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In The Arena Blog

MMA Legend Enson Inoue Talks Winning and Losing

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During one of his seminars at The Arena, MMA legend Enson Inoue speaks his thoughts on how to mentally approach winning and losing a fight.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Enson Inoue:
Winning and losing. People put too much emphasis on winning and losing. I want you guys to have that. Even if you guys don’t agree, just input this in your head and keep it in the back of your mind because I see a lot of, like Joanna, she’s about winning, winning, winning, being the champ. Daniel Cormier’s about being the GOT, GOT. Fuck that shit. Who gives a shit about the GOT? You’re never going to be able to test if Mike Tyson was better than Muhammad Ali. You’re never going to ever find that out. Why deal with it? Why worry about it? People going to like you; they’re going to be people that don’t like Daniel no matter what. They’re never going to think he’s the best ever.

So, what are you going to do? You’re not going to change that. It’s up to you what you want to do and just do what you got to do. When you win and lose, there’s something … no one in this room can control. I can’t control it. You guys can’t control it. No matter how good you are. You’ve seen some big upsets in the UFC, right? Or in grappling, you’ve seen some huge upsets. It’s because in this sport, it’s hard to anticipate those things. So, what I like to instill in my fighters is the only thing that you can control is giving it everything you got, fighting until the end. Not giving up on yourself, yeah?

The emphasis on winning and losing is something you can’t control. Why stress about it? Don’t stress about it. You go into a competition, train as hard as you can, get ready for your fight and go in there and give everything you got. That’s all you got to do. So, stop the emphasis on winning and losing. That’s something that’s going to come one day or another. I always say it’s the tail of a dog. When a dog turns right, he doesn’t know if his tail’s going to be on the left side or the right side, and he’s not going to make a bet on it either. So, just, when you guys fight, just don’t put the added … it’s enough pressure. There’s a big camera taking videos. It’s going to be you get knocked out or you get submitted or you act like a pussy, it’s going to be there forever on video. Nowadays especially, not just VHS. Some of my stuff you can’t find anymore because it was on VHS. But now they got this internet shit. Once it’s on there, it’s never going to disappear. So, there’s already a lot of pressure for you to do good or for you not to be a pussy in the ring. So, it’s already enough pressure. Don’t add anymore about winning and losing.

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