Losses that made a fighter change their entire lives

[daggum]

Broner v. Maidana. AB was on top of the world, next Mayweather, next PPV star, next fighter of the decade, etc., etc. HBO was shoving him down our throats...

Now he's a stepping to to up-and-coming fighters. That loss changed his life.

i think this is why floyd never stepped up against elite fighters. he didnt want his career to come crashing down, but he was good enough to beat the b level guys over and over so he just kept doing that. guys like berto and broner werent even good enough to do that.

[travestyny]

i was being serious though. after floyd should have lost to castillo he didnt really fight any good prime fighters besides the castillo rematch. obviously this is up for debate but lets name the really good prime fighters...imo canelo is the only one but i dont pesonally think canelo was prime at that point and he was drained as hell. that loss or should be loss shook his confidence and really made him think about opponent selection. the fear of losing paralyzed him and he never took on any real challenges afterwards that he knew he could lose. a couple times he miscalculated and almost lost but cherry picks gone wrong dont count

This doesn't make sense. If what you are saying is true, he wouldn't have rematched him.

[Lomadeaux]

Can't say it changed his life, but Loma losing to Salido was a wake up. Let him know you gotta bring a different game to the pros. Look at how he fights now vs then. Far more aggressive and gritty.

It was a very productive loss. The tom foolery that went on in that ring that night was ridiculous though.

[boliodogs]

Mawyeather and the fear of margarito forced him to retire. In hindsight was a smart move but still he had to bitch out to save his life but he used to it *cough* jprince *cough*

Why would fear of Margarito force him to retire? He could have just as easily have not retired but not sign a contract to fight Margarito if he feared him. It's that simple and easy. No boxer has to fight any other boxer if they don't want to fight them. Just say no. It's not rocket science.

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

Why would fear of Margarito force him to retire? He could have just as easily have not retired but not sign a contract to fight Margarito if he feared him. It's that simple and easy. No boxer has to fight any other boxer if they don't want to fight them. Just say no. It's not rocket science.

Mayweather is all about his image, He hates people think he ducking and he WAS NEVER gonan face Margarito. So he retired. Mayweather his image is everything reason why he not gonna take a $1billion for a 4 fight deal in the UFC cause he respects he loves his image too much to let it get tainted.

Its how I see it, you might see it different.

[GrandmasterWang]

Pacquiao-JMM 4. Pacquiao had to stop the roids, cherry pick even easier fights and finally fight Mayweather because he knew he was finished as a major draw.

Re: Pac/Jmm 4 it changed JMM'S life for the better, far more than it changed Pacquiao's life.

Prior to it, ever since the first fight he was obsessed with Pacquiao and getting a win over him. This lasted many long years...it consumed him.

Then, fight 4 happens, Marquez wins clearly with an amazing right hand, arguably the fiercest of his amazing career, many years of anguish and angst all contained and released in that one cracking right hand.

Finally...after all those long years and those harsh losses to Pacquiao.... Marquez was content, vindicated...relieved and elated. You can see it in his eyes.

It's why he can now retire in peace, content that he finally got that victory over Pacquiao he had desired, yearned for and trained for so long. It's why he had no issues turning down the 5th fight offer despite the piles of cash offered to him.

Imo the 4th fight between JMM and Pacquiao changed Marquez's life far more than it did Pacquiao's. Marquez is an ATG and once he had that win over Pacman (and what a win!) it changed his life for the better and he knew deep down that he could retire in peace.

Pacquiao was already on the downwards slope prior to JMM 4 (and 3 for that matter) and had already imo lost his killer instinct and true passion for boxing (splitting his mental energies with Filo politics). Pac did became more cautious after being Ko'd by Marquez and it affected his drawing/earning power so certainly affected him, but not imo to the same extent that the fight impacted on Marquez.

That fight was as a viewer by far the most important and life changing career point of Marquez's career and changed his life. Prior to it, when Marquez would be interviewed and Pacman was brought up (and even not) you could almost sense his simmering anger just beneath the surface...now..he is chilled...he is content. That fight changed his life.

[boliodogs]

Broner v. Maidana. AB was on top of the world, next Mayweather, next PPV star, next fighter of the decade, etc., etc. HBO was shoving him down our throats...

Now he's a stepping to to up-and-coming fighters. That loss changed his life.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Maidana.

[GrandmasterWang]

Jeff Lacy vs Joe Calzaghe is a great example.

He lost his confidence in himself that night and was never the same. He was always way overhyped/overrated but that fight changed his life for the worse no doubt!

[travestyny]

Mayweather is all about his image, He hates people think he ducking and he WAS NEVER gonan face Margarito. So he retired. Mayweather his image is everything reason why he not gonna take a $1billion for a 4 fight deal in the UFC cause he respects he loves his image too much to let it get tainted.

Its how I see it, you might see it different.

This makes no sense. Mayweather retired after his 5/2007 fight with De La Hoya. He was in negotiations for a rematch after that.

In June 2007, Margarito lost to PWill. It would have been easy to sidestep Margarito without retiring.

[daggum]

This doesn't make sense. If what you are saying is true, he wouldn't have rematched him.

well he had to rematch him since everyone knew he lost and would have hounded him to death if he ducked the rematch. imagine the pac-floyd ducking but a lot worse. also floyd was probably trying to convince himself that he was injured and thats why he wasnt able to dominate his first opponent but that wasnt the case as he won a close rematch. those two fights brought him back to earth and he never really took a challenge like castillo again. a drained canelo maybe but that was a great stylistic matchup against a much slower counter puncher.