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Reading the "I can't believe _____ has a win over ____" thread and seeing Struve/Stipe mentioned a few times reminded me of something a friend and coworker of Miocic had to say on a podcast (The Official Waiting For Next Year Podcast #500) :
“You really look at the Struve fight, and that’s where...you know, Stipe said it after that fight, he told a lot of people the same thing, that fight was probably the best thing that could have happened to his career. He had started reading his own press a little bit and, you know, getting that little bit of a bigger head, and it humbled him. It made him taste what defeat felt like, the first time that he had had to taste that in a long time, and it really fueled him. He’s a hundred percent more well-rounded than he was then, and it shows.”
“The best thing that could have happened” sounds like a bandage on a butthurt. Yet...he did improve markedly from that point. He hasn’t been finished since, and his only other loss was a valiant battle that armchair scorers still debate. Now he’s wearing the belt.
I can imagine an alternate universe where Stipe won the Struve fight, and continued to soak in the hype until the rot set in. When the inevitable defeat eventually happened he would be more than humbled, he would be humiliated. Devastated. He’d gone too long without mentally stretching himself, and no longer had the resilience to snap back. Miocic ends up as full-time firefighter, not heavyweight champ.
So: do you believe that there are times and circumstances when losing a fight, especially unexpectedly, helps a career more than if it was won? If so, can you name other examples?
“You really look at the Struve fight, and that’s where...you know, Stipe said it after that fight, he told a lot of people the same thing, that fight was probably the best thing that could have happened to his career. He had started reading his own press a little bit and, you know, getting that little bit of a bigger head, and it humbled him. It made him taste what defeat felt like, the first time that he had had to taste that in a long time, and it really fueled him. He’s a hundred percent more well-rounded than he was then, and it shows.”
“The best thing that could have happened” sounds like a bandage on a butthurt. Yet...he did improve markedly from that point. He hasn’t been finished since, and his only other loss was a valiant battle that armchair scorers still debate. Now he’s wearing the belt.
I can imagine an alternate universe where Stipe won the Struve fight, and continued to soak in the hype until the rot set in. When the inevitable defeat eventually happened he would be more than humbled, he would be humiliated. Devastated. He’d gone too long without mentally stretching himself, and no longer had the resilience to snap back. Miocic ends up as full-time firefighter, not heavyweight champ.
So: do you believe that there are times and circumstances when losing a fight, especially unexpectedly, helps a career more than if it was won? If so, can you name other examples?
