(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
So much was made this summer about Brett Favre and a possible comeback to football for a second straight year. Favre is not the first athlete to waffle on retirement. Favre would be an amateur in the world of boxing.
The sweet science seems to be one sport where the participants cannot walk away.
This Saturday is no exception as Floyd “Money” Mayweather comes out of retirement to face Juan Manuel Marquez. While titles are great to fight for, this fight has Mayweather’s undefeated career streak is on the line.
With Mayweather coming out of retirement let’s look back at ten other boxers to come out of retirement or back to the ring after long layoff in no particular order.
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson was one of the most feared boxers in the world. He was the youngest heavyweight champion ever. At one time Tyson looked like he was unbeatable.
“Iron” Mike was unstoppable until he met James “Buster” Douglas in Japan in 1990. After the Douglas fight, Tyson set out to regain his championship.
Tyson had himself in position to fight for the title against Evander Holyfield who had beaten Douglas in his first title defense. That was until Tyson was arrested and charged with rape in 1991 and convicted in 1993. Tyson spent the next three years in prison.
After he was released he destroyed some lesser fighters in early matches.
The buildup around Tyson was huge as he got ready to regain the heavyweight title. Tyson got the WBC belt when he beat Frank Buno and the WBA when he beat Bruce Sheldon.
After Douglas beat Tyson he lost the title to Evander Holyfield who lost the title to Micheal Moorer. The match with Holyfield was going to happen and this time Tyson was the champion.
The hype for this fight was enormous. Tyson and his camp complained about head butts by Holyfield after he lost the title to Evander in a TKO in the 11th round. Tyson would bite off part of Holyfield’s ear in the rematch.
The rest of Tyson’s career in and out of the ring devolved in to a side show. Tyson’s career has been marred by personal tragedy, legal troubles, and strange mental actions.
Jack Dempsey
Legendary fighter Jack Dempsey won the heavyweight title in 1919 after Jess Willard’s corner men would not let him out of this corner to start the fourth round. Dempsey would defend his title five times over the next four years.
Dempsey would not defend his title for the next three years. During that time there was talk of a fight against black fighter Henry Wills. The fight never transpired and historians still try to decide if it was race or if Dempsey was ducking Wills.
When Dempsey did defend his title it was against World War I hero Gene Tunney. Tunney was also coming back to fighting after the war.
In a stunning upset Tunney defeated Dempsey to take his title. Dempsey would consider retirement but decided to go after the title one last time. He defeated Jack Sharkey to get a rematch against Tunney.
In the olden days of boxing a fighter could stand over his opponent while he was on the ground and hit him if he tried to get up. A new rule was beginning to take hold in boxing where a fighter had to go to his corner after a knockdown.
That rule was added to the Dempsey vs. Tunney rematch fight by the Dempsey camp. In the fight Dempsey was losing on points when he knocked Tunney down in the seventh round.
Dempsey would not go back to his corner and stood over Tunney. The referee had to escort Dempsey back to his corner. After getting Dempsey to his corner the referee began to count out Tunney. At the count of nine Tunney got back to his feet.
Dempsey tried to finish off Tunney before the round ended but was not able to. The official time keeper counted the time Tunney was down as 14 seconds.
The rule Dempsey wanted in the fight ended up costing him as Tunney won on points in the fight known as “the long count”. Dempsey would retire and never fight again professionally.
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