Losing with dignity. Thoughts?

You are right. It sounds like a stupid excuse if that is what it is an excuse. He should simple say in scouse “fair play mate you beat me fair and square”.

 

I can certainly think of a few dignified losers of recent big fights [e.g. Joshua vs Ruiz, Bellew vs Usyk; Klitschko vs Joshua], but, yeah, I think whingy petulance in defeat is quite possibly on the rise. Anthony Yarde?

 

Why complain about it?
It was a visible injury. People were talking about it. He clarified it.

This is bringing me back to Cotto vs Ali. Cotto had a torn bicep. Said nothing of it. Max Kellerman asked about it and people got upset that Cotto was making excuses.
Some loon here went as far as to claim that Cotto should have hidden the injury with the flag he was wearing

In regards to Smith, the way the opening post was framed, it was clear that you were insinuating that Smith was making excuses.

 

Excuses may be a little more common now, but it may also be just that we hear them a lot more now due to increased technology.

George Foreman made excuses for Zaire for decades, long after he claimed he learned to "accept" the loss. Roberto Duran made a ton of excuses for every loss. Dwight Qawi made a ton of excuses for losing to Michael Spinks. Muhammad Ali said "I don't care what the judges said, I whooped him" after losing the FOTC. Frazier clearly won that. Jeff Fenech claimed he lost to Azumah Nelson in the rematch because he was too busy sleeping with 5 women a day instead of training. Evander Holyfield always had some ailment that came up, the shoulder and heart problems against Michael Moorer, hepatitis against Riddick Bowe, leg cramps against Lennox Lewis, etc....There's always going to be fighters who are gracious and others that make excuses.

I understand why a lot of fighters need to make excuses, they need their confidence, and boxing is different than other sports. In team sports, you need to add some better players. Tennis or golf, you're not expected to win every tournament. Even in UFC, the competitive margins are slimmer, and top fighters lose more often than in boxing. But the excuses you hear from Lomachenko and Wilder are beyond that. Saying you were feeling sick or having an injury is a lot different than "my trainer drugged me" or "the judges were paid off". Was Lomachenko also paid to do nothing for half the fight?

I usually just take it with a grain of salt when a fighter says he had an injury after losing. Sometimes it may be true, but you hear it so often, it's hard to take seriously. Most of them probably nurse slight injuries all the time, it's a physically grueling sport.

 

Boxing is mental

Most men lose mentally before they lose physically.

Excuses are for weak fighters. You make excuses after losing to someone like Fury he will destroy you in a rematch, You have to accept defeat and accept the true reason for your loss, normally it comes down to physical/skill traits that are VERY HARD or impossible to improve on.

 

I thought Prograis was extremely classy in defeat to Taylor in what was still a close fight.

I really don't like the 'I'm not making any excuses...but...[insert excuse]' line bothers me a lot more.

 

They say "no excuses" literally a second before making an excuse.

It's like saying "no offense, but you're an ugly, worthless, useless, pathetic waste of life"

 

I gave canelo a shot against May simply because he said he was going to do just that He said he wouldn't head hunt he would go to the body arm's and shoulders

 

Havent read much of what Smith said, but it sounds more like an explanation for a poor performance than an excuse. It sounds like he is giving Canelo credit for doing that to him. I don’t mind explanations or observations, but excuses don’t sit well. There is a difference. Bribed judges(when a fighter did nothing for most of the early fight), or costume burdens(lol) are excuses.

 

Some fighters, especially if there's a rematch to follow need to at least see a possibility in which they can win. Finding an excuse for their loss keeps that possibility alive. Accepting that he was the lesser man can ruin the boxers confidence if they don't have the mindset to get back to the drawing board and make changes. Easier to find an excuse and do what you did before.

 

Same feeling for me, but it could be that social media let's us hear the excuses more often. Foreman had some pretty outrageous excuses for his loss to Ali, but how much circulation did they get at the time?

Agree with you on Loma. It was already pretty clear what kind of a person Wilder was, but I thought better of Loma. Lost a lot of respect for him after this. Hope he gets sparked next time out (he probably won't be, though), wonder what his excuses will be then?

 

Foreman made a ton of excuses for Zaire, and he was pretty public about it. They were known at the time. Being drugged, fast count, loose ropes, etc...

Even in the 1990s, after he said he learned to get over the loss, his book By George had a ton of excuses in it. My favorite being "I was about to knock Ali out but I got distracted by my disloyal friend in the audience rooting for Ali". Like the moment he had Ali ready to go, he managed not only to notice his friend in the audience, but also was able to tell in that this friend was rooting for Ali.

He also repeated the "I was drugged" claim in the 2000s.

 

Yeah, I knew that he did in his second career, but I wasn't sure how much air time it got initially. Was only a toddler, well hardly that even, back then.