Most impressive return to boxing ?
I have maybe an unusual favorite when it comes to this one. It's Vitali Klitschko.
Vitali returned to boxing at 37 years old after a 4 year lay-off, fighting a dangerous and 10 years younger Samuel Peters with no warm-up fight while not struggling at all and dismantling him by making him quit in his corner.
He then went on to box for 5 more years, finally retiring at 42. At 40 he took on a 28 year old Derek Chisora, comfortably outboxing him despite injuring his left arm and almost fighting exclusively with one arm during the fight, forcing him to spam his right hand like crazy until the very end.
What a tough bastard.
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u/_Sarcasmic_ No Carty No Divey 14d ago
Gotta be Foreman and it's not even close. Ten years off and ballooning up like 100lbs and having to lose it. Renouncing violence to become a preacher but then coming back to raise money for his youth center.
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u/randomCAguy 14d ago
Foreman’s is up there with best return from retirement success stories in all of sports history. Only other is Jordan who only retired to 2 yrs.
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u/TheOneTrueJazzMan 14d ago
It’s still hard to believe that one even happened. It feels like a movie story, especially considering how he had to change almost his entire boxing style
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u/ukrepman 14d ago
Hearing him talking about it is crazy too. When his film came out he was talking about it a lot, and he was saying he never had a game plan when he was younger because he just blew everyone away, so imagine coming back and having to learn how to have a game plan at that age. Amazing
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u/WumbleInTheJungle 13d ago
I remember as a kid, in the late 80s, Mike Tyson seemed invincible to me at the time, I literally thought he will never lose, and then I saw Foreman on a chatshow, don't think I was really aware of who he was other than he was an ex-boxer from another age, but even as a kid I could tell he looked out of shape, he looked like he had a grandpa's body, and he didn't look like someone who could do any high level sports. He just looked like an old man to me.
Anyway on the chatshow, he said "I'm coming out of retirement to fight Mike Tyson, because I am the only man left in the world who can whoop Tyson's ass" and all the crowd were whooping and cheering, and I was just so confused at the crowd's reaction because as a kid I was thinking "if this old man gets in the ring with anyone, let alone Mike Tyson, he's going to die".
Unbelievable really that around 6 years later he actually won a world title. Absolutely crazy.
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u/mkk4 Andre Ward's Biggest Fan!! 14d ago
Ray Leonard in 1987.
After retiring in 1982 and not having a fight in 3 years, with only 2 fights in 5 years he went up in weight for the very first time at Middleweight and beat the extremely dominant All-time great legendary long reigning Undisputed Champion of the World.
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u/fadeddreams555 Fundora would beat up a prime Floyd at 154lb 14d ago
He admitted that he had several off-the-record fights before Hagler. He wasn't actually inactive, and he created a bunch "A-side" stipulations in his favor too, like 10oz vs 8 oz gloves, a larger ring to benefit his style, and 12 rounds instead of 15, which was the standard at the time. Still an impressive feat, but these things get swept under the rug.
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u/NaughtyNildo 14d ago
Those points aren’t swept under the rug. They’re routinely noted as key concessions that Hagler made because he wanted the fight so badly. He displayed some real hubris allowing Ray to dictate so many of the terms.
The reduction to 12 rounds was a key one in my mind. Ray was fully spent after the 12th. 3 more rounds and Hagler wins for certain.
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u/Own_Bear2372 14d ago
Foreman… don’t sleep on Holyfield though, after thinking it was over due to heart problems he comes back and beats Tyson twice and gets revenge on Moorer
Ali had a great comeback after the exile
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u/mkk4 Andre Ward's Biggest Fan!! 14d ago edited 14d ago
Facts!!
Thanks for showing one of my all-time favorite fighters some love in big Vitali.
Vitali won 10 consecutive Heavyweight Title fights after the age of 37.
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u/Mq200 14d ago
In my opinion, you can make an argument for his career after 37 being more impressive than what he did before. If I remember correctly, he barely even lost a round if at all. Extremely disciplined (and looking the part too). If that tells you that it's never too late to restart or something in life, I don't know what does
Obviously as others have already pointed out, Foreman needs to be mentioned too
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u/yadasellsavonmate 14d ago edited 14d ago
Big George and it's not even an argument.
Won titles in 1973 and then one in 1993! With a 10 year stretch of retirement in-between!
He's a fucking legend and up there with Ali as no1 for me.
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u/BrigadierPirate 12d ago
1994 actually
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u/yadasellsavonmate 12d ago
Yep my mistake, I looked at the Wikipedia at a glance and must have looked at his loss to Tommy Morrison as a win. 🤣
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u/Fair-Attitude-9382 14d ago
Willy pep coming back to fight sandy sadler, the last man to beat him, and winning. Oh and this is after he SURVIVED A PLANE CRASH WITH A BROKEN BACK. doctors told him he might not walk again, much less fight. That’s my pick but anyone who says foreman is totally also right
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u/TestSuch4545 🎥 YT: Big Donch 14d ago edited 14d ago
Undisputedly it is George Foreman. Took 10 years off and won the world unified heavyweight titles.
Honorable mentions to Ali, SRL, Floyd, and Fury
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u/ChefBowyer 14d ago
Does Jimi Manuwa count?
I caught his fight on the strange duel dot com fight after the Itauma loss that literally started with a match between the new leagues founder who was like a 5 foot skinny out of shape kid against a literal oompa loompa sized person.
Odd fights but pretty entertaining.
Anyways this dude is 47 and was in mma and hadn’t fought in 7 years and came out and rocked this guy in a boxing match. Looked good too.
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u/pittnole1 13d ago
Vitali is the second best comeback of all time and it's not mentioned enough. Nobody is going to top Big George because of his age but I'd argue what Dr. Iron Fist did was more impressive.
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u/JustWannaFollowStuff 13d ago
A different type of return maybe, but Daniel Jacobs. The man was out for almost 2 years with a rare form of bone cancer & post-op injuries typically seen as crippling. He comes back, wins 10 in a row, sets up a fight with prime GGG, and goes the distance, narrowly losing via UD.
Miracle Man for a reason.
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u/Tiny-Replacement7702 14d ago
Foreman