Defeats are never easy to stomach, but split-decision losses perhaps offer the potential for the most mental turmoil, with fighters heading home with a loss on their record, while also knowing that they were so close to capturing the victory.
In the case of Marshall’s split-decision loss to Santos last time out, he chose to focus positively on how he saw his own performance, and later discovered that many others shared his view.
“It stings more at first, but then after a couple hours, you rewatch the fight, and you see everyone online or other MMA media outlets kind of swaying my way, which was helpful (to know that) I wasn’t the only one that thought I won the fight,” he said.
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“It makes it feel like I won that fight. It doesn’t hurt as much as when I got finished by Dulgarian. I went home (after the Santos fight), and I didn’t feel like I lost the fight. On my record, obviously, (it’s a) loss and everything like that, but leaving the fight, it didn’t feel like, ‘Wow, I just got beat up,’ or ‘I just lost the fight.’ It felt like I won.
“So I think for me, that just shows me like, hey, you’re right there. This is a high-level guy. He’s obviously on a good streak now; he’s beating some good guys. So it’s like you’re knocking on the door. You’ve just got to hit the gas a little more and take it away from these guys.”
In addition to dealing with the frustration of razor-close decisions going against him, Marshall has also had his patience tested as injuries have hampered his ability to bounce back.
His last bout saw him lose a split-decision verdict to Mairon Santos at UFC 313. But as well as his third career defeat, Marshall came out of the matchup unable to make a quick turnaround to address the loss.
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