End of an era for boxing

In a week were 3 living legends have hung up the gloves and retired from boxing, is this the end of an era for boxing. In this post I will be looking at their careers, and looking at what their Legacy’s will be.

Wladimir Klitschko

Wladimir Klitschko shocked the world this week when he announced his retirement when the whole world thought that he would be announcing his rematch with Anthony Joshua.

He first came to the worlds attention back in 1996 after winning the Olympic gold medal, this was the culmination of a very successful amateur career consisting of 134 wins with only 6 losses.

He made his professional debut on the 16th November 1996 against Fabian Meza he won the fight with a 1st round knockout after flooring Meza twice in the opener. His professional career got off to a great start as he didn’t suffer his first loss until 5th December 1998. Despite this defeat he came back well and his career continued to go from strength to strength he won his first major title in September 1999 when he knocked out Axel Schulz in the 8th round, to win the European title.

He got his first shot at world honours on the 15th July 2000 when he took on Chris Byrd for the WBO title he put in a punch perfect performance to win by unanimous decision after sending Byrd to the canvas twice in the 9th and the 11th rounds. He went on to make 5 successful defences before he came up against South African Corrie Sanders who destroyed him in just 2 rounds. This defeat left people asking questions about his chin. He came back again and earned another shot at the world title on the 20th December 2003, however he was again knocked out by Lamon Brewster in the 5th round.

After another defeat in a world title fight many people questioned whether he actually had what it took to compete at world level. After the defeat to Brewster he decided that a change was needed and he teamed up with hall of fame trainer Emanuel Steward who completely changed his boxing style and the pair went on to dominate the heavyweight division for over a decade.

So what will Klitschko’s legacy be well love him or loathe him I don’t think anyone can argue that he will go down in history as one of the best heavyweight champions of all time as throughout his career he made an incredible 37 successful world title defences. He held the IBF, WBO and WBA titles longer than any fighter in the history of the sport, he also had the second longest rain as world heavyweight champion of 9 years and 8 months, second only to the great Joe Louis who rained for an unbelievable 11 years and 8 months.

He retired with an amazing record of 64-5 with 53 knockouts

Timothy Bradley

Timothy Bradley also called time on his remarkable career this week. He started boxing when he was just 10 years old and went on to have an impressive amateur career consisting of 140 fights, before he turned professional he was ranked 3rd in the US.

He had his first professional fight on the 20th August 2004 were he beat Francisco Martinz with a 1st round knockout. He had an amazing start to his professional career winning 4 out of his first 6 fights by knockout.

He won his first professional title just a year after turning professional when he won the WBC Youth welterweight title in 2005. He then went on to win the WBC Youth super lightweight title in 2006. He won his first full world title on the 10th May 2008 when he beat Junior Witter by a split decision to win the WBC World super lightweight title. His career continued to go from strength to strength when he unified the devision on the 4th May 2009 when he beat Kendall Holt by unanimous decision to retain his WBC title and win the WBO title.

He continued to defend his titles until 9th June 2012 when he stepped up to welterweight to take on Manny Pacquio for the WBO welterweight title a fight that he won by split decision a result that was seen as somewhat of an upset. He again made a number of successful defences of his titles until the rematch with Manny Pacquio

On the 12th April 2014 2 years after their 1st fight Bradley and Pacquio went to war again for the WBO welterweight title this time Pacquio came out victorious winning a unanimous decision. This was Bradley’s first defeat as a professional, and some people thought it would be the end of the road for him but he came back in December 2014 but he could only manage a draw against Diego Gabriel Chaves. However he did get another shot at world honours on the 7th November 2015 when he took on Brandon Rios for the WBO welterweight title a fight he won with a 9th round stoppage after putting Rios on the canvas twice in the round. He made 1 successful defence of the title before taking on Manny Pacquio for a 3rd time.

On the 9th April 2016 Pacquio and Bradley got it on again in the 3rd fight in their epic trilogy and once again Pacquio came out on top winning a very wide unanimous decision, to once and for all settle the score. This was Bradley’s last fight.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Timothy Bradley will go down in boxing history as one of the best welterweights of all time. He was a 2 weight world champion making a total of 8 world title defences. He was also one of the bravest fighters to ever step into the ring because let’s face it you’ve got to be brave to go toe to toe with Manny Pacquio 3 times and their trilogy will definitely go down in boxing history.

He finished his career with a record of 33-2-1 with 13 knockouts his only defeats came against Manny Pacquio.

Juan Manuel Marquez

Juan Manuel Marquez officially retired this week although he hasn’t fought since 2014.

He didn’t have the best start to his professional career when he was disqualified on his debut on the 29th May 1993 against Javier Duran. However after that he went on to win his next 19 fights. He got his first shot at the world title on the 3rd February 1997 against Cedric Mingo knocking Mingo out in the 10th round after putting him down twice in the fight, in the 1st and the 10th rounds to win the WBO Featherweight title. He made a number of successful defences before taking on Freddie Northwood for the WBA featherweight title.

On the 11th September 1999 he took on Freddie Northwood for the WBA featherweight title. It was a great fight with both fighters hitting the canvas throughout the fight, with Marquez going down in the 2nd round and Northwood going down in the 9th but in the end Northwood came out the victor winning a unanimous decision. This was only Marquez’s 2nd loss and you could say his first true loss since he was disqualified on his debut.

He came back well from the loss to Northwood winning his next 10 fights and picking up both the NABF (North America Boxing Federation) and the USBA (United States Boxing Association) titles along the way.

On the 1st February 2003 he got another shot at the world title stopping Manuel Medina in the 7th round after putting him on the floor in the 2nd and 7th rounds to win the IBF featherweight title. He then went on to unify the devision when he stopped Derrick Gainer in the 7th round of their fight to retain his IBF title and win the WBA super title.

On the 8th May 2004 came the first of four fights with Manny Pacquio it was a great fight which ended in somewhat of an anticlimax with the fight been scored a split decision draw, so both fighters retained their titles.

After the Pacquio fight he went on to make another 2 successful defences of his titles. On the 4th March 2006 he took on Chris John in John’s 5th defence the pair swopped punches for 12 rounds with John winning a wide unanimous decision. After the loss to John he came back and won the interim WBO featherweight title.

On the 17th March 2007 he made the move up to super featherweight to take on Marco Antonio Barrera for the WBC title. He put in one of the best performances of his career to win a unanimous decision and become a 2 weight world champion. He made 1 successful defence, then on 15th March 2008 he step back in the ring with Pacquio it was another amazing fight with Pacquio winning a tight split decision.

After losing to Pacquio he moved to lightweight and took on Joel Casamayor for the Ring Magazine lightweight title he knocked out Casamayor in the 11th round. He went on to again unify another weight devision when he took on Juan Diaz for the WBO,WBA and the IBO world titles he knocked out Diaz to once again become a world champion.

On the 19th September 2009 he took on Floyd Mayweather, and Mayweather put on a boxing master class to win a wide unanimous decision. After Mayweather he went straight back in the ring with Juan Diaz for their rematch, this time however the fight went the distance and he won a wide unanimous decision to retain his WBO and WBA titles. He then faced a mandatory defence against Michael Katsidis he stopped him in the 9th round to once again retain his world titles.

On the 12th November 2011 he moved up to welterweight to take on Manny Pacquio for the 3rd time. Once again the pair put on another great boxing show and once again Pacquio came out on top winning a split decision to retain his WBO belt. After losing to Pacquio again he moved down to light welterweight to win the WBO interim title with a unanimous decision victory over Serhiy Fedchenko.

On the 8th December 2012 he move back up to welterweight and went to war with Manny Pacquio for the final time, and the fight was something know body saw coming. After putting Pacquio on the canvas in the 3rd and the 5th rounds he scored a devastating knockout in the 6th round.

On the12th of October 2013 he got his final shot at a world title when he took on Timothy Bradley for the WBO welterweight title the fight was an all out war with Bradley winning a close split decision.

His final fight took place on the 17th May 2014 when he took on Mike Alvarado and he put in a punch perfect performance to win a very wide unanimous decision.

There’s no doubt that Juan Manuel Marquez will go down in boxing history he won 7 world titles in 3 different weight devisions, and had 4 wars with Manny Pacquio. Most of all he was a typical Mexican great hand speed and power, with a granite chin he was never in a boring fight and he never ducked a fight. He was just a joy to watch in the ring and a gentleman out of it.

His final record is an unbelievable 56-7-1 with 40 knockouts

Now I’m sure you will agree that all 3 of these warriors did a lot for boxing and they will be missed, and I’m sure all 3 of them will be in the hall of fame one day. Please comment below and let me know what you think.