Yahoo: Profiles in losing: Varner, Diaz and Lawlor

Clark Kent

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01-14-2010 01:45 PM:
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In MMA, everyone eventually loses. Anderson Silva has done it, Fedor Emelianenko has done it, Georges St. Pierre has done it. One loss does not make you a loser. Whining it about the loss does.

Enter Jamie Varner and Nate Diaz. After their losses this week, the two have shown how not to lose.

After losing his lightweight championship belt to Ben Henderson by a guillotine submission, Varner (pictured tapping out) was classless in the cage. "I was winning that fight," Varner said. "I came to fight, Ben came to grapple. It's two different things." Varner must have forgotten the "mixed" part of mixed martial arts. Losing by submission means that you did something dumb to get caught.

Nate Diaz has been equally graceful, though he used Twitter and YouTube to communicate his dismay. After his split decision loss to Gray Maynard, he told his Twitter followers, "Just watched the fight 3 times I won last nite all three rounds [expletive] the haters..." He also took to Youtube to show that his face was not beat up, so clearly, he won.

Losing close decisions is a tough break, but there is no way that Diaz won all three rounds. If Diaz wants to ensure a win, he needs to finish the fight. Any time a fight is put into the judges' hands, there are few guarantees.

For some guidance, Diaz and Varner may want to look at how Tom Lawlor. After coming close to knocking out Aaron Simpson in the first round on Monday, Lawlor lost the next two rounds on two judges' cards. Did Lawlor complain? No, he took the loss in stride.

"Hey everyone, sorry I didn't finish that fight. All in all a good experience at UFN 20 and I'll make sure to finish from now on," Lawlor said on Twitter.

That, quite simply, is how it's done. Whiny losers force you to remember that they did lose. Rarely does the complaining accomplish anything, and more often than not, it just makes the whiner look bad.



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Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
 

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