How Badley Do Post Prime Losses Hurt Fighters Legacy?

[HaglerSteelChin]

Although many boxing fans know how great a fighter was at their prime the fact is many people just look at a fighter's record. For example, many people feel Ezzard Charles late career losses where he was past his prime might have hurt his legacy. He had off the top of my head like 24 losses and the majority were past prime.

Roy Jones Jr. planned to retire after his first fight with Tarver. At the time, he was 49-1 and with his only loss being the infamous disputed disqualification with Montel Griffith which he avenged with a brutal first round knock out. After the fight with Tarver, he told Larry Merchant " I am looking for one mega fight which is me and Mike Tyson, and if i don't get Tyson i am done." Of course, Jones would end up giving Tarver a rematch and getting knocked out. He has now 7 losses and his record has been tarnished. If Jones had retired 49-1 would you have him higher in the P4P list?

There are many ingredients in determining greatness. I use a formula that includes great wins in resume, durability(not getting knocked out against top fighters), longetivity, overall skill, and impact and influence in the sport. This is why i still rate Ali high since he had incredibile impact in the sport, and also Tunney since he helped the defensive side of boxing as guys like Corbett and Mendoza did before him.

Some people do weigh quantity as equal as quality. But i think most prefer quality over quantity. Haydn composed much more music than Beethoven, yet pretty much nobody would rate Haydn higher than LVB. Same thing as Chavez vs. SRL, but i know some in those board think Chavez is higher than SRL. I would favor SRL over Chavez 3-2, in the criteria i mentioned.

Since we often do these P4P lists, i wonder what impact you think these post prime losses had on guys as Charles, Moore, and Jones?

[Barn]

Only a tiny little bit but, what you have to remember WINNING post prime can push your ranking up a lot. So it's not like it's a no win situation for example say Ali never fought Foreman and hit average P4P ranking was 7 if the fights happens and he loses he probably goes down to 8 just because that was expected. If he wins as he did he goes up drastically up to an everage of about 4 because winning post prime is such a great achievement.

[BKM-]

It only depends on how much people count those losses. The biggest debates are mostly about if a fighter was still in his 'prime' or not in a particular fight that he lost in.

Also, it might take several decades for people to finally rate a fighter higher and not look at his worst losses late in his career.