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Many times in boxing, you can see a fighter slowly decline to the point that you can predict who will beat him, even if the opponent is not worthy of said fighter in his prime.
We saw the decline set in on Morales after the Pac rematch and even though Morales had a great come back some years later, you could see he wasn't physically the same. Old timers will point to the slow, sad deterioration of Ali from the mid 70s on wards.
But I wanted to ask about Benn, to those guys who were old enough to witness his career, did you guys see Benn's decline set in? I personally have vague memories of his career and the Eubank rivalry but I wasn't young enough to notice or understand a fighters decline.
Looking back at his career now, just a year before he lost to Malinga and then Collins, both guys I feel Benn would have stopped in his prime, he had put in a very typical Benn performance against the highly touted Mclelan. He took some hits early but really battered the baddest man at the weight in the latter rounds, to such an extent that Mclelan has been consigned to a wheel chair since.
He followed that up with 2 pretty dominant stoppages, albeit against weaker opposition. So how did he fall so suddenly? Or did people at the time see signs of decline?
We saw the decline set in on Morales after the Pac rematch and even though Morales had a great come back some years later, you could see he wasn't physically the same. Old timers will point to the slow, sad deterioration of Ali from the mid 70s on wards.
But I wanted to ask about Benn, to those guys who were old enough to witness his career, did you guys see Benn's decline set in? I personally have vague memories of his career and the Eubank rivalry but I wasn't young enough to notice or understand a fighters decline.
Looking back at his career now, just a year before he lost to Malinga and then Collins, both guys I feel Benn would have stopped in his prime, he had put in a very typical Benn performance against the highly touted Mclelan. He took some hits early but really battered the baddest man at the weight in the latter rounds, to such an extent that Mclelan has been consigned to a wheel chair since.
He followed that up with 2 pretty dominant stoppages, albeit against weaker opposition. So how did he fall so suddenly? Or did people at the time see signs of decline?
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