Can you be great without a never say die heart and guts?

It's much easier to have that never say die attitude when you're routinely facing opponents you're way bigger than, bigger than or at worst roughly your size who you hold huge, big or the physical advantages over and are never facing opponents much or way bigger than you who hold big or huge physical on you which you have to try and overcome

And are facing featherfists or average punchers the vast majority of the time you're way or bigger than or ones who are, again, at worst your size and are never facing KO artists and legit bangers and especially ones bigger or way bigger than you

And when you're fighting exclusively in your backyard or in your country your entire career or if not at worst only not doing so once or twice in your entire career

Loma turned pro at almost 26 and 135 would've bare minimum been his 6th or 7th weight class had he turned pro at the same age so many of his peers and fellow greats did and he was very often fighting huge or massive 135 pounder weight bullies who were campaigning in their 1st division. Hence why he looked so tiny or small compared to them and he was completely maxed out at that weight and truth be told didn't belong at that weight. He moved up because he dared to be great not because he was a massive weight bully who moved up because they could no longer boil their bodies down to make weight and when he moved up in weight, in complete contrast to all these multiple weight massive weight bully champs, he was actually facing bigger, much or way bigger guys who did hold huge physical advantages over him, weight and reach and often height too

And he fought lots of punchers or KO artists not only his size but much or way bigger and he was a very aggressive fighter who took the fight to his opponents, despite very often being smaller or much or way smaller and fighting much bigger fighters who were huge punchers or big punchers against opponents their size in a division he didn't belong in

The only fight he fought tentatively in was the first half of the fight against a much bigger Teofimo who was not only much bigger than him but is also extremely fast and explosive for his size and is very talented and has elite skills too and, as said, he was fighting in his 1st division and one which would've been Loma 6th or 7th bare minimum had he turned pro at the same age.

And even then Loma took the fight to him in the 2nd half of the fight and was beating him up for spells of it despite that and despite being hampered by a serious shoulder injury

People forget how devastating a puncher Teo was at 135. Hell, his power, speed, and skills put massive 140 pounder Josh Taylor into his shell

This is what he was doing to natural 135 pounders and even massive 135 pounders who came in as high as 154

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Loma has either KO'd, stopped, come within a whisker of stopping, badly or hurt every 135 pounder he's fought sans Teo even though they were all bigger or very often much or way bigger than him

He wasn't running and holding on for dear life to try and mitigate their power and size he was taking the fight to them

 

It's crazy this needs to be explained. Much easier for the chap on the right to be brave than the one on the left. The one on the left already passes the bravery test with flying colours by not running in the opposite direction at breakneck speed

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Yes, Salido should've 100% been DQ'd in that fight but the notoriously corrupt ref whose eagle eye somehow managed to spot Dirrell and Abraham's feet getting slightly tangled to dismiss a KD against the home fighter missed all those low blows despite so many of them being so flagrant a blind man could've seen them from the cheap seats and so many of them in full view of him

In one sequence in round 11 or 12 Roy, Jim and Max couldn't believe their eyes when Salido cracked Loma with 3 very low blows one after the other in quick succession right in full view of Cole. The guy is a corrupt as sin. One point deduction for over 50 low blows, just 1, and the fight is a draw

And let's not forget Salido had an 11lb weight advantage, deliberately missed weight by 2lbs, and Loma was 1-0 and had never been past 5 rounds before or fought a world class pro, and he was the one who hurt Salido and had him in big trouble in the 11th or 12th and Cole came to Salido's rescue to buy him some time

Not to mention over a 3rd of Salido's total punch connects were illegal blows and Loma still outlanded him by 22 shots