Fighters Popularity: Fom Hero To Zero In The Blink Of An Eye

I will start with an example and maybe people can add a few more fighters whose popularity fell off a cliff at some point.


Carl Froch was a British hero as he entered the ring to face the up-and-coming outsider George Groves. Nine glorious rounds later and some mischosen words in the post fight interview and Froch is now being held up as the archetypal figure of hate.

As I read around the message boards one thing stands out and that is the absolute disdain people have for the things Froch has been saying. Many of the words describing Froch where once glowing in their praise but not now, vitriol is the word that comes to mind when reading the comments. Froch has now become to many a fighter they want to see take a beating.

I don't necessarily hold the views that the majority seem to have but this is probably because I have come to the conclusion that Froch isn't really all there in terms of his own sanity. All those punches to the head he has taken won't have helped either.

Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

James Degale - Gold medal hero to hate figure

Roberto Duran - No mas did him no favours in Panama, though recovered rep later

Well he took enough of a beating for me in that fight

Let be fair to him and his warrior moniker, he took the best Groves had to offer and was still standing there in 9th gathering momentum and got the stoppage (with help from Howard).

I still hold him in high regard, he's just not the most media savy person and lets his mouth run sometimes. If he would have said "Groves caught me with a goodin', it took me a few rounds to recover, and I managed to get to him and eventually get him out there". There wouldnt have been no where near the backlash he recieved.

I think that fight would have taken alot out of him though, am not surprised he doesnt want nothing to do with Groves again.

Hatton - cited as a brave, plucky loser when KO'd by Mayweather and then the farce that was the Manny fight coupled with him having drinks by the poolside the following day saw his stock plummet
 
Your mate David Haye - feted as the second coming, (by some at least) but his no-show against Wlad saw him become as popular as an ebola riddled, s**t stained Jimmy Savile impersonating Audley Harrison.

RJJ - one of the most naturally gifted fighters to lace 'em up suddenly became an embarrassing chinny shell of his former self after a couple of high profile losses.

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Doesn't need groves though. Fight ward, if he wins, the can retire as the top dog of the division and may set up a rubber match.

failing that, fight Stevenson in Canada and get well paid and potentially retire as a two weight world champ.

Lennox Lewis - the best HW of his era by a distance became a washed up ducker when deciding that retirement was a better option that rematching the man whose face he's just put 50+ stitches in

Calzaghe - Unbeaten boxer to dreadful contestant on Strictly.

I was going to say Naz but I'm not sure if he was ever popular.

Andre Ward.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Ok

mobilemaster8 wrote:Doesn't need groves though. Fight ward, if he wins, the can retire as the top dog of the division and may set up a rubber match.

failing that, fight Stevenson in Canada and get well paid and potentially retire as a two weight world champ.

He won't.....FACT

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

mobilemaster8 wrote:Doesn't need groves though. Fight ward, if he wins, the can retire as the top dog of the division and may set up a rubber match.

failing that, fight Stevenson in Canada and get well paid and potentially retire as a two weight world champ.

He won't.....FACT

I see a Ward rematch as the monty python sketch with Froch being the knight - who has lost his limbs and screaming at Ward that he's a coward who won't engage

ShahenshahG wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

mobilemaster8 wrote:Doesn't need groves though. Fight ward, if he wins, the can retire as the top dog of the division and may set up a rubber match.

failing that, fight Stevenson in Canada and get well paid and potentially retire as a two weight world champ.

He won't.....FACT

I see a Ward rematch as the monty python sketch with Froch being the knight - who has lost his limbs and screaming at Ward that he's a coward who won't engage

I se any future Froch fights as the Monty Python reunion...with a few people going bonkers for it whilst the rest of us shrug our shoulders and say "What's the point, it'll be the same stuff we saw before and at that age will just come across as embarrassing?"

Any takers for Erik Morales? - A true Mexican legend when he retired - then he came back, was pumped full of steroids, when he fought Garcia, lost the fight and also the respect of many??
Certainly lost my respect!

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Ok

Holy v Bowe 2 and 3........were huge fights............If you knew anything about boxing you'd know that...

I think Morales is a hero still..........I think fighters who are tipped for the highest honors and then get stopped before they reach the top are bigger contenders.....

Robin Blake's handsome face was everywhere in magazines and on the TV when he was coming up........The next lightweight white hope and sensation.........

Think he lost to Jimmy Paul or Harry arroyo and he became a useless muppet.......

Rafael Pineda..........
Frank Tate
Mark Breland..........
Danny romero........
Gerry cooney
Engels Pedroza................Have all had the same treatment.......

No legends like Morales should be in the frame.

mobilemaster8 wrote:Doesn't need groves though. Fight ward, if he wins, the can retire as the top dog of the division and may set up a rubber match.

failing that, fight Stevenson in Canada and get well paid and potentially retire as a two weight world champ.

You really have a serious Froch man-crush, don't you MM8?

Morales used to be one of my favourite fighters growing up - always supported him when he fought MAB....but one thing I hate in sports is drug cheats. So maybe its just a personal one for me in that he went from being a big hero to a bit of disappointment that he decided to go down that route.
I certainly wont take any of his early accomplishments away from him.

David Reid - America's next big thing then bizarrely fed to Tito Trinidad who beat him so badly it ended his career and ruined his life.

Jeff Lacy is another one.

So is Michael Grant

People seem to forget that these guys were supposed to set the world alight but people generally only remember them for their losses

Oh yeah, almost forgot...Wlad K after Corrie Sanders had smacked him around the ring.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Ok

Holy v Bowe 2 and 3........were huge fights............If you knew anything about boxing you'd know that...

Doesn't take away from the fact he put his belt in the bin when Lewis came a knocking!!

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Ok

Holy v Bowe 2 and 3........were huge fights............If you knew anything about boxing you'd know that...

Doesn't take away from the fact he put his belt in the bin when Lewis came a knocking!!

ok  

Audley Harrison

Gold medalist and the natural successor to Lennox Lewis. Then single handedly brought down boxing on terrestrial TV in the UK.

#Destiny

Jack Dempsey and those all too clean boots/shoes.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Riddick Bowe....became a joke as soon as the belt touched the bin.

how stupid.............

Ok

Holy v Bowe 2 and 3........were huge fights............If you knew anything about boxing you'd know that...

Doesn't take away from the fact he put his belt in the bin when Lewis came a knocking!!

ok  

Thhhhhats the spirit big lad  

David Price?? Britain's greatest hope, nailed on to blow away Fury and any other UK heavyweight and on of the biggest threats to K bros to being beat by Thompson and wrote off as a no hoper who would get whipped by nearly every half decent heavyweight around.

SugarWarrior wrote:Any takers for Erik Morales? - A true Mexican legend when he retired - then he came back, was pumped full of steroids, when he fought Garcia, lost the fight and also the respect of many??
Certainly lost my respect!

wasn't he banned for taking illegal slimming pills? still your story is much more spectacular.
thought he was brave taking on bigger, younger fighters without even bothering to try and get in shape. or maybe stupid

ShahenshahG wrote:I see a Ward rematch as the monty python sketch with Froch being the knight - who has lost his limbs and screaming at Ward that he's a coward who won't engage

Top marks for that one, Shah.

Anyway, what about Michael Nunn? Within half a dozen fights or so his reputation fell from being the glistening new super star of the Middleweight division to being one of boxing's pound for pound stinkers. The same fans who were blown away by his performance against Tate were booing him after the horror shows against Starling and Barkley, and after those two outings not even his promoter Arum could be bothered to defend him, saying "I've got to pay Michael $1.25 million for a 99 cent performance" and "Michael should remember that he has a responsibility to entertain the public."

His performances seemed to be in a gradual decline, one fight after another as well. Sensational against Tate and Kalambay (not that the latter one lasted very long). Nowhere near his best against Barkley and Starling. Then loses to Toney in a fight he'd bossed early on and in which his ego got the better of him. Then moves up to 168 and scrapes a belt with a gift of a decision against Cordoba (at least I thought it was a bit of a gift anyway, but I never see it mentioned on any 'robbery' thread, so maybe I'm in the minority). After that, a weak surrender against Little and not a lot else to report. Until his retirement in which he became a disgraced drugs lord, of course!

Not sure I've ever seen anything as drastic as Reich's decline before. Thanks to social media we get closer to fighters than ever and a real peek at who they actually are. Froch has not done well out of it recently. I'll be honest, if he takes on JCC Jnr in Vegas I'll be cheering him on, one last time. Other than that, I can't see me bothering with the bloke.

Froch.... Not Reich. Wow, autocorrect.

Sieg Heil kingmonkey sieg heil

though the Reich did lose a lot of popularity quite quickly, not sure how much of that was due to twitter though

Unless "twitter" was a 1940's German slang term for "genocide" in which case it may prove to be pertinent.

Anyway, speaking of nazis or in this case "Nazis" how about Max Schmeling.

Feted as the the all conquering Nazi gero after defeating Joe Louis, his stock fell quicker than (insert humerous pun re drastic decline) after being pummelled in the rematch

Twitter camps do have much better ring to them, Goebells should have got right on that...

..and I for one would happily support a camp where users of Twitter are rounded up and "re-educated"

Not so much Belsen and BellEnds

just round everyone up on a bandwagon and drop them at twitter camp.

though i get the feeling that everyone there would just instagram the cack food

rick_dagless wrote:just round everyone up on a bandwagon and drop them at twitter camp.

though i get the feeling that everyone there would just instagram the cack food

This forum would have about three people left on it

One of those being 'Mr Contrarian' Az.........

So at least the argument quota will remain consistent

AZ would be on the Anti-Bandwagon bandwagon....

Although I'm sure he would argue that he wasn't...which would then become the populist choice causing him to re-evealuate his stance and lambast everyone holding the opposing opinion...including himself!

Pedro147 wrote:Audley Harrison

Gold medalist and the natural successor to Lennox Lewis. Then single handedly brought down boxing on terrestrial TV in the UK.

#Destiny

In defference to the title, this was hardly in a blink of an eye. Audley worked solidly for a few years to bring down boxing in this country!

rick_dagless wrote:though the Reich did lose a lot of popularity quite quickly, not sure how much of that was due to twitter though

Funniest thing I've read today.

How about terry marsh.
Wins world championship, the fighting fireman: hero
Retires after just one defence: zero
Accused of shooting frank warren: hero
Found not guilty: zero

A veritable rollercoaster  of herozeroness.

Disclaimer: there is nothing heroic about shooting frank, but some seemed to think so.

Nathan Cleverly....won all the vacant titles...Hero....fought a nurse...Zero.

Signed to fight Kovalev...Hero

Got beat like a little girl....Zero

HAHAHA!

Lamont Peterson after the ped test failure following the Khan fight