Which fighters took the wrong turns (fights) that cost them ? For example Roid's wrong turn was Tarver. I'm not talking about just losing fights I'm talking about derailing careers, exposing fighters, ruining super fights and so on..
Holmes took a wrong turn and fought LHW champ Michael Spinks in a fight he was lambasted for taking and yet ended up losing
disagREED. King's alleged plan at the time was putting Norris in a MW tourney - I guess the 90's version of what he actually managed to do with Trinidad nearly a decade later. Norris losing to Brown not only derailed those plans, but gave Norris a reasonable chance at redemption, which came in the form of a near-shutout five months later. He wasn't going to do that against any of the top MW's.
Rahman-Lewis II - Rockhead threw away a lucrative HBO contract, the possibility of fighting Tyson and so much more, for a low-balled guarantee and not much PPV upside, never mind the humiliating KO suffered. All for a fight in which Lewis didn't even have an exclusive rematch clause. Holyfield-Toney - Classic case of fighter being more obsessed with percentage of the pot than the actual dollar amount. Stood to make twice as much for a fight w/ Roy (plus PPV upside) but was insulted by purse split. Instead took Toney fight, got exposed as a finished fighter on a show that not only had no PPV upside, but lost bucketloads of cash. Wright-Hopkins - see above. Wright had a chance for a career-high payday in a Taylor rematch. Instead balked because it wasn't 50/50 split. Took less money, fattened up and looked like crap in an unwatchable fight against Hopkins... and still hasn't won a fight since then.
Wright-Hopkins is a great example. Holyfield-Toney sorta got me thinking about another Holyfield fight...well, three of them against Johnny Louise. Not sure if it really counts for this thread, but after the Lewis loss in the rematch he went chasing after that vacant WBA strap and ended up spending two years on Ruiz. You could possibly put Lewis-Klitschko in here...the Wladimir fight, not the Vitali one. ::
Vince Martinez vs Virgil Akins. Mac Foster vs Gerry Quarry. Eddie Machen vs Ingemar Johansson Chuck Davey vs Kid Gavilan {although this may have been a "cash out" more than anything else}
rahman vs. lewis is a great example as jake mentioned. dumbass rahman should've let lewis sue, fought tyson instead (probably would've won) and fought holyfield (may have done better than he had when they fought after lewis KOed him in the rematch). it would've been funny to see lewis never get that rematch.
Rahman is a perfect example of what William Guthrie talks about here: <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o9wSNe0STKM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o9wSNe0STKM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
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Marquez/John is a perfect example. By the way, IMHO, just because a fighter loses a fight doesn't mean he took a wrong turn, or that he was mismanaged.
I was going to mention Marquez-John earlier, but refrained. Oddly enough, my reasoning is in line with the rest of Double L's post. Had Marquez instead accepted the money Top Rank offered for a rematch in 2005, it's quite possible he never becomes the elite fighter he's recognized as today. Even more plausible is that his take home pay isn't what he has clocked in recent years. Sure at the time, turning down $750k and instead traveling to Indonesia for $32k (and getting screwed by the officials in the process) seemed ridiculous. Short-term wise, it is. But the move actually paid off. Top Rank clearly had given up on him. Golden Boy picked him up and he's been making seven-figure paydays ever since. The Pac rematch earned him 3x what he would've made in 2005, not to mention that he was established enough to where the narrow loss didn't hurt him one bit. In fact, he went on to cement his credentials as a Hall of Fame fighter. The thing about the way Top Rank did Marquez is, I fully expect them to do the same to Gamboa in a year or so, and for the JuanMa fight to never happen.
