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In light of the news about Ike Ibeabuchi who seems to be on deck to return to professional boxing after a 17 year layoff on April 9 on Pacquiao's last fight undercard I'm curious as to others in similar situations.
The two guys that come to mind for me are George Foreman who's the champion of the long layoff comeback. And second is Tony Ayala.
George ended his "1st career" at age 28 in 1977 that included a HW title reign of a couple months shy of 2 years back in a day when being the HW champion meant you were THE HW CHAMPION. He was a destructive 45-2 (42). Then randomly out of the blue after a week short of a decade out of the sport, largely spent as a preacher, he makes a comeback at 38yrs in 1987. George spends the next 4 years amassing a 24-0 (23) record before getting a title shot vs Evander Holyfield. He lost that fight, but he'd become a HW champion again 3.5yrs later vs Michael Moorer & would hold the lineal version of the HW title til his final fight in 1997 after going 31-2 (26) in his "2nd career".
Tony Ayala's career is a lil more effed up. He was a 22-0 (19), 19yrs, top contender & convicted of a heinous ****. And while any **** is an awful crime, if you've read the information about his crime it goes above & beyond in its awfulness to the victim. He did his time & was released resuming a comeback in 1999 at the age of 36. He would go 9-2 (8) during his 4 year comeback, ending in 2003, never really getting very far, but fighting & usually losing to the better guys he faced. He would get locked up for parole violations in 2004 & wasn't released again til 2014. He OD'd about a year after his second release from a decade plus spend in prison in May of this year.
The two guys that come to mind for me are George Foreman who's the champion of the long layoff comeback. And second is Tony Ayala.
George ended his "1st career" at age 28 in 1977 that included a HW title reign of a couple months shy of 2 years back in a day when being the HW champion meant you were THE HW CHAMPION. He was a destructive 45-2 (42). Then randomly out of the blue after a week short of a decade out of the sport, largely spent as a preacher, he makes a comeback at 38yrs in 1987. George spends the next 4 years amassing a 24-0 (23) record before getting a title shot vs Evander Holyfield. He lost that fight, but he'd become a HW champion again 3.5yrs later vs Michael Moorer & would hold the lineal version of the HW title til his final fight in 1997 after going 31-2 (26) in his "2nd career".
Tony Ayala's career is a lil more effed up. He was a 22-0 (19), 19yrs, top contender & convicted of a heinous ****. And while any **** is an awful crime, if you've read the information about his crime it goes above & beyond in its awfulness to the victim. He did his time & was released resuming a comeback in 1999 at the age of 36. He would go 9-2 (8) during his 4 year comeback, ending in 2003, never really getting very far, but fighting & usually losing to the better guys he faced. He would get locked up for parole violations in 2004 & wasn't released again til 2014. He OD'd about a year after his second release from a decade plus spend in prison in May of this year.
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