Tough

With 16 seconds left in the eighth round, Duran tanked, telling the referee, "No mas, no mas!" and refused to fight any more. After regaining his title, Leonard said, "To make a man quit, to make a Roberto Duran quit, was better than knocking him out."

After the fight, Duran made excuses and refused to accept full responsibility for his failure. This is a common rationalization used by people who have tanked, especially the ones who are considered talented. They need to preserve their status and their ego so they make excuses to explain their failures. Excuse makers tend to give up when pushed too hard since they will just use their excuses to explain their failure. Excuse makers never reach their full potential and they cannot be counted upon during a crisis.

One may think that anger and negativism are signs of toughness but they are actually behaviors used by the weak in an attempt to hide their weaknesses. Some use anger to motivate themselves since anger generates energy. Some use anger to help themselves overcome fear, but opponents can sense the fear and weakness and use it to their benefit. Some tankers use negativism to rationalize their behavior by telling themselves things such as “That was stupid,” or “That was a dumb thing to do,” but it does not help and they keep slipping until they tank