Unless we are talking about a horror movie, it is almost impossible to find figures who have made successful comebacks in history. Alan Garcia's success as President of Peru for the second time, for example, remains to be seen. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr's attempt at reviving Beatlemania during the middle 1990's came about 20 years too late.
Pac Man, the video game character and not the Philippine boxing superstar, has been revived over and over but never reached the frenzy state it did during the 1980's. Even Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player in history, slowed down during his third NBA comeback, failing to bring the Washington Wizards to contender status.
Like Jordan, many sports personalities have attempted comebacks.
Martina Navratilova has been a welcome return in the Women's Tennis Association, although she has limited her activities to doubles competition only. The beloved Dave Dravecky made a miraculous comeback to baseball after being diagnosed with Cancer, and he went as far as pitching for the San Francisco Giants during the 1989 World Series. And who can forget inspirational Greg Louganis, who, if even by a couple of seconds, came back from a head injury to take a gold medal with the same jump at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games?
While there have been several sports comebacks, boxing has become the pariah of sports when it comes down to returns. Take 1984 in boxing, for example. That year, some long retired fighters announced comebacks that only tarnished their ring legacies, namely Pipino Cuevas, Danny Lopez, and Vito Antuofermo.
Two others, Wilfred Benitez and Leon Spinks, were losing fights against people they would have beaten had they fought before, and a sixth boxer, Leo Cruz, also demonstrated intentions to return, although he proved all the wiser by resisting the temptations of a ring comeback, just like Marvin Hagler has done.
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