Best, worst comebacks in sports history

Kevin Hench / Special to FOXSports.com

When Evander Holyfield steps into the ring against Jeremy Bates on Friday night (Best Damn Sports Show Period, 10:30 p.m. ET), he will be continuing either one of two longstanding boxing traditions: the incredible comeback against overwhelming odds or the sad, embarrassing epilogue to a brilliant career.

Lord knows boxing has had a bunch of both. The sweet science has given us Sugar Ray Leonard's shocking upset of Marvelous Marvin Hagler after a three-year layoff. It has also given us Joe Frazier's draw against Jumbo Cummings in 1981, a charitable result from the judges in the former champ's final fight.

Holyfield has already written one of the all-time great comeback stories in sports history. After losing to Michael Moorer and being diagnosed with what was presumed to be a career-ending heart defect, the Real Deal entered the ring against Mike Tyson in 1996 and beat the prohibitive favorite senseless, knocking him out in the 11th round. But with losses to Larry Donald, James Toney and Chris Byrd in his last three fights and a 2-5-2 mark in his last nine bouts, a comeback for the 43-year-old Holyfield would seem unlikely.
In honor of Holyfield's latest comeback attempt, here are the five best and five worst comebacks in sports history.

5. Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan went out on top. Twice. (That is ... before he went out with a whimper — more on that later.) After walking away from the NBA after winning three straight titles in 1993 — in part to go prove why there are no 6-foot-6 slap hitters in baseball — MJ returned after a year-and-a-half absence and electrified the hoop world by dropping 55 points on the Knicks in Madison Square Garden in just his fifth game back.

Though the Bulls would lose to the Magic in the '95 playoffs, Jordan would complete his comeback with another three-peat, winning titles in '96, '97 and '98, the last one on his picture-perfect jumper in the closing moments of Game 6 against the Jazz.

4. Mario Lemieux

It's hard to choose between the two most stirring comebacks Le Magnifique made in his incredible career. By the time the 1992-93 NHL season began, Lemieux had already become accustomed to adversity and pain, battling his way through severe back problems to carry the Penguins to the Stanley Cup in '91 and '92. But then he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma during the '92-93 season. While he spent two months undergoing radiation treatments, the Pens struggled mightily and Pat LaFontaine moved 12 points ahead of Lemieux in the scoring race.

What he did upon his return was simply ridiculous. Lemieux went on the greatest scoring binge of a very scoring-bingey career, finishing with 160 points in only 60 games played, easily winning the Art Ross trophy as the league's top scorer. In his final 20 games of the season, Super Mario had 30 goals and 26 assists. But on Dec. 27, 2000, he may have topped that.

Chronic back pain had forced Lemieux into retirement in 1997, but three years later his team needed him again and No. 66 answered the call. Just 33 seconds into his first game back against the Maple Leafs, he notched an assist and would later add a goal and another assist. At age 35, after a three-year layoff, Lemieux scored 76 points in just 43 games, leading the league in points per game. Super Mario capped his final comeback by winning an Olympic gold medal for Canada in 2002.

3. Muhammad Ali

Ali was 25 years old when he knocked out Zora Folley in the seventh round on March 22, 1967, to retain his heavyweight title in Madison Square Garden and 32 when he reclaimed his title from an undefeated George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in '74.

In the intervening seven years, Ali was stripped of his belt for refusing induction into the Army, effectively banned from boxing for three years and then lost the Fight of the Century to Joe Frazier upon his return to the ring. By the time he got into the ring with Foreman, who was 40-0 and had crushed both Frazier and Ken Norton (the only two men who had beaten Ali), few gave Ali a shot. But Ali came off the ropes to knock out Foreman in the eighth round, completing his epic comeback while setting the stage for his vanquished opponent's own improbable comeback odyssey.

2. George Foreman

It is without question the greatest single line in any athlete's bio: "George Foreman — heavyweight champion 1973-74, '94-97." When Foreman dropped that anvil of a short right on Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their title fight on Nov. 5, 1994, it had been 20 years since he lost his title to Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle. Twenty years!

1. Lance Armstrong

You know the story. The cancer originated in his testicle. Then it spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. The odds of survival were about 30 percent. The aggressive chemotherapy treatment destroyed his musculature, permanently damaged his kidneys and burned his skin from the inside out. Then he won the Tour de France. Seven times.

Worst comebacks

5. Ricky Williams

Frustrated by the NFL's drug policy and not overly enamored with the game of football to begin with, Williams embarked on a soul-searching walkabout that briefly made him one of the most intriguing people in sports. Things got sticky-icky for Ricky when the Dolphins took exception to underwriting his world tour and asked for their money back. It's unclear if Williams found what he was looking for on his sojourn, but he was definitely not what Miami was looking for in a running back upon his return.



After serving a four-game suspension at the start of the 2005 season, he burst back onto the NFL scene with eight yards on five carries in a loss to the Buccaneers, then followed that up with six carries for a net loss of one yard in a loss to the Chiefs. Williams ended up with decent stats last year — 743 yards and a 4.4 yards-per-carry average — but then flunked another drug test, his fourth violation of the league's substance abuse policy, earning a one-year suspension.

After seeking sanctuary in the CFL, Williams broke his arm last month playing for the Toronto Argonauts and finds himself in his usual spot — on the sideline.

4. Ben Johnson

Determined to prove that his run to Olympic glory in Seoul in 1988 hadn't been fueled entirely by banned substances, Johnson mounted a comeback in 1991. Propped in the starting blocks of the 100-meter semifinal heat in Barcelona in '92, he had his chance. He finished dead last, thereby convincing the sports world that his run to Olympic glory had been fueled entirely by steroids. He failed another drug test in 1993 and received a lifetime ban, which he fought unsuccessfully to have overturned in court. In October '99, Johnson entered his first "competition" since the lifetime ban and finished third behind the two horses he was racing in a charity event.

3. Jose Canseco

Enough already. You're done. Though this is probably more sideshow than genuine comeback attempt, Canseco is hitting .186 for the Long Beach Armada of the independent (very independent) Golden Baseball League. Canseco no doubt thinks he's being kept out of baseball for violating the juicers' omerta, but the guy is 42 and was a one-dimensional liability when he last played in the bigs in 2001. Since then, Canseco has failed auditions with the Angels, Expos and Dodgers, which is still less embarrassing than sinking with the Armada.

2. Muhammad Ali

The Greatest of All Time gave us one of the best and two of the worst comebacks of all time. Two years after beating Leon Spinks to reclaim his title, Ali came out of retirement to fight former sparring partner and new champ Larry Holmes. The Easton Assassin pounded a diminished Ali mercilessly — though Holmes would later claim to have pulled some punches in deference to his idol — on his way to an 11th-round TKO. The image of Ali slumped on his stool stands in stark contrast to his triumphant poses over Sonny Liston and Foreman. As if the loss to Holmes wasn't bad enough, Ali further tarnished his legacy a year later, losing a unanimous decision to the immortal Trevor Berbick.

1. Michael Jordan

Not only did Michael grow mortal right in front of our eyes, but his ill-advised comeback with the Wizards splattered paint on the Mona Lisa of career-capping finishes. Instead of the storybook ending with his wrist bent as the championship-winning jumper splashed through the net, we're left with images of a cranky old man glowering at Kwame Brown. Yuck!

Kevin Hench is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com.