Victory in defeat.

Following on from MM's post, though we could look at other fights when the losers has been a moral victor of sorts. I'll get the ball rolling with Leonard -Duran 1. Whilst Duran was the worthy winner, I still see this a a high-light in Leonard's career. I like that fact that he tried to beat Duran at his own game rather than playing it safe, and the fact that he came damn close to out brawling the sports supreme brawler counts as a moral victory in my book. Over to you.

Whilst not defeat Crolla/Perez seemed to make Crolla as he seemed to suddenly be accepted by a lot more than the usual manchester crowd. A hard fought battle and what was seen as a very wrong decision (look it back it's not a robbery really) and the guy turned into the nations tiny hero.

Groves against Froch is the obvious one unfortunately think a lot of that goodwill has been lost due to lacklustre performances and having a tiny bit of an attitude :-)

Vitali vs Lennox

Jacobs against Golovkin

Povetkin vs Bradley

Fonara vs Stevenson

Pascal in the first Kovalev fight

Barker against Martinez

Castillo v Floyd

Holyfield vs lewis 2nd fight

Chris Eubank against Carl Thompson.

rodders wrote:Chris Eubank against Carl Thompson.

Great pick! Don't think too many gave him a prayer at CW, when past his absolute best!

Wasn't Wayne McCullough supposed to be picking his jaw up off the canvas against Naz?

Wayne McCullough had a great chin! F..k he could take a hit or ten.

Yeah, I can still remember him lifting Naz up after the scorecards were read as if he was just chuffed just to be in one piece!

A quick check on his Boxrec tells me he's never been KO'd. I'll get my coat

Baby faced assassin wrote:Jacobs against Golovkin

Provodnikov vs Bradley

Fonara vs Stevenson

Pascal in the first Kovalev fight

Barker against Martinez

Povetkin vs Bradley would be a very horrible mismatch

AdamT wrote:Castillo v Floyd

Holyfield vs lewis 2nd fight

I view Castillo v Floyd as a victory in victory for Castillo- just the judges disagreed. Holyfield is good shout- I still thought Lewis won, but Holyfield was a lot better than in the first fight- his last great performance.

FreekShow wrote:Wasn't Wayne McCullough supposed to be picking his jaw up off the canvas against Naz?

Unfortunately a fairly disinterested Naz ran away most of the fight and only landed one big shot if I recall.

McCullough v Morales or Scott Harrison would be a good ones though, McCullough took some serious shots in those fights - he had a chin of granite.

Duran v hagler

Audley Harrison v David Haye!!!!

https://www.606v2.com/t7296-and-the-winner-is-the-loser-do-moral-victories-really-exist

Hope that this is of some interest

Nice to see Wlad finally getting nothing but universal respect. Been a good role model always shown how a real champion should conduct himself. Not his fault he ruled a weak division was just too good for the rest. Sounds like he might be up for the rematch and to collect what's rightfully his a cut of what will be a big money fight a win would cap off a very good career very very nicely he came within a whisker on Saturday I think team Joshua would probably prefer to see him retire than have to go through that again

Joshua can only get better. Can Wlad??

Wlad could of won that fight, but he didn't. I think Aj would be the one that makes improvements for the rematch.

Great performance from Wlad, but he had his chance. He won't beat Aj if they fight again.

AdamT wrote:Joshua can only get better. Can Wlad??



Great performance from Wlad, but he had his chance. He won't beat Aj if they fight again.

Good to see God making an appearance on the boards

Verging on the slightly obscure, but in terms of just taking a horrendous, sustained beating but coming back for more time and time again, Oh Kon Son's loss to Myung-Woo Yuh is always near the front of my mind when this kind of question comes up. Son took a phenomenal amount of punishment without so much as a moment's thought for quitting or going on the defensive before the referee eventually saved him from himself.

More recently, I felt that Kevin Mitchell probably redeemed himself in a few people's eyes with his loss to Linares. I always felt Mitchell genuinely had the talent to make it to the top, but seemed intent on throwing it away. He certainly, and rightly, earned the scorn of some with his lack of dedication and grit which cost him throughout his career. But he showed against Linares that he actually had a big heart and plenty of ability. He might have lost that fight, but if he'd have performed that well in his earlier world title tilts against Katsidis and Burns he'd have had that alphabet strap to his name years ago, I feel.

andygf wrote:

AdamT wrote:Joshua can only get better. Can Wlad??



Great performance from Wlad, but he had his chance. He won't beat Aj if they fight again.

Good to see God making an appearance on the boards

Why leave out some of my quote?

Anyway, do you think Wlad could win?

Simply slapdash editing.I don't like seeing whole swathes cut n pasted for no reason though
Yeah I saw the match up as basically 50/50 as probably most did ,Wlad gave a great showing,people said he was shot to bits and he was chomping at the bit for this.Personally I'm not a fan of AJ,so I may be biased, but many posters have said that Wlad threw it away and I'm going with their take.
History has told us that such rematches in the heavy division fare badly for the older fighter.A defeat like that,it would be a big ask,but AJ as he admits is still a work in progress and I'd call it 70/30 in Joshua's favour now.A big ask,for Wlad,but not an impossible task.Does he want to go to the well again? I thought that he sucked eggs as a champ,but rather like the warrior Wlad.Maybe,like Chris Euvank did,he will stick around a bit after his best days have gone to savour a bit of belated respect in countries where he had little?
Also,if Have /Bellew has taught us anything its that "events,dear boy,events" can suddenly change a fight in an instance.AJ seems a tad chinny and he was floored in training by a 19 year old from Greenwich,I hear...
Cheers