Liam Smith vs Chris Eubank Jr II: How coping with a knockout shapes fighters in different ways

I've been talking to fighters about this a lot recently. Carl Froch, David Haye, Tony Bellew, Ricky Hatton, Matt Macklin, Jamie Moore and Johnny Nelson have all been happy to discuss a subject that maybe they wouldn't have been when they were boxing. Namely their attitude towards defeat, and not just any old defeat, but more specifically a stoppage or knockout defeat.

But you'd be wrong. What they and the others all had in common was an acceptance that it most certainly could happen to them, that it could happen to anyone. They remained utterly determined that it wouldn't happen each and every time they walked up those steps to the ring but they'd accepted that it could.

Furthermore, if the unthinkable then happens, you're not nearly as equipped to deal with the impact of it as you would be if you'd allowed yourself to think about it, to entertain it as a possibility. If that is the case then we could be in for a hell of a fight on Saturday. He looked and sounded the same as he always has at the workouts, our first fight week glimpse of our main eventers, but we'll only find out whether he is or not when the bell goes.

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