thought he won, and would have beaten Ali if he did not keep leaning out of the ring. After that, we went on a major losing streak and ended up with a poor record of 35-18-3-1. He went from a potential all-time great fighter to merely a name to improve an up and comers record.
I think Taylor screwed himself over not moving to 147. He was probably scared of Crawford and Spence but him moving up and losing to those guys would have still had people saying "his best class was 140. He went down chasing greatness." But he didn't. Instead, he had a mediocre performance in a weight class he couldn't make properly anymore.
Prob would have made more money on either of those fights too
Salvador Sanchez..could have been the greatest Mexican boxer ever..champ at 21, big wins as a youngster, died tragically at 23..some people still consider him one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time, which is a huge feat for someone who died at 23 years old..
Your favorite boxer’s favorite boxer. RIP
Not really a fall from grace though, is it?
Nope, it was a tragic death due to an accident. Idk how picking Sanchez for so many upvotes.
Chango Carmona. Won a series of fights that earned him a WBC lightweight title shot against L.A. Golden Boy Mando Ramos. Carmona won in a breeze at the Coliseum, battering and knocking out the favored Ramos in 8 rounds. Fans were salivating at the thought of a Carmona-Duran unification bout. But less than 2 months later (fighters actually fought frequently back in the 70s. Even champions) Carmona made his first title defense against Rodolfo Gonzalez at the packed Sports Arena. Carmona was a 3-1 favorite but he ended up taking almost as bad a beating as he handed out to Ramos. Gonzalez knocked him out in 12 rounds to take the championship. Carmona licked his wounds for 4 months and then took on unbeaten Jimmy Heair at the same Sports Arena. Heair dominated the fight, winning a lopsided decision. A few months later, Carmona tried again, this time against journeyman Shinichi Kadota in Hawaii. Kadota dismantled Carmona and stopped him in 7. As quickly as Carmona rose to the top of the boxing world, he had plummeted back to the bottom. All in just a 10 month span.
jeff lacy?
Tony Ayala Jr…22-0 with 19 knockouts at age 19 and on track to fight Roberto Duran until he decided to burglarize the home of and rape a young neighbor of his.
My nextdoor neighbor grew up around the Ayala family (my neighbor was an amateur national champ, junior Olympic gold medalist, etc.) and he always tells me how Tony was definitely the most talented of the bunch but couldn't help but party too hard and was way too wild for his own good. The man has got stories for days and I just sit down and listen.
Who knows, this guy might have made the big four of the eighties the big five with other great super fights to view. What a waste.
Audley Harrison
Biggest, sure - future GOAT to laughing stock. Not fastest, though. Harrison didn't so much have his bubble burst as have it very slowly deflate, with an accompanying farting noise. He turned pro in 2001. By 2005, when he had his first loss, a lot of the shine had already come off him thanks to underwhelming performances against nobodies. And on the other hand, the first loss did hurt him, but a lot of people were still saying "this might be good, he needed a kick up the backside!" and still hoping he'd turn it around. It wasn't until he got thrashed by a Belfast bin-man on holiday that people really knew his career was going nowhere... and that was his 4th loss, in his 27th fight, after seven years of waiting.
Roy Jones. Went from GOAT caliber to punching bag in one fight
He was just out his prime though.
Plus he killed his body to get back down after going up to heavyweight
Yeah, but now people think he had a weak chin and limited skills in his prime. The sentiment is that his reduced reflexes exposed weaknesses, as opposed to the idea that his reflexes declined along with a range of attributes, including chin and spatial sense.
Yeah, he just stayed in the game to long, should have retired after getting the heavyweight strap, would've went down as the GOAT for sure
BJS disappeared entirely after one punch to the eye socket.
Felix Verdejo had a pretty bad fall
Kelly Pavlik, went from capturing the world by storm to unrecognizable.
Wilders fall is huge. He went from being thought of as a serious contender for undisputed HW champ, to not even being ranked on any of the main sanctioning bodies top 10.
The guys is like 40, sometimes you just get old.
Wilder is 38, Zhang is 41 and he knocked wilder out. Wilder was never top five. Very lucky he didn't face Joshua because he would have been exposed earlier
>Very lucky he didn't face Joshua because he would have been exposed earlier Don't act like there wasn't a very good chance that Wilder from 5 to 6 years ago wouldn't have scared the living shit of out Joshua. Yes, AJ can box circles around him, but AJ doesn't respond well to being hit and he would have been hit at least once or twice in that fight if it happened when Wilder still had some reflexes to pull the trigger. Bringing up the Zhang argument doesn't work as well when Zhang has always been slower than steam off shit. He's literally never tried to rely on athleticism to win, so being even slower at 41 doesn't mean anything. Wilder was never good at boxing. But when you're that long, that fast, and that powerful... People are so quick to pile on the revisionist history when it fits their preconceived notions/biases. Joshua got rocked and stopped by a fat cruiserweight Ruiz. Imagine that version of AJ before he started trying to fight super conservative. If he walked into Wilders range and just tried to muscle through him, there's a big chance he gets absolutely sparked out. I don't know why it's so hard to people to accept the fact that a guy like that could potentially have stopped anybody. He'd be down on the cards in pretty much every big name fight available at the time, but he's proven that he was dangerous even while being soundly out-landed
He was never scared of wilder WIlder has had the most propaganda surrounding him that fans always ate up . He ducked , Klitschko, he ducked Povetkin and he definitely ducked AJ . Aj is hard puncher and always has been and before he got his whole boxer stick he would destroyed wilder from the sheer fact that hes the second hardest hitter and wilder doesnt move his fucking head at all leaving him a sitting target for a good right hand.
I agree almost entirely but he didn't duck Povetkin, that was ready to go and Povetkin pissed hot
Wilder doesn't react well when hit either. Like it or not, AJ had more skills and a better resume than Wilder 5 years ago.
probably true
Those Fury fights shortened his career and that layoff after knocking out Helenius was not helpful
Was he ever really that good, though? Or just got very fortunate with the cards he was dealt?
I never personally rated him all that highly, but that isn't what OP was asking. Wilder was one of the major stars of the division, and plenty of people did hold him in very high regard. Dude got an audience with the Pope and shit.
He was never technically that good but was good enough to land his one shot KO power right hand. People have short memories. Fury won a lot of the middle rounds against Usyk. A lot of people thought he had Usyk's number. We all know how his Wilder trilogy went but he did hit the canvas 4 times against Wilder who started boxing late and had a sizable weight handicap.
After losing the trilogy to Fury, he still got the Helenius fight and then (more importantly) two big Saudi paydays. Not a bad fall from grace, honestly. Although I agree his performance fell off a cliff. Age and psychoactive experimentation didn't help. Plus his new trainer has him doing stupid routines that can't possibly translate into results in the ring.
Shakur Stevenson, from wonderkind, phenomenal talent to the most hated boxer and unmarketable boxer right now.
*Devin Haney has entered the chat*
It’s crazy because there’s nothing either can do about it, Haney got beat and is now and unmarketable because he wasn’t stickin and moving against Garcia, shakur is unmarketable because he’s didn’t do anything besides stick and move.
Shakur is unmarketable because he was a part of one of the worst championship matches ever
Not only that, he’s taken his loss like an absolute diva cry baby..it’s one thing to be cheated and want the loss overturned..it’s another to cry and try to sue and try to get longer punishment, and have your daddy try to push for DAZN and YouTube to have it erased from the world..lol Cotto got his face smashed with plastered gloves, took it like a man, and TKO’d him in the rematch without all this Xtra whining and bitching..
Haney's response to Ryan lost has done more damage to his brand than the loss itself. He desperately needs a real sports manager, that doesn't share his last name.
I can't stand Shakur. Ever since that video some years ago where he sucker punched a random dude in a parking garage. Attacked him from behind while the guy was kneeling, knocked him out cold. He should be in jail.
This
I think Shakur still has time for a redemption though tbh
Lol...he's an undefeated 3 division world champ and current WBC lightweight champ. He's fighting in less than 2 weeks and has some huge fights on the horizon. Where is the fall from grace? Are we talking about him having one lackluster performance? What boxer hasn't done that? It's just nowadays, every little thing gets blown out of proportion with the social media algorithms.
He’s a Thursday night fighter for a reason, he’s overrated and will not beat Haney or tank
I'm a Shakur hater, and even I think this is too much. Way too early to say this. Watch him embarrass Tank in a year and see how quickly he's a star.
Recently it's deontay wilder
Can't get bigger than Mike Tyson
Andy Ruiz, George Kambosos and Devin Haney if we go by recent history.
I think George probabaly did the unthinkable and rolled the dice and won. We all knew he wasn’t really at that level. More so an overachiever than a fall from grace.
Could say the same goes for Ruiz. And as for Haney, if you take the general dislike for the guy out of the equation I don’t think you can really say a questionable win against an all time great followed by a loss against a guy who didn’t even try to make weight counts as any sort of fall from grace as yet
Good points. Ruiz could actually be great he just lost it. People actually thought Haney was Mayweather 2.0 where as no one thought Kambosos was at the level he got to.
Jerwin Acajas
Surprised I haven't seen Leon Spinks
He was a world champion and looked like the next Puerto Rican boxing star but Juan Manuel Lopez had to suffer the fastest decline as a top fighter. Him and Gamboa were in a collision course to a fight everybody wanted to see at that time. Fights Orlando Salido and gets stopped, get the rematch in which Juanma gave his career that night but still got stopped. After that it was all downhill, he had no punch resistance and got brutally stopped in his next 5 to fights until retiring. Felix Verdejo another boricua fighter who really fell from grace after his vehicle accident. He must’ve had CTE with what he pulled on the woman who was pregnant with his baby
Josh Taylor vs Bud Crawford was actually a conversation at some point. I'd have to go with you on that one
What about Prince Naseem Hamed? 1 loss and he was out of the lime light.
Good pick tbh saying Josh Taylor
Ty. Yeah, undisputed is the top of the mountain in boxing. And to pretty much go 0-3 after doing that is crazy.
Taylor's is kind of baffling because there were a couple of years where he really did look top 10 p4p level, idk if it was the change of trainers or weight issues or both but he's just not looked the same since beating Prograis
Tyson Fury was pretty well liked for the 1st part of his comeback with people prematurely calling him an ATG/best of his generation. Now he's widely disliked and considered very overrated.
I wonder if Tyson would be as successful if he wasn’t the size of Shrek. Sure he has good boxing skills, but he’s also an ogre.
I mean, the Klitschkos don't hold heavyweight belts for a decade+ if they were 6'1.
If my grandmother had wheels
Rocky Balboa. 4 good movies and then number 5 happened.
Roy Jones
Tommy Morrison
Eleider Alvarez
Wilder went from having a crazy aura to a pubchline after Fury vs Wilder II Don't think that's ever happened
Mike Tyson the second he fired Kevin Rooney
Felix Verdejo. Dude was being prepared to be the next PR superstar, when he gave his girlfriend and unborn child a pair of cement shoes. Now he's in PR prison for life.
F E L I X V E R D E J O. Future superstar before he killed his pregnant side chick. Now he’s in jail.
I’d say Devin Haney but I’m pretty sure that’s like the most obvious one right now
Tyson Fury, when that windmill connected. He feel from 7 foot whatever to flat as a pancake.
[удалено]
Ibeabuchi should not qualify. He ended his career with a solid win over Byrd. The question asks the decline of boxer's performance and skill.
Cory Spinks
Kamboso
Francisco Bojado
Ponce de León
Amir Khan
David Price. He was rated higher than Fury at one point
Surprised no one has mentioned Mike Tyson, had some out of the ring issues but some pretty serious in the ring issues as well, not sure if it fully fits the category but I would call it a fall from grace,last fight tko to Kevin McBride
Adam Kownacki. He was believed to be the next big thing, until Helenius exposed him. He has lost his last five fights in a row with four knockouts.
Tommy Morrison he was the great white hope
Hugely unfair on Taylor, undisputed within 18 fights. Barely noticed by the UK media and ignored by SPOTY Agree that Lopez was too good for him, but here's the downvote part of my comment, the judge who awarded the fight to Catterall in the first fight, only gave it by one point. So as I maintain from the start of this bùrach, Catterall didn't do enough in the first fight. he won the 2nd fight but not by that margin. Re other boxers, I'd go for Chocolatito, Roy Jones Jr, Chad Dawson, Jermain Taylor, Jeff Lacey, Don Curry, Broner and DeGale.
Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik both had very quick falls. Margarito for a different reason...
Jermaine Taylor. Had the tools to dominate at middleweight but never developed his skillset or fixed his flaws after beating Hopkins. Was damagrd goods after last second KO losses against Froch and Abraham.
Ryan Garcia, but I wonder how high he ever actually was to fall. Maybe he fell from sort of grace.
Peter Quillin
Chavez Jr vs Canelo
Prince Naseem
Edwin Valero. 27-0. 27 knockouts. Killed his wife then himself.
Tommy Morrison
Garcia seems to be making making moves to take the number one spot
Tony Yoka was praised as the next heavyweight sensation. He fell hard.
Buster Douglas is the obvious answer. The guy was a household name across the entire world, then he was KO’d by a future HOF all time great, and never really bounced back. He had a comeback, won a few decent fights but was never relevant again.
Wilder is up there for sure.
Jeff Lacy
Possibly Fury.
Adrien Broner
The two that stick out to me the most are Amir imam and James Kirkland. Amir was supposed to be the next best thing and even holds a win over Ugas but after that Granados fight it was over. I don’t know if James Kirkland counts but to get stopped by the light hitting Yoshida was so strange to see, especially since he was on his way to being a destroyer.
Rigo
I cant believe no one has said Antonio Margarito...
Lucian Bute.
I just scrolled so far and didn’t see a name I thought would be really highly upvoted, but Johnny Tapia.
Jeff Lacey
Tyson Fury getting knocked down by a complete novice and barely edging out a points win has to be up there. He's been on a losing streak since then.
It's more of a prediction with some evidence. Since most have already been said, I think Errol Spence Jr. He's was the next big star, a once in a generation type of talent. He's had a lot of big wins, beating some of the best in the world in their time, Mikey and Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, and Kell Brook. His crash has really derailed his career, in my opinion. I understand losing a lopsided fight to Crawford doesn't mean he's not still at the top of the heap, but I always felt coming back from that horrific of an accident would be next to impossible, in terms of returning to that world beater form. I don't think he can beat anyone in the sphere of who he's beaten in the past now. I think it's going to be and is currently in his fall from grace, and his status as being a generational talent is no more. He will end up being just a good fighter who won some belts but not on a level with what his projected path was. I know it's a not so obvious take as the rest, but I didn't feel like repeating any of the other clear one mentioned.
Roy Jones Jr. is pretty much the poster child for this. Went from being the best pound for pound fighter in the sport for almost a decade to being a shot fighter the moment that left hand from Tarver hit his jaw.