Loss.

[AdrianK]

So you spend hours and hours, days, months, weeks, years training your ass off to fight on the street, in a tournament, on the world stage, whatever - And you lose.

How have you felt after losing? How have you gotten over those feelings and continued on?

[k gledhill]

All about you.... not a trophy...win or lose its how you develop the elbow er! I mean your self...you are fitter, healthier, more confident, can fight ..who cares if you dont have a lisp and cauliflower ears , most of your front teeth are dentures and you **** blood...those good things you can live without :D
Be thankful your free and alive and not in a penitentiary doing hard time.

[TenTigers]

if you lost because of lack or preparation, then it's your fault.
If you lost due to poor reffing, or whatever, then you cannot help that.
If you lost because the other guy was simply more skilled, then there is no loss of face. There will always be someone better.
Sometimes it's your day, sometimes, it's his day.
That's just the way it is.
You do this because you love it.
So, pick up the pieces, learn from the experience, and get on with your training/life/etc.

[Mr Punch]

Lost quite often in full contact. Just carried on. Occasionally get demoralized if it's some weakness I've tried to address often in the past, but usually there's something immediately to learn and focus on so it doesn't bother me.

Lost several times in the street too, and usually it's been over so quick I've just been busy counting my injuries and blessings so again, no big prob. Did lose once a couple of times in the street that made me reassess myself and my skills and work on putting aggression over technique. And one time I got kicked unconscious and nearly driven over in car deliberately, and I had to do some pretty deep soul-searching about whether I was an ******* or not (I was blind drunk before the fight even started). After several witness reports etc, came to the conclusion that I wasn't but still had some thinking to do.

[Lee Chiang Po]

It is all going to come down to the individual and some luck. We train a martial art to give us some sort of edge. It can not garantee you to win every time. You will sometimes get your butt kicked. Then there could be times when you save that Butt. I have never been big on play fighting in the ring and such, but feel that the greater dangers exist outside the ring. You may never in your lifetime have to fight to defend yourself, but then you can never be safe no matter where you travel. It does not hurt to have some little edge on the average guy. And that edge is only good if you go at it with commitment. There seems to be some idea that if you are a good gung fu man you should never lose a fight. That is foolish thinking. You are always in danger of getting whipped when you fight. A lucky punch can do it to you. When you look at these MMA fighters on TV, they are only one of a few dozen fighters in their class. So they are champions. They are only champions over a small group of men. There are thousands of guys out there that can beat them. They just don't jump into a ring to prove themselves. There is no shame for being beaten in the ring unless it is by a one armed sissy boy.

[punchdrunk]

Anyone with real experience has felt the "shame" of loss, and likely the pain of real injury. Both can last a long time but ideally should be used as lessons to get better. People who brag about winning all their fights IMO either haven't fought much, or have been picking and victimizing people. It's a cliche but when I was a teen I got beat up by 2 others and it spurred me to study martial arts and lift weights. The lesson I learned was to fight for myself, and not fear the consequences of hurting someone trying to victimize me. A lot of people would say "duh, wadaya expect?" but I had low self esteem, and feared doing something "wrong". So although I still feel the shame from that day, and still bare the physical scars, I actually learned from it and wouldn't change that "loss".

[hunt1]

There is no shame in a loss. Shame only in not trying. There is always pain win or lose if the fight is at all competitive.

[grasshopper 2.0]

Got suckered punch in the club once. My friend got into a scuffle, I broke them up. My friend grabs my arm hard to tell me something I turn around to see him and smack came the punch on my blind side.

Lol! I was soo ****ed at myself for so long. Kept playing the event in my head at night..

Oh well...learned something from that.

In my karate days, lost there too (also won as my training progressed) - just motivates me to train harder and with the more experienced guys.

Ps: bouncers broke the whole thing up right away and kicked the guy out. I suffered a cut but luckily wasn't knocked out.