Maybe, but in (team) pro sports you have thousands of athletes. Even if you boil it down to only the elites one boxer can skew the way it appears. One thing that seems common among nearly all top level fighters is excuse making. I don't mean directly afterward either. Even if you interview a boxer 50 years after a fight they rarely say a fighter they lost to simply was better. They always attempt to put some form of asterisk on it.
That's Due to the INTIMACY of Combat Sports, in REED's Opinion... If You Lose a Fight, Especially BADLY, a Piece of Your MANHOOD Has Been Taken Away, Perhaps FOREVER...Not Quite the Same when Solo Sport Athletes are DOMINATED in Tennis, the 100m Dash or Whatever... It's Transparent and Disingenuous When Fighters Do It, But REED Gets WHY they Do It...When FIGHTING Defines You and Another Man Demonstrates CLEAR Superiority in a Fight, That's Difficult and Sometimes IMPOSSIBLE to Come to Grips w/... REED
I feel for Wilder. He asked for a 20lb suit. They gave him a 200lb suit. Right now, his dad is asking for a Paternity Suit.
Funny, Yet Wilder's a SHINING Example... He's All About FRONTAL (Surface Level) BRAVADO...Not Saying He ISN'T that Same Guy Off Camera, But he For SURE Is That Guy ON Camera... From the Moment Tyson Fury Climbed Off the Canvas in Round 12, He's Consumed Bits and Pieces of Wilder's MANHOOD, Culminating in the 7th Round Beatdown We All Witnessed...In Front of Wilder's Girl...In Front of Wilder's Kids...After Saying a White Guy Wouldn't Beat Him During Black History Month...w/a Choreographed, Cultural Ring Entrance... Hard to See How He RECOVERS From This, Emotionally, Nevermind Stylistically...Literally, THE Last Image REED's Seen of Wilder was Him TWERKING On Some Beach or Something... Of Course, There's MORE to Being a MAN than Fighting Prowess...But Again, When FIGHTING Is Your Calling Card, That 1 Thing You ALWAYS Hang Your Hat On, and You Endure a SERIOUS, Almost HEINOUS "L", the HURT Is Basically Irrevocable Until the Fighter Revisits and OVERCOMES His Conqueror... REED
Yeah i think this topic or similar has been brought up before. I have no doubt the psychology is different for a prize fighter than nearly ever other spot. I suppose i just would expect a bit more honesty from long retired fighters. I tend to avoid listening to boxers because of it. Interviewer: "You faced John Smith in 1963 and were stopped in the 8th round. Tell us about that fight" Boxer: "What a lot of people don't know is ...."
Tyson is actually a huge exception to this. This guy has the biggest platform of any boxer, and could spew excuses for his losses every week, but he never does. I never hear him excusing the Douglas, Holy, or Lewis losses. As opposed to Wilder 20 years from now. "That suit was actually 617 pounds."
ive heard tyson say he wasnt prepared for the first holyfield fight because he thought it was gonna be easy. and then the headbutts
It's Always REFRESHING When Ol' School Fighters are Honest or Even Self Deprecating About Facets of Their Career (Tex Cobb for Instance), But That's Definitely the EXCEPTION to the Boxing Rule... Fighter's are SENSITIVE As Hell, By and Large...But as REED's Stated in the Past, They're Not "Fetal Position-Crying in the Corner" Sensitive, They're "Say that Shit 1 More Time-I'll WHUP Your Fucking Ass" Sensitive... To Your Point, the Majority of Ol' School Fighters are Soooo PROUD and PROTECTIVE Of Their 50+ Fights, It's POINTLESS Listening to Them Speaking on Their Losses..."I Wasn't Focused, I Was Injured, My Trainer and I Weren't on the Same Page, I Was Robbed, My Promoter Rushed Me Into the Fight, Blah, Blah, Blah"... Every Bit as POINTLESS as Asking a Current Fighter His STRATEGY During Fight Week... REED
To X's Point Though, There's an AUTHENTICITY to Most of Tyson's Boxing Thoughts That Surpasses the Cut and Paste, Rinse-Repeat EXCUSES Whiskey's Speaking Of... There was an Edition of RING Magazine Where Tyson Chronicled Some of His Fights, as ONLY Mike Can...Admitted to Having Gonorrhea During the Berbick Fight and Being CONCERNED w/How That Might Impact Him if the Fight Went Later Rounds... REED Vividly Recalls Mike's 1st Public Comments Post-Buster Douglas Too..."This Ain't the 1st Time I've Gotten my Ass Kicked"... REED
Archie Moore is an ATG and a class act but not only does he have excuses for why he lost, he's got an excuse or three for why George lost.
"I lost because they let Marciano off the hook. George should have come to me and not tried to break people's arms. I was damn old when I fought Patterson, only did it for the money, Henry Armstrong never paid me, I know how to beat Spinks" Love the guy but he's got a yarn for everything.
https://twitter.com/lazylefty/status/1339766147219140609?s=20 no excuses from lomachenko, but the judges were BRIBED