It's one thing to step back between the ropes as a boxer to try and avenge the first defeat you suffered as a pro against the fighter who took away your '0'. However, the nature of Josh Warrington's stoppage defeat to Mauricio Lara earlier this year could easily have taken an additional psychological toll.
Following the announcement that it will indeed be Lara vs. Warrington 2, live and exclusive on DAZN on Sept. 4 in front of a big crowd in the Brit's hometown of Leeds, The DAZN Boxing Show wondered aloud how that February pasting from the Mexican breakout star will play on the former IBF featherweight champion's mind heading into the rematch.
"It's not like he just made a couple of mistakes and lost," said Barak of the show's regular duo Ak & Barak. "Maybe like Whyte versus Povetkin. Whyte didn't have anything that hindered him mentally. It was maybe just a couple of mistakes physically.
"So it's like Whyte went back into the rematch. He went back into the rematch fully confident mentally, and switched up what he had to do physically and had a much better performance in the rematch.
"Now when you're talking about this fight. This was an incredible upset. Josh Warrington was at the top at one time, but he got beat, he got beat badly, dropped in the fourth round, dropped in the ninth round, stopped in the ninth round.
"So he has to get over this mentally and say 'why did I lose?' and also study the tape with his trainer, to say 'what can I do better?', so that's hard.
"You never know where a fighter travels to mentally after a bad loss like that. So we're just gonna have to wait to see.
"Yes, you're right," replied Ak. "We don't know if he's past that. Mentally.
"You know, me, I like to wait till fight week. I like to see guys at the way and see what what their eyes look like what their body looks like.
"Yeah, I know, they said he has the skills, in my opinion, to beat Lara But he didn't show that in the last fight. But I've seen him. Better than that a lot better than that. And credit to Lara, you know, I'm not saying this was a fluke, Lara might go on to beat him again. And he's probably going to be the favorite in this fight because of the way he won.
"But what I'm saying is, if he goes back to the drawing board and executes a different game plan, I feel he has the physical ability to beat Lara. But we won't know until we find out obviously, and that's the beauty of his sport.
"He has the opportunity to revenge, avenge his loss, and then maybe create a third fight. "
Watch Lara vs. Warrington 2, plus a full undercard including Katie Taylor's latest defence of the undisputed women's lightweight title, live on DAZN on Sept. 4.