Do you sulk? Do you blame everyone around you? Or do you look yourself in the mirror, take it on the chin (no pun intended), and realize that you were the reason you didn't pick up the victory? And when you come to the fact it was because you weren't good enough on that particular evening and didn't peak at the moment you needed, do you pick yourself up off the floor and fix the issues to become better, so you don't have to experience defeat ever again?
Alexis Rocha could have gone with the first two options. He really could have. Heading into his October 2020 with fellow undefeated welterweight prospect Rashidi Ellis, the world was Rocha's oyster. He was the can't miss prospect. A win propels him into bigger fights and closer to achieving his goal of competing for a world title. Instead, Ellis controlled a good chunk of the contest to win by unanimous decision. What choice would Rocha go with, as stated above? He looked deep within his soul and came to a stark realization.
"One hundred percent the moment got the best of me," Rocha admits to DAZN News. "It was the extra pressure. It's the pressure that I put on myself. That unnecessary baggage you put on top of you. That weight you put on top of you. It's unnecessary for that. Because at the end of the day, you got to go in there and give it all you got. Me putting that pressure on myself didn't let me. I'm not making any excuses. There's no excuses in my book. I lost. Rashidi Ellis was a better man that night. But he did what he had to do. I just got to dust myself back off. It's a lesson learned.
"That mindset when I suffered that loss was just that extra pressure I put on myself for being an undefeated fighter. I hate losing with a passion. Who doesn't? If you're ok with losing, something's wrong with you. I put that much pressure on myself, and I wasn't really having fun that night. I was just in a shell. I'm never going to forget that feeling. After that fight, my mindset was I got to dust myself back off and just let all that pressure just go, keep having fun with it. That's the main thing. I just had fun with it. I'm more relaxed now. My mindset is out the roof now. My confidence level is through the roof now."
Going into his first main event on Saturday against Blair Cobbs from the Galen Center in Los Angeles, which can be seen exclusively worldwide on DAZN, Rocha got his groove back by roaring back in a big way with back-to-back knockout wins over James Bacon and Jeovanis Barraza, respectively.
But Rocha (18-1, 12 KOs) didn't immediately snap back into reality after the Ellis loss. Instead, the 24-year-old was in a funk. He wouldn't and still hasn't watched the fight back in full because all it did was make him upset. But he kept going back to and playing the "what if" game within his mind and soul.
"I was just in a cloud, if that makes sense," Rocha said. "It was like a mist. I was telling myself to react, but I wasn't reacting. I was telling myself to throw, but I wouldn't throw. It’s a sorry feeling to feel when you put that mindset on.
"I remember after a month; maybe two months after the loss, I was running. I kept running. I kept replaying the image back of my head, like, ‘What if I would have done this? What if I were to drop him? What if I were to throw my hands more?'"
That's when Rocha knew he needed to kick these thoughts, which kept creeping and nagging inside of him. It was driving him crazy. So he started talking with his head coach Hector Lopez and his half-brother, former world title challenger Ronnie Rios to help steer him back to the right direction he needed to be on if he ever wanted the career he set out for himself.
Those talks combined with a running session was what Rocha needed and hasn't looked back.
"It just comes down to yourself," Rocha said. "How bad do you want to get it? How bad do you want this? How bad do you want to win to make a name for yourself? That's what I just told myself.
"Then there was one time around where I was running, and I was like, ‘Why am I thinking like that? I can't live in the past’. I started thinking about future opponents. No names but different people that I'm beating up (and) what I'm going to do to them. How am I going to approach it differently, and that's been amazing ever since."
The Bacon and Barraza KOs have kicked Rocha back into high gear and full of confidence heading into Saturday against the undefeated Cobbs (15-0, 10 KOs). Rocha understands the significance of this fight. He knows what a victory over Cobbs would mean.
The Rocha from 17 months ago isn't there anymore. Instead, it's a new and improved Rocha, and he plans to show that in his first headlining fight.
"I want to win." Rocha bluntly said. "That's the main thing. I want to win. I want to beat this guy up. I have nothing against him. I get what he's doing. He's an entertainer. He's selling the fight. He's doing his talking. His loud mouth antics. I understand that. I see that from a business point of view. But at the end of the day, the way I see it is I gotta go in there and let my hands do the talking.
"I know he's going to be game. He's going to want to do his antics and all that stuff. But the main thing is, I want to win. I want to make a name for myself."