Has a world level fighter ever gone into a fight thinking they'd lose?

Narvaez vs Donaire
Pascal in the Hopkins rematch

 

barker martinez

 

Its mentioned in joes book, came as quite a shock, the fear that rocky used to talk about controlling and using it as an advantage was on show.:yep

 

floyd patterson against liston.

 

:think he sure did seem happy about something after the fight was over

 

I beg to differ. He chose to do his talking with his fist. I remember that split screen. Prior to getting dropped, Gatti was on a mission to win. I could care less who makes fun of him or sees him as a B fighter, he was a warrior. PBF just was and is the best fighter out there right now. Now Seldon vs Tyson is another story.

 

For goodness sake, he just was so excited that he made it through to the twelve and his defence looked good.

 

i'll have to have a re-read:smoke

 

Definetely Bruce Seldon, he even faked being knocked down and out to purposely lose.

Edit: Brucey Seldon

 

Anyone vs the klitschkos

 

Chavez during his last fight did, as mentioned in his featured documentary. I suppose he doesn't count because he was shot, but it was weird seeing him sit there sleepless on the couch late at night going "If it goes past 3 rounds, I'm going to lose. The truth is I didn't train well."

 

It's sad to say but Mosley had to know that he'd lose badly to Pacman although I strongly suspect that he thought he had a good chance to beat Money.

Another example would Tyson v Lewis. Iron Mike had to know he was in trouble although it's debatable how close to "world class" he actually was at that point.

 

does a fighter to scared to even get in the ring because he knows he will lose count?

then mayweather vs pac

 

Spniks v Tyson