In his prime: Muhammad Ali back in 1974 (Picture: AP)

Audley Harrison has finally announced his retirement after Saturday’s first-round defeat to Deontay Wilder. The Olympic gold medallist at the Millennium Games in Sydney has become such a parody of his former self that bookmakers Paddy Power are joking that his favourite gloves are for sale: in mint condition as they are hardly used. Here are ten other top sports stars who waited too long before deciding to call it a day.

10. It’s not cricket

Ricky Ponting is still playing and will provide firepower at the crease for Surrey this summer. The awesome Aussie, one of the greatest players ever with 13,378 Test runs for the Baggy Greens, should have stepped away from the international stage long before he did. The runs had dried up way before his 168th and final Test against South Africa in December.



9. Simply the Best

George Best spent 11 glorious years with Manchester United, helping regain their glory years after the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster by winning the European Cup in 1967 back in the days when you had to win your domestic championship to qualify for the blue riband event. Best’s outstanding flair, touch and sheer gracefulness means he is in the same elite bracket as Maradona, Pele and Lionel Messi. But his career has wrecked by an addiction to alcohol and the time spent at Hong Kong Rangers, Bournemouth, Brisbane Lions, Nuneaton Borough, Northern Irish minnows Tobermore United and many more only cast a sad shadow on those epic years.

8. Sent Packing

Brett Favre was a folk hero in Wisconsin and was considered cooler than The Fonz after starring as the Green Bay Packers quarterback and leading them to Super Bowl glory. He could do no wrong – until he decided he couldn’t stay retired and played for a number of teams including the New York Jets and hated rivals the Minnesota Vikings. In doing so, Favre came up with the perfect blueprint to destroy your own legacy.


7. Too Bullish to call it quits

Michael Jordan is one of the top five sportsmen of all time and his name is recognised all round the world. He was even a success when returning to the Chicago Bulls after an abortive mission to become a baseball player and taking his NBA title tally in the Windy City to six. He retired in 1998, only to play for the Washington Wizards for two years from 2001 and it just wasn’t the same. Recent claims he is thinking about proving he can cut it at 50 send shivers down the spines of his millions of admirers.

6. Swing and a miss

Babe Ruth redefined the game of baseball with an astonishing .342 career batting average, 714 home runs and seven World Series victories, five of them with the New York Yankees. But George Herman Ruth was unable to recognise it was no longer time to step up to the plate when he was allowed to leave the Bronx in 1934. Two years with the Boston Braves produced little than to show he was a shadow of his former formidable self.



5. Oh Jimmy, Jimmy

Jimmy Connors won five US open titles, two Wimbledon championships and enjoyed an Australian Open success. His last grand slam was at Flushing Meadows in 1983 and although he was still capable of reaching the last four on the clay at Roland Garros in the French Open in 1985, his career was in decline. He kept playing for another decade until he was just a couple of months short of his 43rd birthday.

4. Final days are not so sweet for Sugar

Sugar Ray Leonard was one of the finest fighters to climb between the ropes, winning world titles in five weight divisions and becoming the first boxer to earn more than $100million dollars. His only defeat in his first 34 contests was to Roberto Duran and that was avenged in devastating fashion. But after hanging up his gloves in 1989, Sugar Ray returned two years later and lost a points decision to Terry Norris at Madison Square Garden. Worse still, he made another comeback in 1997 and was stopped in the fifth in Atlantic City by Hector Camacho.

3. Fall of a god

Pele was the king as far as the football world was concerned until Diego Maradona popped up on the scene. He won his first World Cup with Brazil when he was just 17 and graced every final he played in wearing the famous yellow shirt. Pele scored goal after goal throughout his career for Santos in his native country until the twilight of his playing days when he headed to the United States and was wheeled out by the New York Cosmos. It was almost sadder than the adverts for the sex pills he now appears in.


2. Arnie’s barmy as he keeps trying to please his army

Arnold Palmer won ten major championships and his battles his Jack Nicklaus were legendary. But while the Golden Bear put his favourite putter in the golf bag a while after he should have stopped playing, Arnie kept plugging away until 2005, with his peak in the early Sixties just a distant memory. To many fans following the rise of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, he was just the old guy wheeled out for a bit of nostalgia.

1. When the butterfly stopped floating and the bee could no longer sting

Muhammad Ali is the regarded as the greatest sports man ever and his battles with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and George Foreman are still enjoyed and revered by today’s boxing fans. But Ali refused to listen to advice from those close to him, who could not stand watching him box any longer. He should have called it a day after winning the WBA heavyweight title off Leon Spinks in 1978. Instead he lost to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick a couple of years later and although they were both superb fighters in their own right, Ali was too old to face them. The punishment he took was terrible to behold and not befitting a great champion.