Why does everyone believe losing is a learning experience?

Discussion in 'World Boxing Forum' started by Eastpaw, Feb 28, 2017.


  1. Eastpaw

    Eastpaw Boxing Addict Full Member

    4,005
    163
    Apr 12, 2015
    i feel like that's the biggest illusion in boxing today. I never competed, but I trained for a few years and let me tell ya, I've been beaten up pretty badly in sparring by some pretty good dudes and I didn't learn a thing from it. It's impossible to learn from your opponent when he has you bewildered.

    Discuss.
     
  2. bcr

    bcr Well-Known Member Full Member

    2,563
    1,440
    Dec 21, 2013
    That's because you don't have the ability to understand what you did wrong and work on it, also the motivation that the fear of losing can cause.
     
  3. CST80

    CST80 De Omnibus Dubitandum Staff Member

    245,223
    240,725
    Nov 23, 2013
    Most people don't, the fighters are written off even by some of their biggest supporters after one loss and are called bums that were never worth a damn to begin with, that is until they actually learn from their loss and come back to win the next one.
     
  4. Willie Maeket

    Willie Maeket "40 Acres and Mule" -General William T. Sherman Full Member

    13,894
    8,368
    Jun 22, 2015
    That's because you are not fighting for anything other than fun, like I am now. You are suppose to work on yourself in training and like bcr said, you learn about YOUR strengths and weakness in a loss.
    Look at Canelo, he learned that he cannot outbox any pure boxers from 147 to infinity, but he cherry picked Khan ,a solid boxer with a bad chin to prove that he can beat a pure boxer without controversy.
     
    KiwiMan and Flamazide like this.
  5. Palooka

    Palooka Well-Known Member Full Member

    2,343
    42
    Feb 1, 2015
    I don't know, but it seems shortsighted to write this concept off entirely as an "illusion" because you weren't able to extract anything from getting your ass kicked.
     
    KO KIDD likes this.
  6. Bogotazo

    Bogotazo Amateur Full Member

    31,381
    1,133
    Oct 17, 2009
    It depends whether you can identify why you lost.
     
    Ph33rknot, Ant Sutton and BCS8 like this.
  7. greenhornet

    greenhornet Boxing Addict Full Member

    5,720
    2,840
    Nov 14, 2016
    you probably don't have a trainer and film to study. if you are laying on the ground, unconscious, you probably have no idea what happened.
     
  8. Badbot

    Badbot You can just do things. Full Member

    48,046
    36,819
    Apr 17, 2011
    I learned to tuck my elbows in tight just by watching a recording of myself.
    Thank god no one taught me with a liver shot.

    Got my jaw popped out of place once. A painful lesson that was.
     
  9. Kevin Willis

    Kevin Willis Boxing Junkie banned Full Member

    9,692
    11,866
    Jan 16, 2013
    In life you will encounter plenty of set backs so you might as well try and learn or take away something positive from the experience or their is really no sense going on. The over whelming majority of set backs can help someone grow. Of course there are exceptions that go far beyond the scope of this topic. After all we are just talking about losing a boxing match.
     
    Cousin Andy, Zola29 and moparfan like this.
  10. KO KIDD

    KO KIDD Loyal Member Full Member

    30,273
    5,896
    Oct 5, 2009
    **** outlook on your part

    I mean even getting dominated you can learn a lot about yourself. the real thing is did you do better the next go round with the same guy or did you find a guy more on your level and move forward

    sometimes you take on a guy in the room that at your current stage you just can't beat but if your smart you Balance partners based on skill differences. if you keep practicing with guys who destroy you it may be tough to see gains your making on guys at your same level
     
  11. Glass City Cobra

    Glass City Cobra H2H Burger King

    10,596
    18,178
    Jan 6, 2017
    There are several fighters who learned a lot in defeat and came back stronger. If that doesnt apply to you it might be your trainer, your attitude, or both.

    Fighters dont improve by beating the crap out of tomato cans and guys less skilled than them.
     
  12. UniversalPart

    UniversalPart Boxing Junkie Full Member

    14,628
    11,807
    Jul 1, 2010
    Smart adaptable people learn.

    Brain dead idiots dont.
     
    Eel87 and moparfan like this.
  13. TinFoilHat

    TinFoilHat Boxing Addict Full Member

    3,740
    403
    Sep 29, 2013
    It depends on how badly you are beaten. It also depends on how old the fighter is and how much experience he has.

    BHOP didn't learn anything from fighting Kovalev, he can't improve because hes too old.

    But I think if a fighter is losing matches in their early career (under 32 or so), they can still learn. There is still time to make changes. After a certain point, you've been boxing so long its hard to make a change to what you are doing.
     
  14. BCS8

    BCS8 VIP Member

    60,712
    81,007
    Aug 21, 2012
    Losing causes you to dwell on why you lost and to devise a strategy to avoid that loss again. It also cultivates a mindset of not giving up when faced with adversity.

    Winning constantly just gives you confidence, it doesn't engender caution. If you have holes in your game you won't know it until somebody creams you big.

    I feel that boxing wise a gradual progression in difficulty of opponents is the best route. That is, so that a boxer experiences enough adversity to realise he has holes in his game and addresses them, but not so much adversity that he loses in a whitewash.
     
  15. titanic

    titanic Boxing Addict Full Member

    5,602
    3,950
    Aug 7, 2016
    Or perhaps you should learn how to train much harder not to lose, or you learn that Boxing isn't for you. You learn either way.