Anthony Joshua is at a crossroads in his boxing career. Not because he dropped his title to Andy Ruiz Jr. a couple weeks back.
It drives me crazy the way the entire professional boxing community today views a loss. And that includes everyone from fighters-to-networks-to-trainers-to-promoters-to-judges-to fans.
The idea that a loss by a fighter regarded as elite is dire hurts the sport. It stops fights from happening when they should because someone wants to protect a perfect record (Mayweather) or current box office status (Canelo).
I believe it also corrupts judges who have dinners the night before a fight paid for by the promotion, which truth teller Teddy Atlas has reported. If a fight is close, a judge is not going to lean toward the promoter’s cash cow after being treated to lobster and champagne (and maybe more) the night before?
There may be more, but I know of 4 champions who retired undefeated: Rocky Marciano, Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward and Joe Calzaghe.
Without getting into exactly where they would rank, Marciano and Mayweather are probably among the 50, definitely 75 best fighters of all time. Ward and Calzaghe are worthy hall-of-famers but not historic.
However, none of them are a patch on the asses of Sugar Ray Robinson or Henry Armstrong. Those two have a combined 41 losses and 15 draws (BTW-they have a combined 329 wins with 210 KOs).
Let me give you some other more contemporary names: Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, Carlos Monzon, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran. You know what they all have in common?
Two things! They are all among the best pound-for-pound fighters ever to wear boxing gloves. Secondly, they all have losses.
What if all these guys were just tossed to the trash heap after a loss? It would be a pretty short tour through the hall-of-fame.
Outside of a few special guys, and special doesn’t necessarily mean the best, losses are part of the fight game. You can’t have a great fight without the loser.
So for the most part if you aint lost, you aint been fighting. Talk soon.
-Marksman
PS: Nothing, MMA included captures the world’s attention quite the same way boxing does when it’s at it’s best. The problem is it rarely puts it’s best foot forward.
One of the many things MMA does better (at least for now) than boxing is it doesn’t kick guys to the curb as quickly over a loss as boxing does. When an elite MMA fighter loses, he remains a factor as long as he can still fight at a very high level.
When an elite boxer loses, he is far too often written off and his winning moments forgotten until he either proves himself all over again or retires.