Accepting Defeat

In sports, nobody wants to lose and it's tough to accept defeat. This is why athletes and sportsmen who can't take losing well end up "pikon," and are labeled as "sore losers." And the reason why they lost is always something else other than their own doing. "Tua ni pusta ang mga ref sa pikas. Lima-Walo ang duwa." "The judges were handpicked to assure the local boy a win. " "Tikasan na sila." Sound familiar? Have you found yourself in a similar situation, lately? I have, and it's really tough to accept.

This past week, the local sports world has had to accept three losses that will be really tough to accept. Yuka Gejon lost by technical split decision in his bid to wrest the WBA minimumweight championship from Yutaka Niida of Japan. Randy Suico lost by majority decision to Javier Jaregui in the U.S. The De La Salle University (DLSU) lost to Far Eastern University (FEU) in a nail-biting Game 1 of the UAAP Finals in a game that the Archers were poised to win until a guy named Arwind broke their hearts.

When Gejon's fight against Yutaka Niida was stopped in the 10th round, Yuka was confident that he had done enough to snatch the championship. And he wasn't alone. People at ringside, including Manny Pacquiao and boxing referee-judge Bruce McTavish, felt that Gejon was robbed off a win. But we all know what happens when you're up against a local boy in a championship fight held in his turf. Gejon lost by split decision (as expected) with two Asian judges having Niida winning by one point and a Panamanian judge giving Gejon a comfortable win.

When Randy Suico lost by majority decision to Javier Jaregui, some local boxing people felt that he too, was robbed. Quinito Henson of the Philippine Star and Salven Lagumbay of philboxing.com felt he was cheated off a win. However, Homer Sayson of Sun Star thought Jaregui won the bout fair and square. Dong Secuya of philboxing.com felt that the third judge who scored it a draw was more realistic. The mere fact that four boxing analysts scored the bout differently shows how tough it is to be a judge.

Seconds after the end of Game 1, amidst the post-game trash talking (and on national TV), DLSU Asst. team manager Manny Salgado, threw a cheap shot at FEU's Arwind Santos. And I don't think he was saying "Congrats" to Santos while he did it.

While losses are tough to accept, I'd like to see these in a different light. These are perfect learning opportunities to know oneself and to bounce back to become even better than before. Like it or not, there is much to learn from a loss and there's a need to keep one's mind humble, open and flexible.

Gejon's loss is one of those toughest to accept since it looks like he was a clear winner. But he must always remember that crazy things happen in boxing, a sport not known to be the cleanest in the world. The irony of it all is that all Pinoy boxers know that for them to win in Japan, they need to win either by knockout or via a one-sided fashion. Since a rematch is almost assured, Gejon should know better what to do next time. If Gejon finds an opportunity to put Niida to sleep, he should go for it. But then Niida will be a tough foe to knock out, and the rematch will most likely go the distance. Gejon should then be prepared to fight a strategic, tactical fight of throwing his jabs to keep Niida at a distance and rely on a combo of jab, straights and uppercuts to deny Niida any chance to get inside. Allowing Niida to get some shots in the latter rounds of their fight may have caused Gejon the match.

Suico's loss won't raise too much of a controversy and will be accepted in time since he didn't do more than enough to convincingly win the fight on foreign soil. After watching the fight on TV, I though he lost, 94-96, due to his tentative start and his poor defense that made the stick-and-run strategy of Jaregui look good. The questionable thing though, I show two judges scored the bout 99-91 for Jaregui. Suico must now remember that the two losses of his career came from fights where he came in to fight as a slugger and ended up facing a boxer with running shoes on, in foreign territory. I have always said that Suico must now make that conversion to become a complete boxer. Having power in one's fists is not the only way to win fights. You've got to find a way to land these and also avoid getting hit yourself.

For DLSU, the lesson is quite simple. While it's true that Santos was the "culprit" for their loss, they actually have nobody else to blame but themselves for allowing FEU to come back in the ballgame. Salgado should instead vent his ire on the frontline of DLSU for not putting a body on Santos. The Archers never boxed out on Arwind and gave him not only one, but two opportunities to score off his patented offensive rebound + tip-in in the last five minutes of the game. And this doesn't even count Arwind's touch from the land of three.

There will always be winners and losers in sports and that is something that we must accept as a given. If we can't understand this, we shouldn't be into sports at all. I'm sure many of you out there have found yourselves in many such situations in the past. And while it's not easy to accept defeats, there is always a way of accepting this in a proactive manner. My boss at work would always say, "How do you expect to learn and grow if you don't commit mistakes and accept losses?"

Let us thus keep in mind to be always on the lookout for those many little "wins" that come in the form of losses.

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Time-out: We join the press in praying for the soul of Ivan Suansing, Editor-in-Chief of the Cebu Daily News.

You can reach me at [email protected].