What is a more honorable way to quit, or retire, during a fight? What are your feelings regarding these various forms of ending your participation in a fight? I have noticed several distinct ways to quit a fight, historically, and via first-hand observation. Some retire during the round. Some retire in the corner between rounds. Some are hurt and on the verge of being stopped, so they retire, which I understand. But I've also see guys quit in the corner when they aren't really hurt, or not much at all, but they can tell their foe is much better, and inevitably will stop them, so instead of giving best efforts until the likely end, or until they really are hurt, they just give up and quit in the corner before suffering any real painful blows. Other guys simply take a punch to the head or body, essentially voluntarily go down, and take the count. Others start fouling, grabbing, butting, holding and hitting, throwing low blows, rabbit punches, spitting out the mouthpiece, doing everything they can either to stall or get themselves disqualified. Some of these don't want to quit and admit defeat per se, preferring to get disqualified rather than to fight legally, or to retire, so they de facto do force the referee to end it. Should one be treated worse than the other?
Interesting question, I'd say,those that quit without being hurt and those that foul out deliberately are the worst.I can understand and forgive a guy who,seeing he is outmatched ,opts for survival and does enough to stay in there but not really try to win .Or one who, realising he is out of his depth and knocked down a couple of times, but not having been badly hurt , isnt too eager to get up before ten , having given the crowd a show first.
A very shameful way to quit is either when you're not really hurt & look for a way out, either due to fear or lack of motivation (Duran-Leonard 2, Seldon-Tyson). Another very shameful way is to deliberately foul your opponent because you can't win any other way (Holyfield-Tyson 2, Gashi-Price).
I think the best is in between the rounds, but not really much difference between that and taking a knee to get counted out. Getting yourself DQ'd is the worst, especially if it's low blows or something that could injure your opponent
Let's not get this cracked up. These guys are beating each other up for money. That's really it. I wouldn't call anything about that honorable. What you do outside the ring or having good sportsmanship is honorable. In terms of what is more of a plausible way to quit I'd have to say it depends on the injury. If half your face is hanging on by some skin then I would say there isn't really a cowardly way to quit. ****, I would too... For other injuries I would just say to finish the round if you can and quit in your corner. No need to get unnecessarily punished then knocked out so bootleg boxers on bf24 can say you were making excuses for having a glass jaw.
I think another factor beyond the actual fight that the boxer is engaged in at the time is the context of the fighter's entire career. Is he a young guy in one of his early fights who suddenly realizes that boxing is not for him, so he decides to quit and call it a career? Or is he an old-timer who has been around the block who decides he has given the fans enough blood over the course of his career and he just doesn't want to take any more punishment. Then I think about Willie Pep against Sandy Saddler in their fourth fight when Pep quit because of a gash over his right eye even though the referee and doctor had not stopped the fight. Pep had almost lost the sight in one of his eyes as a result of an injury in his second fight (the one he won), and I'm guessing he quit in the fourth fight because he was afraid of another significant eye injury. Who knows what his doctor might have told him about further injury? The point being that some fighters will retire because of things we don't even know about, but which are very concerning to them. Fouling is a shameful way to quit, but otherwise the threshold for taking punishment will vary with each fighter and he/she will probably take the most convenient way to call it a day as soon as they realize the need to disengage themselves. In the old days, fouling was justified in the fighter's mind because a foul meant that all bets were off. So if a fighter was disqualified he was protecting his friends from losing their money.
Fouling intentionally is almost always the most dishonorable thing a boxer can do, imo (unless it's in retaliation for being fouled). After that, quitting without being hurt (ala Roberto Duran) is probably the worst. Aside from that, I don't really see much of a difference between quitting in the ring or quitting in the corner. It all depends on the circumstances (the severity of the beating a fighter has taken, the risk of long-term injury, the hopelessness of his predicament, etc.).
The best way of quitting is by not hiding it, by saying 'I quit because I couldn't win' that is being honest, not disguising it, anyway I don't believe there is anything wrong with quitting, we don'y know how they feel in the ring at that moment
