Who had the best comeback in boxing history ?

Not in a fight but in a career.

 

Foreman.
The only one that even compares that I know of is Maske's.

 

Yep, Foreman.

Leonard is up there too, although that probably qualifies as one fight rather than career.

 

Shout Out to the "Cinderella Man", James J. Braddock...


REED

 

Foreman

but Eder Jofre's was nothing to sneeze at... came back at an advanced boxing age, fighting in a division he never fought in before and had to beat a very dangerous, difficult guy to win the title (Jose Legra) ... he never lost in his comeback either, remarkable given his relative age

 

Didn't Armstrong, Benny Leonard and Arguello all lose quite a few of their opening bouts??? All-Time-Great comeback, could be Ali- he spent what, 7 years waiting to get that title back, and had to have a comeback-within-a-comeback after the Frazier loss.

 

Armstrong was KO'ed in his Pro Debut...Ditto for Billy Conn, if REED's Not Mistaken...



REED:hammert:

 

Willie Pep is a contender.

 

james toney.

 

Barrera

 

John Ruiz - Bounced back from the Tua defeat to become a champion that was admired and respected by all

 

Not really. He got bashed by Jones, then lost a decision to Jones, then disappeared for a few years. It was a comeback in "Jones is gone, I think I will come back now" :laughing:

 

i thought virgil hill was completely shot after getting beat up by dmich and getting KOed by roy, but he bounced back nicely and had a decent run at crusierweight

 

Virgil iced Fabrice Tiozzo in a round, that was surprising

 

Sugar Ray Leonard against Hagler.

 

Hopkins was good in a sense. He seemed to be at the end of his career with back to back losses to Jermaine Taylor and then rebounds to beat up Jones-killing Tarver and undefeated Pavlik.

 

When James DeGale comes back from being robbed against Groves and dominates. You will then see the best comeback ever.

 

OK hell, I'll nominate Larry Holmes. He never won another title, but he did school Ray Mercer and give spirited efforts against Holyfield and McCall in title fights. For my money, he also beat Nielsen and should have won the dismal IBO title despite being almost 50.

 

yea that was shocking. tiozzo's a durable dude and hill's featherfisted. it was a brutal knockout too.

 

agREED on the Tarver part.

On Pavlik... never really considered that a comeback and in fact even penned an article on it. He was only six months removed from barely losing to Calzaghe.

One can argue the same about the Tarver fight - that he was only a few months separated from the Taylor fights, both of which were close/controversial decisions. But he was the one moving up two weight classes to face Tarver, and only after it was believed that he was retiring.

 

Still a comeback, and I'd probably rate it right there with Foreman.

Not quite as high but still worthy of consideration... Evander Holyfield?

 

yeah, it was crazy... Hill doing that is unheard of

 

For some reason, the one thing I remember about that night was that it was the only fight Showtime planned to air, yet the time slot was budgeted for three hours! I don;'t know if another show was planned to go with it and it fell through or what. But the night basically became a makeshift "Best of.." whatever year it was ('99?)

Not sure what's more amazing - that he beat Tiozzo the way he did, or that he came back something like seven or eight years later to beat (in fact dominate) that undefeated Russian cat.

 

I think so. And yes that guy turned out to be shit. Still, Hill was way past it by then and had already twice lost to Mormeck and was all but retired from what I remember.

 

Duran post Leonard 2 & Kirkland Laing.

 

I remember a buddy of mine (I didn't have showtime) asked me if I wanted to watch it as his house and I think I said something along the lines of "Nah, I'm gonna stay in tonight... Hill was never all that to begin with and he's an old man now anyway, he'll lose a boring decision, maybe even get stopped"

then I heard about the result and I was incredulous, totally amazed by it...

 

And Tiozzo had quite a comeback himself too ( sure far from one of the biggest in boxing but still ). After the layoff, decided to drop weight and campaign at lhw, where, on his first fight, won a squeaker vs Silvio Branco after having to go through hell to make weight ( and showing huge heart surviving a beating in a round where he was one punch away from a ko loss). Then, dominated Dariusz M. in a huge upset and koed him in one of the few time he trained properly. Sadly, was never given the big money fight he was looking for and retired after this win.

 

Leonard vs Hagler has to rank high.

 

I always love this question because it gives me a chance to trot out a bit of boxing history:
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Eugène Criqui (August 15, 1893 – July 7, 1977) was a French boxer who held the world featherweight title in 1923.


Criqui was born in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris. He was a professional pipe-fitter before he turned professional in 1910. He won the French flyweight title in 1912. His boxing career was interrupted when he served in the French military in World War 1. While doing guard duty at Verdun, his jaw was shattered by a sniper's bullet. A surgeon reconstructed the jaw using wire, silver, and a goat leg.

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After the war he resumed boxing. He won the French featherweight title in 1921 and the next year won the European Boxing Union featherweight championship. On June 2, 1923, he beat Johnny Kilbane by a sixth-round knockout in New York City to win the world featherweight title. Part of the contract for this fight required that he give Johnny Dundee a shot at the title within sixty days. When he fought Dundee fifty-four days later (on July 26, 1923), Dundee knocked him down four times and beat him by a fifteen-round decision. In his next fight, Criqui injured his hand and did not fight many more fights before he retired in 1928.