The meaninlessness of being unbeaten

[Kev]

I'm not saying Berto is washed up at all, fighters come back from defeats all the time.

I'm just saying that boxing is by it's nature an unforgiving sport. If he loses again he will be at the crossroads and could well go the way of Jeff Lacy, Jermain Taylor, Ricky Hatton etc.

My point is aimed at the orignal poster. He says defeats don't matter, I'm just pointing out that they do. Two or three and usually you're out.

There are a few who get repeat chances, Rocky Juarez, Michael Katsidis, but for every one of those nearly men, we have ten whose defeats consigned them to either fighting undercards in Europe hoping for a chance to have a shot as a gatekeeper against an up and comer to get back into things or else retirement.

Bonjado retired, Torres retired, Joel Julio is just a trial horse, Jeff Lacy as good as gone.

Berto will still get a chance or two to recover and hopefully he will. But the loss will definitely hurt him.

But I think this is the way it should be. To the winner the stakes, to the loser a lonely car ride home. It's all very well sayng we should put less emphasis on losses but how does that translate?

Even the OP will want to see the best matchups made, and when a guy like Kirkland gets KO'd in one round, the clamour to see him challenge for Martinez title will have been all but silenced. He has to earn his way back.

Also, fight fans aren't stupid. It's not so much the 0 as the manner of how they lose it. Martinez lost to Williams in a great, close fight, didn't hurt him so much. Marquez lost to Mayweather well above his weight class, again he can bounce back.

The current way things are is pretty fair and if you want to impress and get to the top you need to try not to have too many mistakes before you get there.