I was thinking about what it means to lose a fight. Does losing a fight by a narrow margin mean something different for the status of a fighter than a ko or big loss? Or is a los still a loss? For example, does a fighter like Bernard Hopkins, who has lost a fair few fights, but has never been knocked out, and has never really been subordinated in the ring, have these mitigations taken taken into account when evaluating him? Or do we just recognise that he failed to do what needed to be done and is therefor a loser? Opions?
The manner of loss is incredibly important, from a boxing fan's perspecitve I try to judge fighters on their performance and not just blindly agree with who three equally fallible humans at the side of the ring decide is the winner. i.e. Jeff Lacy's loss to Calzaghe is worse than De La Hoya's loss to Felix Trinidad.
A defeat is not always a bad thing. Some examples: 1.Alexis Arguello When Arguello moved up to try and win a title at a 4th weight division, he could've took an easy option. He went for the clear no.1 in the division, Aaron Pryor. In an epic war, Arguello ended up losing by stoppage. That he was able to compete so effectively at a 4th weight class and come so close to victory, to me that enhanced his greatness more than beating a clearly inferior fighter at 140. 2.David Haye Haye was a cocky, complacent wideboy before he fought Carl Thompson. He was stopped... and he has never looked back. It changed the guy completely. He is now far more driven and dedicated. It is a great thing that it happened to him before he challenged for a world title and was on a world stage with a worldwide TV audience. He lost, but a loss to a guy with the chin and toughness of Thompson before he reached world level does not detract from how good he is now one bit. 3.Glen Johnson Glen Johnson was fantastic against Chad Dawson. A 40-year-old going to war with a 26-year-old and being very unlucky to drop the decision - this surely is impressive, again the performance in the loss enhances the fighter. 4.Oscar De La Hoya His boxing skills impressed me v Trinidad. I believe Oscar won 8-4, so IMO to actually lose was a robbery. My perception of Oscar's ability to handle top quality competition was enhanced in this loss. Same with the second fight with Shane Mosley. I'm sure there are plenty other examples.
vitali's loss to lewis and barrera's to junior jones made both better fighters. both salvador sanchez and manny pacquiao lost to lesser fighters to storm right back and become legends. juan manuel marquez is another great ex. these guys just don't take no for an answer. emmanuel agustus has a horrible record, but got voted most entertaining fighter of the last decade for his wars with floyd, mickey ward, and countless others. by the way floyd has stated agustus gave him his hardest fight ever. emmanuel's losing actually put him at a higher status. i really would love to see him win a major championship the drunken master is awesome
