Quote Originally Posted by SweetPea
It's just stubborness and pride on the part of the opponents. Guys never want to admit that they faced something they'd never seen before. That's why fighters would get knocked unconsciousness by Tyson and then try to claim they'd been hit harder before.

To given another example, IIRC, Toney claimed that Peter didn't hit as hard as some of his other opponents, which is obviously BS.

I remember after Tito KO'd Joppy, Joppy admitted that it was the hardest he'd ever been hit, and I remember being surprised because fighters are never that honest.

As other people have mentioned, fighters do the same thing with speed too. They always try to say that they've fought someone who's faster than their current opponent. I remember when Greg Haugen fought Pernell Whitaker, Haugen said that he wouldn't have any problems with Pernell's speed, because he had already fought Vinny Pazienza, and Pazienza was faster than Pernell. That was pretty funny.
Yeah James Toney claimed that Merqui Sosa had hit him harder than Sam Peter. Sosa could crack, but come on!
As for Haugen, I finally watched two of his three fights with Paz, the first and third, the ones he lost, and honestly, those were not all that entertaining fights I didn't think. Haugen just followed Paz around, threw some jabs and straight rights, not much more. He was too damn inactive, I take it he was always like that?