Published by on April 20th, 2008
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By Scoop Malinowski
In this day and age of television boxing, the undefeated record seems to be a key ingredient in the formula for success for an uprising boxer. Managers and promoters try to keep their prospects undefeated with carefully chosen fights on their way to that big pay-per-view payday at the end of the rainbow.
But in reviewing the Ring Record Book and Boxing Encyclopedia, perhaps losing a fight or two is a necessity for a champion-in-making, rather than a poison. Tough early fights are when a young boxer really learns the deep truths of the sport and about himself.
Taking a glance at the career record of some of our most famous champions, you will often see some surprising early defeats on their ledgers.
Take Jack Johnson, for instance. No one can dispute his status as an all-time great heavyweight champion.
Did you know a 21-year-old Johnson got TKOed in round five in his 8th pro fight by Klondike Haynes in 1899? And then two years later Johnson got knocked out in the third round by Joe Choynski? Johnson, who was 18-3-5 in his first five years as a professional, refortified himself and eventually won the world Heavyweight title from Tommy Burns in 1908.
These days, if a young heavyweight is 18-3-5 in his first five years as a pro as Johnson was, the grim reality is he may as well find another line of work. Because in all probability, no big-name promoter, manager or television network is going to want to invest in him.
Nobody ever wants to lose, but sometimes losing early in a career is actually a blessing in disguise. And the lessons learned are what makes the difference between a fighter and a champion. All of us know there have been countless prospects who were nurtured on the soft stuff and when they finally stepped up to the elite level, they crumbled and their careers never got back on track.
Bernard Hopkins once said a devastating loss is not so bad if you can find a way to use that loss as a motivation and inspiration.
An example that illustrates this point is when Joe Louis was battered by Max Schmeling at the age of 22. That setback was so violently emphatic that most experts of the day questioned if “The Brown Bomber” could ever be as good as he was.
“When a fighter is a high-strung lad, full of pride, he may never again don a pair of mitts,” wrote Jack Dempsey in a 1936 Ring Magazine article. “But if he is the type that doesn’t get easily discouraged and realizes through sound reasoning that the best men might suffer a KO and that it’s no disgrace, he’ll get back into action with a vim and soon fight his way back into the top flight rank.”
We know how Joe responded to his failure – by going on to becoming one of the most successful and revered champions in ring history.
Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis are other examples of other fighters who actually seemed to become better and more complete gladiators after having met defeat.
Let’s go back to the Ring Record Book. Carlos Monzon is considered one of the best middleweight champs there ever was. But the Argentine lost three decisions in his first two years as a pro – to Antonio Aguilar, Felipe Cambeiro and Alberto Massi, respectively. Those are hardly household names, but do those defeats disqualify Monzon from all-time greatness? No! In fact, those three defeats probably helped him attain all-time greatness.
Salvador Sanchez lost a 12-round nod to Antonio Becerra for the vacant Mexican bantamweight title when he was 17 years old. Two and a half years later, Sanchez was WBC Featherweight champion of the world.
Pipino Cuevas was a WBA Welterweight champ from 1976 until meeting Thomas Hearns in 1980. Cuevas lost four of first 11 fights to such names as Mario Roman, Juan Pablo Oporeza, Memo Cruz and Eleazar Delgado in 1973. Those losses – all endured in Mexico City – must have helped in some way because Cuevas went on to KO Angel Espada for the title before making 11 successful title defenses.
Hall of Fame Welterweight champ Jose Napoles lost fights to Hilton Smith, Tony Perez, Alfredo Urbina and was TKOed by L.C. Morgan on his journey to winning the title from Curtis Cokes in 1969. Should those four losses have disqualified Napoles from ever getting his big superfight opportunity? Of course not.
Top fighters from today who have digested and benefitted from early career losses include Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Sergei Liakhovich, Glen Johnson, Bernard Hopkins and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Losing is a part of the sport. Boxers like Antonio Margarito, Zab Judah, Kermit Cintron, Wayne Braithwaite, Diego Corrales, Acelina Freitas, Hasim Rahman, Shannon Briggs, Joshua Clottey, Carlos Baldomir, Arturo Gatti, among others, have all lost fights.
But if they can find the way to use the experience of losing as some kind of positive force, their best may be yet to come.
“I want you to get to the people that losing was the making of me.” — Jack Dempsey to his biographer Roger Kahn
“I knew that a strong resolution is the greatest asset in the ring, and I am confident that the title will be mine again. No matter what setbacks I got – and the Philadelphia fight with (Steve) Hamas was a discouraging one – I never listened to any analysis of myself and I never lost faith in Schmeling. (Joe) Louis must make up his mind that he is a great fighter, and then he must correct those things which I showed up as bars to his being a great fighter.” –Max Schmeling
“I needed to experience losing to become a champion. I never lost my confidence. I am complete fighter right now. Experience – you cannot buy in the shop. You have to gain it with your own skin and your own body with your own mind and through the time. Experience which people are making and they have to learn from those experiences. And they have to get better.” –Wladimir Klitschko
Contact Scoop: Mrbiofile@aol.com
