Name: Dan Gable on Losing His Final Match "I Needed That Loss"
Uploaded: 2021-03-31T17:04:55.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dan Gable on Losing His Final Match "I Needed That Loss"' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Dan Gable on Losing His Final Match "I Needed That Loss"' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-31. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan Experience.
Nobody thought I was going to lose, except for one guy.
One guy actually said I can beat him.
But he didn't tell me. He forgot to tell me.
So I didn't take him for granted. I took him for granted.
And so I always went through routines, warming up, getting ready mentally.
We weighed in five hours before a match.
From then on, you ate and drank a little bit, and then focus, focus, rest,
focus, focus.
I was doing interviews with Wide World of Sport right during the national
finals.
And I wasn't a talker.
Like, I can talk pretty good now because I learned to talk.
But at that time, off the mat, I couldn't talk to anybody.
And so when they put a mic in front of me and they wanted to know about,
hey, just say this.
Say, hey, I'm Dan Gable.
Come watch me next week on Wide World of Sport as I finished my career 182-0.
And I hadn't wrestled the match yet.
And so I was supposed to say that.
But do you think I could say that?
Hell no, I couldn't say that.
I kept stuttering, not saying it.
And they kept doing it.
So finally, after about 15 takes, they wrote it out on big cards.
And so I took about seven takes with that one.
I think I got it done in about 22 takes.
But then when I got it done, it wasn't good either.
They just finally said, oh, that's good enough.
Get out of here.
So I turned.
I'm on deck.
I'm on deck.
So they already went through the 118, 126, 134, and I was 142 at that time.
So 134 is just wrestling.
And I always warmed up for a good 45 minutes to an hour.
So I hit a quick warm-up and went out in that match.
And I didn't realize there was somebody that actually thought they could beat
me.
And even though before I always did the routine, I went through it.
But I'll tell you what, you skip once, you're vulnerable.
For the only time in my life that within a minute into the match, I could hear
the crowd.
A minute into the match, I could feel how I felt.
And I was feeling tired and weak.
I mean, I never knew how you felt in a wrestling match until the match was over.
And once it was over, yeah, sometimes I felt good.
But sometimes I felt weak and tired.
But I didn't show it because I didn't think about it.
I didn't know it.
But the one time he didn't prepare and the guy thinking that he could go with
you,
and he could, you know, you take on everything.
So you take on way more than just your opponent.
And so I talked myself into wrestling after minute one.
I kept saying, I got to keep going.
I got to keep working hard.
And so I got an early lead, just a quick first takedown.
But I kept feeling how tired I was.
And I kept hearing the crowd.
Why do you think you were so tired?
Because I didn't warm up.
I was doing talking.
I was not focusing on my match.
It had just no warm up had that much of an effect on your conditioning.
I used to be a pretty – well, even today, as you get older, you notice how if
you don't warm up
and you hit something really hard, you get exhausted.
And it's probably kind of like that.
Usually what I did for warm-ups is probably within a half hour of my match,
I would get match heartbeat rate up and go for three or four minutes that way.
So don't get real tired.
But then after that, you'd probably have a little drink and get ready to go.
What would you do for a warm-up?
You had a very specific routine?
Pretty much, pretty much, you know, stretching and jogging and then actually
wrestling,
actually wrestling pretty hard to where you would actually be sweating good.
And then I actually got to the point where if I had a lot of time before my
match,
I would actually go take another shower.
But usually when you're the fourth guy out or something, you just kind of
stayed loose.
But you didn't really – and then right before your match again,
you might get your heart rate up again to – because your heart rate didn't
really go down below 100 probably.
And you need it in a wrestling match, it's probably going up to 170, 180, you
know, stuff like that.
But you wanted to have your heart rate up to that match pace heart rate for not
seven or eight minutes
because you're not going to recover quick enough.
You'd still be tired.
You'd want to be tired.
So you'd get it up there and spike it up and down for two or three minutes
and hitting some really good execution of wrestling holds.
We do hand fighting, a lot of hand fighting.
And that hand fighting can really – can get that heart rate up and pushing
and shoving
and hitting some live techniques where the guy was letting you do it.
But you're doing it at live pace.
And you do some sprints and do some tumbling, gymnastics tumbling.
But in this match, no warm-up at all?
When I got done with the 20-second take of the – I had that match to warm up.
So I probably had 10 minutes instead of my normal 45 minutes or so.
But I thought I was still ready.
But it was something out of my control, actually.
And it took me over.
But I did talk my way into – because I got ahead, but then I got real far
behind.
I mean, I was behind by six points.
And then I got ahead by two or three points.
And that was right towards the end of the match.
And then there was a flurry.
Could have went either way.
But the referee went his way.
And that's the way it is.
I mean, it's just – it's just – that's the calls.
Does that haunt you to this day?
Oh, of course it haunts me.
But guess what?
I needed that loss.
I really did.
That loss took me to unbelievable heights that I would have never had without
that loss.
What's unbelievable is if you ask the guy that beat me, Larry Owings,
he said if I had to do it over again, I might have lost that match on purpose.
Or not even on purpose.
Just because I didn't know how to handle it.
I wanted to be an Olympic champion.
I wanted to be a world champion.
But when I won that match, there was so much hype.
I didn't know how to handle it.
He said he even broke up my marriage.
He was married, I guess.
That's what he claimed.
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