"Boxers shouldn't be afraid to lose.."

George forearm · Dec 2, 2020

BoxingNovice said: ↑

There's been a huge movement in boxing over the last several years from the media and former boxers that the current generation needs to stop protecting themselves and not be afraid of a loss. The theory is, Floyd kind of ruined boxing by pimping his undefeated record, and in turn, everyone in boxing started to protect their record, too.

In theory, this is correct. Boxers shouldn't be afraid of a loss. Floyd did hurt boxing by pimping his record. Boxing would be in a much better place if boxers took risks.

BUT...

Look at the fighters who do lose and how they're treated by the same media, fans, and former fighters who implore them to take risks! They get **** on. Buried. Called hypejobs and bums. Twitter makes them a meme and their stock PLUMMETS.

Look at Mikey Garcia. How much did his stock drop from the Spence whooping? A guy WAY bigger than him. It dropped tremendously.

Look at Wilder. Does he put a lot of it on himself? Yeah. But still, he's essentially a laughing stock now. He could've just refused a rematch with Fury and all we'd know was he basically KO'd Fury if not for a very liberal count. Look at the way we treated Joshua after his loss.

Look at Loma! A guy who dominates his way through 3 divisions. Beating guys who are substantially bigger than him. Beating them badly. Embarrassing anyone who's even close to his size. He losses to a much bigger fighter, who as far as I know, has only been a champ in 1 weight class; and now he's ranked HIGHER than Loma in the p4p rankings. How does that make sense?

Now look at Dubois.

If you're Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia or one of those guys who lose every 4th fight, and you have an exciting style, losing doesn't hurt you. But if you're considered "elite"? Losing in boxing is devastating. I completely understand why guys protect their legacies.
Click to expand...

Bad examples wilder made him self a laughing stock and jashua got **** on for a cherry pick gone wrong. I agree though, padding ur resuma with c teir fighters just because ur afraid to lose means nothing and something haze to be done about it for the good of the sport

ShovelHook · Dec 2, 2020

Just because you mentioned Mikey I think it's worth clearing up that everyone **** on him for losing to Spence because he decided to take an L in that circumstance instead of taking the much anticipated fight with Loma. Ducked the man who was actually near his weight so that couldn't be a mark on his record.

Baneofthegame · Dec 2, 2020

Stiff Jab said: ↑

Context, context, context.

Mikey Garcia ran away from lightweight just as soon as Lomachenko came into his own and everyone was talking about that fight; I've heard some say he similarly avoided lightweight while Crawford ran supreme. When he moved up, it wasn't to jr. welter so he could avoid that Taylor/Prograis smoke...I mean, totally not step on stablemate Rameriz' toes. Totally that. He moved all the way up to Welterweight, where he went after the champion most people suspected was overhyped and underskilled, Errol Spence Jr. Spence used him as a cross between a pinata and a punching bag for almost the entire fight, and Mikey's big 'come-back' was against on-his-way-out-and-up Jessie Vargas, who made it a competitive and close fight even with the knock-down. He's also repeatedly said he doesn't even really like boxing and only does it because the money's good. Fine and dandy, but no one should be flacked for not thinking much of him based on that.

As you've said, Wilder has done all of this to himself. He's treated like a joke because he made himself out to be a joke. At least Joshua took his loss (and all the jokes and memes - some of them from Wilder!) on the chin and got his get-back.

Almost everyone and their mother thought Loma was too good for Teo, that it would be a one-sided massacre. Instead, Loma found himself unable to pull the trigger and being cautious of Teo's power, and Teo won a (IMO close) decision. Yes, Loma was hurt, but apparently so was Teo. Should Loma have magically one down the p4p below Teo? No, but the only people laughing at Loma now were the people who were laughing at him before. Most understand that Loma was always too small for this weight class, but his skills carried him through and presumed they always would. I've seen more (credible) people simply give Teo credit rather than run Loma down or treat him like yesterday's dishrag.

Dubois was hyped to the moon and back, when Joe Joyce was his first opponent of any real credible talent, yet everyone from the commentators to the promoters to the odds-makers was saying how in-over-his-head Joyce was (3-1 against the Silver Medalist who had been in the ring with Usyk? C'mon!). So when you get utterly exposed for, of all things, lack of head movement and JAB DEFENSE you are going to get flak, especially when it looks like the first time you met resistance you just gave up. (Doesn't hurt that he quit on an eye-injury after making horrid comments about Joe's visually impaired mother-talk smack get cracked).

As Morvidus said, sometimes it's just the way you lose. Porter's losses were close split-decision's against top-three division opponents. Who in their right mind is going to make fun of him for that?
Click to expand...

Great post, /thread.

boxingscience · Dec 2, 2020

It's the boxing and casual fans fault on why boxers are scared to lose. The fans seem too easily to hop on and off the train. I blame this on Americans to be honest, because us Brits seem to stick by our fighters, win or lose. Americans seem to only like winners.

Serge · Dec 2, 2020

Boxers should be afraid of getting KO'd, dropped, wobbled or worst of all made to do a chicken dance.

There's no shame in getting stopped if you're taking a bad beating just as long as you don't do any of the above and the only way you can redeem yourself from getting dropped is if your head clears almost immediately after hauling your ass off the canvas after suffering a heavy KD or if you take the fight to your opponent and drop them within seconds of rising, or if you manage to remain vertical after being cracked with a sequence of murderous shots whilst still hurt or groggy.

Boomstick · Dec 2, 2020

seansanashee said: ↑

I prefer fighters that take hard fights and lose than fighters who take easy fights to pad there records. DSG is a great example of win some, lose some but take the best fights.
Click to expand...

You say that now, but even Garcia went thru a years long stretch where he was being ripped for the very same thing. He fought rickety guys like Guerrero and Malignaggi, and a bunch of no hopers.

Boxing fans are fickle ass m-fers and like to paint with a really wide brush.

Mikey Garcia stepped up to an upper echelon p4p fighter, 2 weight classes above him, and gets ripped by some for running from other fighters. t’s silly. The choice was a poor one, as Garcia really doesn’t belong at welter, but doesnt seem to have the lifestyle to stay lower.

Ted Stickles · Dec 2, 2020

In today’s game a loss hurts there future paychecks unless they were the underdog against a big name and gave a great unexpected showing against someone they were supposed to lose badly to. It’s a shame but with social media and someone like a Floyd always making a fuss over his 0 it put too much emphasis on it with the general public and casual fans.... for myself it never really mattered if a fighter had a loss.

Tyistall · Dec 2, 2020

miniq said: ↑

Boxers who are afraid to lose don't handle loss well and try to protect resume

Wilder

Crawford

Floyd

Billie Joe Saunders
Click to expand...

Also, boxers who are afraid to lose, don't fight against most of the best in their division. The same way Fury has only fought 2 guys ranked in the current top 30.

Log in or Sign up

"Boxers shouldn't be afraid to lose.."

George forearm The forearm of George Full Member

ShovelHook Boxing Junkie Full Member

Baneofthegame Active Member Full Member

boxingscience Boxing Addict Full Member

Serge Ginger Dracula Staff Member

Boomstick Active Member Full Member

Ted Stickles Boxing Addict Full Member

Tyistall Member banned Full Member

Log in or Sign up

Forums

"Boxers shouldn't be afraid to lose.."

George forearm The forearm of George Full Member

ShovelHook Boxing Junkie Full Member

Baneofthegame Active Member Full Member

boxingscience Boxing Addict Full Member

Serge Ginger Dracula Staff Member

Boomstick Active Member Full Member

Ted Stickles Boxing Addict Full Member

Tyistall Member banned Full Member