Which boxers were very honest, responsible and gracious in defeat and which were very bad for execuses and blaming others Tyson and Ali never really made execuses. they give there conquerers all the credit in the world Evander Holyfield was the All Time No1 HW for making Execuses. Oscar sacked his trainers after his first 2 defeats (clancy and alcazar). Though he does take responsibilty for those defeats Honourable mention: Manny steward for some of his boxers defeats most noticibly Hearns losess to srl and mmh
"I knocked him out before he knocked me out. I want fair play" Mike Tyson after Douglas fight "My guy won" Angelo Dundee after Frazier-Ali 1
I thought Hearns was pretty classy in defeat. Tiger Flowers was unfailingly gracious, even when flagrantly robbed of decisions he clearly deserved. Dempsey's embrace of Tunney following the announcement of Gene as the winner in 1926 and 1927 may have been unprecedented in heavyweight annals. Tex Cobb's yelling out of "Let's party!" after Holmes is quality. The morning after, he told Larry, "I sure would have liked to fight you in a phone booth!" Holmes smiled and said, "Why not? You can call me!" Worst loser? One candidate might be Renaldo Snipes, who was so upset during his post fight interview with Cosell that his acting up caused him to sustain a serious gash in his arm, as he managed to gouge it with the scissors being used to cut off his glove. Scypion was in hysterics after his loss to Hard Rock Green, behavior which led to a suspension. He and his corner were also entertaining at the end of his match with Hamsho. LeDoux went berserk following his losses to Boudreaux and Holmes.
Go no frher than Floyd Patterson for the best loser...saw him get the short end of the stick...the shaft...against both Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis and took it like a man...just congratulated them ....not a murmur of a protest.
Worst-Carmen Basilio. Yes the first Saxton fight was a robbery but he's still bitching about both Fulmer stoppages and the second Robinson fight.
Why would you not say Ali? He spent years trying to convince everyone that he won the first Frazier fight. Vic Darchinyan is a whiner. Larry Holmes, of course. Foreman complained a lot after the Ali fight, but he changed later on. He took the Brigg's decision with much dignity.
John L and Jack D, were both stageringly gracious in defeat despite their arch viciousness inside the ring. Unitll Dempsey lost the title, the press talked about Sullivan being the only heavyweight champion who accepted that he had lost!
Oscar on several occasions threatened legal actions on refs and judges, as well as firing trainers after losses, also gave mad excuses after every fight in the post fightinterview claiming he felt he won yadayada and sounded very douchey and whiny when doin it. I like Oscar but never liked that about him.
From what i remember in the films, SRR was always the first over to the opponents corner to congratulate the winner. Class act. Floyd Patterson- nothing more to be said that hasnt already- a real class act in AND out of the ring Never really heard Tyson complain TBH but didnt he try to claim he broke his spine or some **** like that? Id say that ranks pretty high in the excuses department
I can't see how anyone can think Tyson and Ali didn't make excuses, and then call Holyfield "no.1 all-time worst". Ali was gracious in defeat for a few hours, then started telling the whole world that he was robbed against Frazier. He blamed his defeats to Norton and Leon Spinks on his lifestyle and God punishing him. Slimming drugs were blamed for him being shot against Holmes. He's easily as bad as Holyfield, who can't have been as bad as "all time worst" because he was never really quick to dispute decisions that went against him ("the judges make the decision"), even against Valuev, he was one of the last people to really complain. But, yes, he made excuses, as bad as Ali at times. Tyson was equally bad. He said Douglas had been KO'd, then blamed it all on his lack of preparation. He seemed gracious in defeat against Holyfield, said the headbutts were NOT an issue "I was butting him too !" But a few months later (before the rematch) he was blaming the first defeat on headbutts. Then in the rematch, he blamed his outrageous biting on Holyfield's head again ! And kept that as an excuse until very recently. Against Danny Williams it was his knee. The guy was an excuse maker. But we can add about a thousand good and great fighters to the list - they ALL have excuses !
Roberto was the worst. What made his excuses unexceptable was that he used them when he lost to the great fighters. Saying he was out of shape for Leonard 2, Benitez and Hearns. Why would he not train for the greatest guys he fought, yet train for lesser guys. Because he didn't lose to the lesser guys.