Ranking the Greatest Career Resurrections in Boxing History

Boxing, with all its warts and blemishes, is still a lot of things to a lot of people.

It’s the Sweet Science. It’s the Theater of the Unexpected.

It’s also a haven for the “Hey, didn’t you retire five years ago, and now you’re back?”

More so than probably any other sport, boxing lends itself to career resurrection. A fighter can be battered into a legacy-defining submission one minute, before returning to not only exact a surprising revenge but oft-times to exceed the levels to which he’d risen prior to the resume detour.

And given a century-plus of in-ring activity, it’s happened more than just a few times.

Given that reality, we pored over the record books to find those athletes whose careers encountered a significant bend in the road—thanks to competition, injury or circumstance—only to get back onto the straight and narrow. We narrowed our list to 10 based on the stature of the fighter involved, the severity of the obstacle that was faced and the success of the subsequent comeback that commenced.

Click through for a look and let us hear your thoughts in the comments section.

10. Lennox Lewis

Now that he’s been gone from the ring for more than a decade, it’s easy to forget just how dominant Lennox Lewis was while winning shares of the heavyweight championship on three separate occasions.

And it might be even easier to forget the reputation he had to overcome amid that success.

The Englishman was an unbeaten WBC titleholder before being jettisoned by a single right hand from journeyman Oliver McCall in 1994. He went 13-0-1 following the McCall shocker before being separated from his WBC, IBF and IBO belts by knockout against prohibitive underdog Hasim Rahman in 2001.

In its post-fight report, the New York Times all but counted Lewis out as a significant competitor: “For Lewis (38-2-1), the British-born Olympic gold medalist who never managed to convince the world that he was a champion for the history books, the defeat could be a career knockout, coming almost 12 years after he began boxing professionally.”

Needless to say, things turned out a little differently.

Lewis was a fourth-round winner over Rahman in a rematch seven months later and then catapulted into a long-awaited showdown with former champion Mike Tyson, whom he battered for seven rounds before a bloody, violent dispatch in the eighth.

A rugged 2003 swan song against Vitali Klitschko ended when the Ukrainian was unable to continue with a ghastly eye cut, and Lewis rode into the sunset—and ultimately the International Boxing Hall of Fame—as the sport’s last undisputed heavyweight champion.

9. Vitali Klitschko

In reality, the biggest issues Vitali Klitschko faced in the ring were far more physical than competitive.

The Ukrainian lost his unbeaten record—and his WBO heavyweight title belt—thanks to a shoulder injury against Chris Byrd in 2000. He then was halted by a ringside physician and a ghastly left eye cut after six rounds of a spirited challenge to IBO/WBC champion Lennox Lewis three years later.

He picked up the WBC belt upon Lewis’ retirement in 2004 and reigned supreme through one title defense before a knee injury postponed a subsequent defense against Hasim Rahman. That prompted a long-term retirement/hiatus that ended up lasting nearly four years.

Klitschko’s comeback in 2008 was greeted with derision, both because he’d been away so long and because the quarry he chose to pursue upon returning—WBC champion Samuel Peter—was nine years younger and had knocked out all but three of the 30 victims on an impressive ring resume.

But when fight time arrived, the Guardian’s John Rawling said the old man showed a young man’s spark:

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From the outset he looked physically and technically the master of Peter, 28, and was soon dominating the contest as he scored repeatedly with his left jab and powerful hooks to the body and head, giving Peter little or no opportunity to display the much-vaunted power that he earlier boasted would prove Klitschko was no more than a phoney.

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Klitschko followed the win with nine defenses through his 2012 farewell, transforming his narrative from injury-riddled pretender to one-half of the most dominant brother tandem in heavyweight history.

8. Bernard Hopkins

These days, he’s an ageless superman who’s lauded for an ability to remain world class.

But in 2005, he was an over-the-hill middleweight being surpassed by a younger generation.

Indeed, upon losing the second of two straight decisions to a 20-something Jermain Taylor, a 40-year-old Bernard Hopkins was already being written off by no less an authority than the New York Times.

“It would seem to be a bitter end to the Hall of Fame career of Hopkins,” John Eligon wrote of the Taylor rematch, “who went 12 years without a loss before Taylor beat him the first time.”

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine a more premature report of a fighter’s demise.

Not only did Hopkins fight on despite a retirement promise to his mother, but he garnered more acclaim for post-Taylor success than he had ever received for pre-Taylor accomplishments.

He returned six months later and moved up two weight classes to beat heavily favored light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver. He then went on to record high-profile wins over Winky Wright, Kelly Pavlik, Roy Jones Jr. and Jean Pascal before finally meeting his match in Sergey Kovalev last November.

Hopkins was two months and seven days shy of his 50th birthday upon meeting Kovalev but still lasted the full 12 rounds with a slugger who had knocked out 23 of his first 25 victims in seven rounds or less. In fact, Hopkins has still not officially announced his retirement and expects to fight at least one more time.

“That may sound crazy but that's what I have to be at this stage of motivation,” he told USA Today's Bob Velin in January. “The short answer is yes, I want to fight at 50. It would mean a lot."

7. Evander Holyfield

When he crashed face-first to the canvas in a trilogy-completing loss to Riddick Bowe in November 1995, the end was at hand for a 33-year-old Evander Holyfield.

He had lost his shares of the heavyweight title—two bouts earlier to Michael Moorer—and was awash in physical ailments that ranged from a supposed heart abnormality after the Moorer fight to a case of hepatitis A that sapped his energy in the Bowe defeat.

Surely then, the 11-year pro and two-division champion had climbed his final competitive mountain.

Surely you jest, said The Real Deal.

Rather than retiring quietly to a Georgia mansion, Holyfield endeavored to get healthy, together and back in the ring, which he did six months after the Bowe loss with a five-round demolition of Bobby Czyz. That win cleared the way for a generational showdown with Mike Tyson that had simmered for a half-decade thanks to upsets, injuries and incarcerations.

When fight time finally came, Holyfield looked as if he’d never left.

“The 34-year-old Holyfield (33-3, 24 knockouts), whose very presence in the ring was questioned because of past health problems,” wrote Tim Kawakami of the Los Angeles Times, “became a heavyweight champion for the third time, a feat accomplished only by Muhammad Ali.”

He bullied the once-beaten Tyson in clinches, strafed him with combinations and ultimately stopped him in Round 11 of what was the best-selling pay-per-view in history at the time and remains in the top 10 even 19 years later. He repeated the feat, sort of, seven months later, actually winning by disqualification in an ear-biting fiasco that tops all lists of the strangest events in heavyweight history.

Holyfield got revenge on Moorer with an eighth-round stoppage that stands as his most notable post-Tyson accomplishment, though he did fight Lennox Lewis twice and regain a WBA share of the heavyweight title against John Ruiz before going 0-4-1 in his last five championship bouts.

6. Eder Jofre

He’s an all-time great among bantamweights.

And he’s an all-time great among Brazilian fighters.

But what Eder Jofre’s return after a voluntary hiatus from the ring shows is that he ranks pretty highly in the comeback set too.

A then-29-year-old Jofre was unbeaten through the first 50 fights of his career—47 wins, three draws—before losing his WBA and WBC bantamweight belts via split decision to Fighting Harada in May 1965. An interim win preceded a rematch with Harada a year later, and another decision loss—this time unanimous—prompted Jofre to announce his retirement from the ring.

He returned three years later in 1969 and rebuilt his image, winning 14 consecutive fights before challenging incumbent Cuban-born champion Jose Legra for the WBC featherweight title in 1973, nearly seven full years after his second loss to Harada. Jofre won by a majority decision and fought on for three more years, winning 10 more fights to run his post-comeback record to 25-0.

His final win of significance, against Mexican challenger Vicente Saldivar in a featherweight title defense, showed a glimpse of the respect he generated in his second incarnation.

“Eder Jofre knocked out Mexico’s Vicente Saldivar in the fourth round of what was to have been a 15-round contest,” Ring Magazine correspondent Carlos Henriquez wrote, per IBROResearch.com. “As Jofre was born in March 1936, he is 37 years of age. The legion of the retired should have claimed him long since.”

5. Ray Robinson

The original Sugar Ray tops nearly every respected list of the greatest fighters of all time, so it's not surprising that his comeback was awfully good too.

Ray Robinson had been a pro for nearly 12 years and had won titles at welterweight and middleweight—with an eye-popping record of 131-2-2—before announcing his retirement following a third-round defeat of Rocky Graziano in April 1952. However, he was back in the ring two months later to unsuccessfully challenge Joey Maxim for the light heavyweight championship, which preceded another retirement.

He left to pursue a career in show business this time but returned in 1955, and, in his seventh fight back, impressively stopped Bobo Olson in two rounds to regain his middleweight crown. “So fast, so fast,” Olson told the Associated Press after the KO loss. “It was fast combinations and I got careless. It was too fast, maybe the ref counted too fast. Did he?”

Robinson traded the belt with losses and wins against both Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio before losing it for the final time to Paul Pender in 1960. He continued in the ring until age 44 and was 31-12-4 after the final championship loss.

4. Ray Leonard

It often feels like the second-best Sugar Ray—Ray Leonard—was retired as much as he fought.

In fact, a mid-20s Leonard was on top of the boxing world in 1982 when he was diagnosed with a detached retina in his left eye and announced his retirement at a gala ceremony. He returned for one fight in 1984—a ninth-round TKO of Kevin Howard—before immediately retiring again.

This time it lasted three years. But the subsequent return was a career-definer and a history-maker.

Eschewing a tune-up fight despite the layoff, Leonard jumped straight into a match with undisputed middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler in April 1987 and emerged with a split decision that remains memorable a generation later for the closeness of the result and the shock it generated.

New York Times writer Ira Berkow described Leonard’s unlikely feat this way: “On a warm desert evening, Leonard danced, twirled, jabbed and uppercutted his way to the title in an action-filled upset. Hagler, who won the title from Alan Minter on Sept. 27, 1980, had been a strong favorite going into the fight.”

Leonard went on to fight three times in 30 months—defeating Donny Lalonde and Roberto Duran and drawing with Thomas Hearns—before another absence that lasted 14 months was ended via a decisive 12-round loss to 154-pound champion Terry Norris. He then left for six years before coming back once more, at age 40, and getting stopped in five rounds by Hector Camacho.

3. Muhammad Ali

If nothing else, it has to be the most famous comeback of all time.

Muhammad Ali was an unbeaten heavyweight champion of the world in the prime years of his career when legal and licensing issues surrounding his refusal of military induction put him on the shelf.

He went three years, seven months and four days between fights, but upon returning in late 1970 he went about writing the second act of his career work as the best heavyweight who ever lived.

Ali won two fights before dropping a decision to Joe Frazier in their initial meeting in March 1971 and then went 13-1 in his next 14 fights—including a defeat of Frazier in a January 1974 rematch—before securing a bout with unbeaten champion George Foreman nine months later.

He defeated Foreman by memorable eighth-round stoppage in Zaire, beat Frazier in their Thrilla in Manila rematch a year later and lost and regained the title against Leon Spinks in 1978 before retiring and relinquishing his championship in 1979.

Two more ill-fated returns followed—the first ending in a brutal 10-round stoppage by Larry Holmes in 1980 and the second in a desultory 10-round decision loss to Trevor Berbick in 1981.

In 2009, Time magazine recognized Ali’s comeback among the best in sports history, specifically citing the third match with Frazier, which is also considered among history’s best:

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Ali, however, would not be denied; the fight was stopped when Frazier was unable to answer the bell for the 15th and final round. His eyes had swollen shut and his trainer, Eddie Futch, simply wouldn’t allow him to continue. In typically modest fashion, Ali lauded his finest rival after the match: ‘He is the greatest fighter of all times,’ the boxer said, ‘next to me.’

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2. Roberto Duran

With a simple wave of his arm, it all went away for Roberto Duran.

The toughest fighter in the world, who had been nicknamed “Hands of Stone,” surrendered out of frustration in a 1980 rematch with Ray Leonard and instantly saw his identity change.

The “No Mas” phrase he supposedly used in the ring remains a part of sports vocabulary more than 30 years later, and considering the depths to which Duran sank within two years of the incident—a loss to unheralded Englishman Kirkland Laing on ESPN in September 1982—recovery seemed impossible.

Until, that is, it happened.

Duran returned from the Laing upset with consecutive defeats of Jimmy Batten and Pipino Cuevas, parlaying those wins into a 154-pound title match with unbeaten champion Davey Moore at Madison Square Garden on his 32nd birthday.

An adoring crowd cheered the Panamanian as he savaged the 24-year-old Moore to win a third weight-class crown and begin a post-resurrection chapter that ultimately yielded a middleweight championship and big-ticket bouts with Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and, a third time, Leonard.

Ring Magazine’s Lee Groves described the Moore win this way: “Duran, who knew the sting of being a pariah, clearly fed off the crowd’s positive energy as well as the prospect of regaining everything he had lost in the Leonard rematch—money, power and respect. He was the perfect blend of science and savagery as he took Moore apart piece by piece.”

Duran fought regularly through 2001 before retiring after a loss to Hector Camacho at age 50 with a record of 103-16—including 31 wins in 45 fights after the surrender.

1. George Foreman

Even upon historical reflection, it seems a preposterous scenario.

Take a 28-year-old championship-level fighter in the prime of his career and put him on the shelf for eight days short of a decade...then put him back in the ring and watch him regain past glory.

It’s the unlikeliness of it all that puts George Foreman’s comeback above all others.

The once-sullen Texan returned to the ring as a jolly, burger-eating pitchman and ultimately worked his way into title contention, initially losing a gritty 12-round effort against Evander Holyfield before returning three-and-a-half years later for a memorable one-punch knockout of an unbeaten Michael Moorer.

The impossible 10th-round sequence on Nov. 5, 1994, led HBO’s Jim Lampley to shriek “it happened, it happened” into his ringside microphone, and prompted Sports Illustrated’s Richard Hoffer to sum it up this way in the magazine’s subsequent Nov. 14 issue:

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Moorer lifted his head up for a second, seemed to exhale and lay back down to sleep. The WBA title had just passed hands from a 26-year-old, 222-pound athlete in very good condition to an overweight middle-aged man who had been reaping the rewards of tabloid boxing (tantalizing headlines but very little substance) since he began his comeback in 1987.

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Lampley's HBO colleague, Larry Merchant, chimed in with his own shock and awe: 

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This was a 2-to-1 fight, but in my mind it was a gazillion-to-1 that George Foreman could ever win the heavyweight championship again. This is a really remarkable achievement and it has to stand on its own. We're in a show-and-tell medium, and show does it all.

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The magic was short-lived, though. Foreman fought just four more times—winning three—after the Moorer match before retiring in 1997. His post-ring life as a grill pitchman is going strong, however, and his latest product—The Evolve Grill System—is now available.

Like we said. Preposterous, indeed.