Most Bizarre/Worst Excuse You've Ever Heard From A Fighter That Lost?

I wasn't holding it against him, and I know he'd never have said it in a sound state of mind.

But this is a thread for bizarre post-loss explanations, and you can't get much more bizarre than a fighter claiming that the loss, witnessed by everyone in attendance and watching on TV just minutes before, never happened.

 

When Galento said he lost because he did not get to fight "his" fight, he meant indulge in an unlimited amount of shameless cheating.
I guess anyone-at least a World Class fighter in your division-might win if allowed enough dirty & debilitating illegal tricks & punches.

 

‘I don’t feel I was knocked down,Maybe I took a punch,maybe I was knocked down’.Vic Darchinyan after he was on the losing end of the 2007 knockout of the year.

‘I’ll show you my toe right now its busted’.David hayes broken toe excuse.when he took off his boot his toe certainly didn’t look like it was broken.

 

‘I drank a really hot cup of coffee’

 

Wilder's costume tops everything.

 

I lost because my Daddy-O was not in my corner anymore, neither was my Baby Sitter, I am not in my prime at 23 because I laid a Goose Egg while Naughty Polly The Parrot watched the crooked referee count real fast on me creating the Grassy Knoll effect. Ha Ha.

 

And it made me need to poo really bad

 

Foreman also claimed to have been drugged for the Ali fight. He said he was given water that had a medicine taste before the fight, and entered the ring with the medicine taste in his mouth. He said he was unusually tired after the third round.

 

Yeah, George Foreman got drugged by Rope A Dope..

 

The David Haye one was embarrassing. If I recall correctly he went into quite a bit of detail why that big toe cost him the fight. I liked Haye back then and remember thinking for god sake man shut up.

 

Sorry to bump this old thread but it's a habit I really don't like doing but excellent examples. Williams to his credit, never made such a claim. Others attributed the claim to him which he denied iirc. He just got beat by the better man. It happens. They were actually very good friends and Liston even visited Williams in the hospital when he was shot. Source: https://www.boxingoverbroadway.com/wp-content/uploads/Liston-Benbow-Williams.jpg

Williams ironically was also on the other end of this equation in his bout against Machen. At the time, many attributed Machen's performance in his draw with Williams, to Machen's supposed declined mental health state citing Machen's subsequent commitment to a mental health institution, as opposed to Williams' overperforming against the no. 2 contender. Only problem is, Machen was fine going into the bout and did not act, appear, or fight different. I believe his mental state declined as Machen (and Williams as well for that matter) had eliminated himself from title contention with the draw, subsequently had trouble securing fights, leading to a loss of income. Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120138988/daily-news-post/

I believe his breaking point occurred when he could not afford Christmas presents for his kids, and nobody was willing to lend him money Will try to find a source and get back to you on that.

Here's a very interesting piece (I seriously love stumbling into gems like these), delving into Machen's decline and comparing it with Billy Miske's illness. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120139197/valley-times/.

Machen to his credit, never complained, nor made excuses for his performance against Williams. His team did not even complain of a hometown decision.

"Machen if unhappy over the verdict had no second thoughts about his part of the fight and said it went as planned".

"Both of them looked like real professional heavyweights. I'm happy with the draw" Machen's manager, Sid Flaherty.

Flaherty "added he had no complaints with the official scoring"

Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120139676/the-fresno-bee/

It's why I always found it very odd he made excuses for his loss to Liston. Very unlike him. He made zero excuses for other fights that didn't go his way such as the forementioned Williams bout, Ingo, and Folley.

I can't even say it wasn't an excuse because as you stated their was zero mention of anything getting into his eyes until the Ali bout (for the record Dundee and Ali both dismissed theories Liston intentionally blinded Ali) and instead insisted he'd hurt his arm in training and attributed his performance to that, which to his credit, there does seem to be some substance there (not that he'd beat Liston with two or even four arms).

I personally attribute it to that mental breakdown. I don't think he ever fully recovered mentally and he was clearly a shell of himself when he returned. His post return rating (along that of Williams post-shooting rating a two and a half years later) was a joke.

Teddy Brenner, long time boxing matchmaker and hall of famer was at his fight with Patterson and made the following remarks

"He had no zip, no reflexes. He was just pushing his punches. He had nothing... He wasn't even 25 per cent of the old Machen. He looked like a guy who was sleep walking... It wouldn't have drawn more than $15,000 or $20,000 any place in the United States. Patterson says he's willing to fight his way back to a title fight. I think he should fight someone like Doug Jones or Cleveland Williams."

https://pasteboard.co/WDCHykdimwSy.png

Sorry for rambling on, I probably should've stopped 20 minutes ago.

 

Yes that is the one that tops every other excuse.

I know that this was n't a loss but Chris Eubank (senior) once claimed that the reason why he put on a lacklustre performance in some fight was because he could n't get his barber down before the fight. I can't recall who his opponent was. If Chris had lost that bout the excuse would be right up there with Wilder's costume.

 

Same here, I just got done watching that fight recently. Extremely high level fight from both fighters, Leonard's confidence began to build as the rounds went on and his footwork is probably the best I've ever seen at Welterweight. Duran was still in the fight, I don't feel like he was hurt or really losing at all, it was a pretty even fight until Leonard started showboating and doing some funny faces in round 7 which completely demoralized Duran. Duran could of even won round 8 if he kept what he was doing in the first 2 minutes and not engage Leonard in the last minute but he lost the exchanges against Leonard who was much faster than him with the longer reach and he just randomlyt quit. There was still 7 more rounds, Duran quitting like that and blaming it on stomach cramps is absurd, probably the worst excuse in the history of boxing. The man just didn't want to be there anymore when things weren't going his way.

 

"It was n't the African weather. It was the Ali leather"

 

I was actually cringeing when I was listening to Haye go on about that.