Jon Jones to face Vitor Belfort on Sept 22

Its pretty clear what you are saying.
An other example was Tyson and we all saw what happend in the fight against Buster Douglas

 

Yeah winning was his enemy, so it would've been better if he'd lost earlier in his reign, then he'd probably have won that fight. Thoroughly constructive stuff here. :nut

 

He won people hyped him he started to believe his own hype and thus believed that he didnt need to take a challanger seriously thus not training seriously and lost to someone he shouldnt have lost to.
Its not rocket science

 

any slight hope i had of Vitor winning this fight has already left after his ass kissing statement towards Jones.

Shame on you Vitor :nono

 

Prime examples:
Bernard Hopkins
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=1414&cat=boxer

Wladimir Klitschko
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=7035&cat=boxer

And in mma , the first example that comes to mind is Anderson , then Fedor.
(anderson lost twice in japan and fedor once)...and that was before his ufc reign. However , that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't get used to the taste of victory.
Or that they're immuned to defeat. It can always happen.

Because as soon as champs get used to that "comfort zone" a bit too much...Then they're suseptible of getting caught again. (Unless they know when to quit.) Unless....their determination is ridiculous. (prime example , Rafael Nadal...I know it's in a different sport , but it should get the point across).

Of course ,what i'm saying only applies to great potentials (champ caliber) fighters. Not cans or gatekeepers. But in the champion's case. Too much "victory" can potentially soften their will and determination or motivation. And even when the motivation is still there , it can still be a problem if they start believing in their own hype a bit too much.

However! it's ok if the contender believes in the champ's hype...Because it gives the champ a psychological edge. An aura. Have you ever seen the look of fear in some of tyson's , Wanderlei's , Fedor's opponents ? (prior to their catastrophic loses).

After Buster Douglas....Tyson's opponents never had the same fear. Never looked at Tyson the same way again. Suddenly the guy became....human. and beatable. Maybe not all of them , but most of them knew that they weren't dealing with the same guy.

Wanderlei and his legendary "rolly little wrists"...and epic staredowns....After His fight with Mark Hunt...He never was the same. Not as wild as he used to be. Much more cautious. And his opponents weren't intiminated anymore. Then after his loss against Arona , and the final nail in the coffin...His Ko loss vs Crocop...The "axe murderer" never was the same after that...

And i also believe crocop was psycholocially devastated after his loss against fedor. (even though he won the gp belt after that loss). But even then...he wasn't the same anymore.

 

I think a lot of guys begin to believe in their own hype, the arrogance feeds confidence to the point that once they lose their arrogance they are no longer the same guy, nor are they viewed as the same guy.

Same thing happened with Machida more recently. He wasn't as arrogant as some, but after the first fight/ loss he came up with some odd bull**** about refs being right.. Not trying to beat up Machida, he seems to be a very humble and honest with himself as a man which is why I site him.

 

I don't quite agree with your theory boxingcar, but I do understand what you're saying now whereas I didn't before. Fair do's mate :good