Name me a fight where the fighter literally took the soul away from his opponent

[The plunger man]

Here is my pick ….Duran was never more savage than this fight in 1983

[Willie Pep 229]

Agreed! A vicious afternoon.

You are limiting us to fighters that were destroyed, which is interesting but I suspect limited. Not too many have completely collapsed, but some did.

Does Ali get one over Forman for stealing half a career from him? If Foreman had not comeback I think Ali would be on this list.

The word 'soul' makes it brutal.

But in a lesser extent there are fights where one's soul wasn't taken but the career direction became altered, because the defeat was mentally devastating, but not necessarily brutal.

For example I believe Leonard-Hearns 1 altered Hearns, in mind and career. Whereas Leonarnd's defeat and quick rematch with Duran didn't much affect Leonard or his career. For SRL it was a bump in the road, I think for Hearns it lingered.

But it wasn't 'soul snatching' like that afternoon with Davey Moore.

I think the Jones loss had a strong impact on Toney as another example, but not destroyed, so not soukd snatching.

[Cerebral Man]

Something about these fights was more than winner/loser:

Hopkins over Trinidad: Hopkins outsmarted and outmuscled the highly favored Tito and after all the pre-fight insults, and the pride of Puerto Rico at stake after Hopkins' defaced the PR flag, this beat-down seemed to really hurt Tito's soul and the 12th round stoppage put the final touch of humiliation on it, Tito looking confused and thoroughly beaten at the time of the stoppage.

Ruiz over Joshua: Has any single punch had more of an effect on a man and boxing in general than the wild left hook Ruiz scored on Joshua in Round 3 of their first fight? Joshua never recovered in the ring, lost the fight, and for five years afterward was a different fighter, tentative and unwilling to risk usin gn his power. His last fight against Wallin was better, but let's not forget there was optimism after Pulev that Joshua was back, so we'll see. This was a form of having your soul taken away and its long-term effects.

Pacquiao and Cotto over Margarito (2 consecutive fights): These one-sided destructions needed to happen. After the awful discovery that Margarito was using Plaster-of-Paris in his gloves and following the the loss to Shane Mosley, Margarito, still defiant and claiming innocence, tried to act as if Pacquiao was easy money. Manny looked two weight classes smaller, if not three, but out-zapped the bigger man from Round 2 on and eventually Margarito stopped throwing punches. A deserved beating for a man who was lucky to be in the ring at all. In Margarito's next fight, Miguel Cotto got his revenge for having lost to Margarito when most probably Margarito's gloves were packed with plaster. (video evidence of unusual coloring in Margarito's hand wraps in this fight is proof enough for me given the discovery prior to the Mosley fight). Margarito looked ashamed and dispirited after both these fights, deservedly so.

Zhang over Joyce II: Joyce's best attribute had been his chin, not a good way to go up the ranks. Zhang exposed him in their second fight, as after the first fight Joyce clung to the myth that the eye injury stoppage was unfortunate because he was building momentum and would have gotten to Big **** eventually. No matter how good his chin, those straight lefts would have buried him, and they did in fight #2, although the final blow was a right in the 3rd round stoppage. Joyce, never a great interview, has seemed confused in post-fight conversations, as if unable to realize what happened to him. The heavyweight division has a lot of big, immobile punchers in the top fifteen (Joyce, Hrgovic, Zhang, Ajagba, Makhmudov, Bakole, Charr) that no other division is burdened with, and it may be the no-ceiling weight limit allows for this type of one-trick fighter to sneak into contention. Daniel DuBois just misses being on this list, Jarrell Miller isn't in the top 15 but merits a mention as an overweight target whose most marketable aspect is his mouth. Most get exposed, and it may happen to Zhang. But Joyce doesn't seem the same and doesn't seem to have the skills to be a factor now that his punch resistance is so weakened.

[billeau2]

The number Calzighe did on Lacey was that bad, I would argue Whitaker did it to Chavez who had to know he did not win, and was in fact nullified. How about Hopkins to the vast amount of his opponents at light heavy lol?

[markusmod]

Tyson and Seldon

[Slugfester]

Sanchez seemed to take everything from little red Lopez.

[QueensburyRules]

Agreed! A vicious afternoon.

You are limiting us to fighters that were destroyed, which is interesting but I suspect limited. Not too many have completely collapsed, but some did.

Does Ali get one over Forman for stealing half a career from him? If Foreman had not comeback I think Ali would be on this list.

The word 'soul' makes it brutal.

But in a lesser extent there are fights where one's soul wasn't taken but the career direction became altered, because the defeat was mentally devastating, but not necessarily brutal.

For example I believe Leonard-Hearns 1 altered Hearns, in mind and career. Whereas Leonarnd's defeat and quick rematch with Duran didn't much affect Leonard or his career. For SRL it was a bump in the road, I think for Hearns it lingered.

But it wasn't 'soul snatching' like that afternoon with Davey Moore.

I think the Jones loss had a strong impact on Toney as another example, but not destroyed, so not soukd snatching.

- - Opposite in that Ali won a tough fight, but lost the war and never physically, mentally, or spiritually recovered what he lost.

[Ivich]

Here is my pick ….Duran was never more savage than this fight in 1983

Marciano v Lastarza 2

Marciano v ****ell

Pryor vArguello 2

Frazier vRamos

Ali v Terrell

[The plunger man]

I would also like to add

1 Barrera’s win over Hamad
2 Livingstone bramble win over Boom Boom Mancini
3 Dwight Muhammad Qawi (Braxton ) 2 wins over Mathew Saad Muhammad

all 3 fighters were never the same again after losing

[The plunger man]

Tyson and Seldon

add Michael Spinks to Bruce Seldon as well