Boxers who've earned more respect in a loss then in their previous wins

stevie forbes loss to ODLH...

Eubank v Thompson in their 1st fight, Chris started at light-middle and had a great war with a big cruiser, he won the fans over that night and in the rematch a couple of months later (Eubank entered the ring with facial damage from 1st fight that hadnt healed) the crowd cheered for him during the intro for the first time in his career

Librado Andrade in the Bute fight...

Evander Holyfield being beaten by Bowe comes to my mind.. Evander showed the heart of a champion and even though he lost the fight he won respect from the public. Also RJJ loss in the olympics.. People new it was bullshit and stood by him. Who you got? The Holy/BoweI fight was the first that came to mind when I saw the thread. More recently maybe Andrade/Bute and JMM/PacII.

Also Frazier-Ali III comes to mind

Billy Conn in his first fight with Joe Louis.

Morales vs. Pacquiao 2. Erik was just a beast. When you talk about a guy who was literally born to fight, Erik is always one of the first ones that come to my mind.

Vitali vs. Lennox is the best example from the last ten years bar none. Vitali got so much credit for that fight he didn't even need to win it.

Librado Andrade,in that fight with Lucian Bute,his heart is bigger than Europe!!!

Frazier in the third Ali fight.

JMM agaisnt Pacquiao!!!!!!! Yeah, that was insane. Dropped 3 times in the first round, and had his nose shattered ontop of that. Yet he regained his composure, and came back stronger, and really took the fight to Manny. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Shane Mosley in the Cotto fight. Mainly because of hwo I thought he was done, before I realized that he could still fight at the elite level. There was a part of me that thought Mosley would beat Cotto, however. Strange situation. Nonetheless, it was part of the reason I picked him to beat Margarito.

off the top of my head: Cotto-Margarito, Hatton-Mayweather, Jones-Calzaghe, Kessler-Calzaghe, and most recently Wright-Williams, 21 month layoff, and he kept up, even though he pretty much was a punching bag for PWill.

Recently, Jones/Calzaghe. I've never been big on Roy. I'm a Bernard guy. And that shit is like Coke and Pepsi. But against Calzaghe, Roy showed me more than I ever thought he was capable of showing. He was in way over his head, basically getting beaten silly. And with that nasty cut, and no chance at all on the scorecards he could've just said : "You know what? Fuck it, I'm done.". But he didn't. Throughout his career that was my main knock on Roy, I always felt he had no heart, and he would fold when forced to dig deep. I was wrong. And he earned my respect.

Hatton. I forgot Hatton. When Floyd KO'd him, afterwards, he didn't play any excuses and still doesn't... the ref did **** up the fight but it was "the perfect shot" none the less. Exactly wht i was gna say

In lossing to Cotto Paul malignaggi gain a fan in me that day, I couldnt believe the way he took it to the bigger man....

Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed 1 ROCKY had hella commercials and ads. And he lost

Pavlik-Taylor I. I was just the opposite... I kept insisting Taylor was good because he was winning, and Pavlik was the perfect style of opponent for him... and then he blew it. I lost my respect for his game in that fight, but everyone else got back on the Taylor train.

Hatton. I forgot Hatton. When Floyd KO'd him, afterwards, he didn't play any excuses and still doesn't... the ref did **** up the fight but it was "the perfect shot" none the less.

Sturm has won 3 belts, but the DLH 'loss' got him more shine than those wins.