How does a boxer regain confidence after a defeat?

You need that warrior mentality. It's fighting you win some you lose some. Fighter's shouldn't think they need to be undefeated cherry picking divas.

 

Rjj never recovered. He was like me after that Tarver loss ( very chinny ) he just wasn't the same. Or had '' No Chin '' He became '' glass jawed ''

Fear can cause hesititation too. So if you stop and pause, or go in half hearted or your mind elsewhere, good night. Credit to Roy though he got Knocked out hard vs Tarver and Johnson yet came back and fought for years. After Danny Green too. I only just found out yesterday he fought Anthony Pettis last year, and lost. He's an ex MMA fighter for those that don't know. Yes he fought on way too long, and could still be active?

Now Pacman on the other hand. He's suffered K.O's early in his career and late on To Marquez where he looked dead but he's got balls of steel and a warrior's heart to come back strong both times. Manny's a machine. Mad Heart.

Kostya Tszyu. Same after getting stopped vs Phillips. These guys are mentally strong. Everyone is different and it takes longer for some, less for others and some never recover. Kostya as well, in his book and even his wife said it he just layed around, depressed, got fat, big, what did that achieve? After a while one gets sick of that. He chose to get up and fight. Do what he does best. So yeah it can take some real soul searching amongst other things but that's also the measure of a man.

Come back from adversity. You will face it. You will be tested. Sink, or swim?

I choose to swim.

 

Different responses for different fighters. Most, I'd say, need a few tune up matches to rebuild confidence in themselves to rely on their skills once again. Or their chin. They need to feel layers have been added to their game to stop the defeat happening again.
As an aside, though, there are some boxers who seem to have terrific confidence \ mental strength and don't seem to be affected at all by a loss, perhaps because they know instantly what went wrong and feel they know how to correct it.

 

Look at how Lewis rebuilt after losing

Perfect example

 

There have been recent examples of how to do it. Teo did it against Josh. And Loma did it against Haney....

 

AJ is a good example. He went away and really meditated on his life and purpose. He discovered himself in the process and came back on social media with some profound ideas. Then he rebuilt the right way, by avoiding anybody dangerous, especially Wilder.

 

Unwavering self belief in themselves even after a loss allows them to not mentally crumble after a loss, but also the intelligence to know what they did wrong, learn from it, grow from that experience and improve.

Froch for example, even after being schooled by Ward, came back and crushed Bute and chased the Ward rematch, even though he acknowledged Ward would likely beat him again, he also believed it wasn't impossible to win, that unwavering self belief propelled him forward after that loss and achieve more after the loss to Ward.

Holyfield another example despite losses, never doubted himself, won the rematches with Bowe and Moorer and backed himself to beat Tyson even when most thought it was a mismatch. The 2nd fight with Bowe showed his ability to learn from the first fight, adapt and he was rewarded for it. Same with the rematch with Lewis, despite being dominated came back to make the 2nd fight competitive when it could of easily been a repeat of the first fight. That intelligence combined with self belief.

But in contrast, Joshua after his loss to Usyk, had the self belief but didn't have the intelligence, or not enough. He acknowledged he did something wrong in the first fight, didn't make excuses, but didn't have the intelligence to understand exactly what he did wrong, so couldn't learn from that loss to reach another level. Then after the 2nd loss, even his self belief wavered as he couldn't find an answer for the problems Usyk posed.

Wilder too, had the self belief in all 3 Fury fights but not the intelligence. He couldn't even admit he had done something wrong, blamed his trainer, his weight, his ring entrance attire you name it everything but what he actually failed to do in the ring. Came in heavier and heavier in the 2nd and 3rd fights hoping he could hit hard enough to put Fury away but that was never the answer because he couldn't even acknowledge he was doing something wrong to begin with.

 

Work on weaknesses, get back in the saddle, fight

Watch AJ in his last 3 fights. He's looked better each time out.

 

Exhibition fight with a midget.

 

Like Tim?

 

1) Think of how the public will view and greet you, is it with empathy or sympathy?

2) Think about how much future potential money is on the line.

 

Roy's chin was always glass. His speed and skilled defense is what masked it until he came down from heavyweight.

 

I think the manner in which the fighter lost has a lot to do with it. If it was a back and forth war, both guys hitting the canvas or a Jeff Lacy/Calzaghe, Spence/Crawford type beat down or in Lennox's case, being 1 shotted.
Being 1 shotted, I would think is the easiest to come back from. You can rationalize it better. A split second lack of concentration, just didn't see the punch. Losing a war one, can say, I gave as good as I got, my opponent just had more in the tank. But, a comprehensive beat down, like Lacy and Spence got, is a diffrent story. It's difficult say, dude had my number or was just flat out better than me. I don't think anyone fully recovers from that mentally.

 

I'm a believer that time heals all wounds......over time they'll forget about it and probably end up changing their whole team.

Some might move up/down in weight off the back of a loss and take a few gimme fights and s lowly build it back up that way.