Adam Morrison and Julianna Peña each know the style of greatness. And so they’ve additionally been haunted by defeat.
Peña reached the very best of highs when she upset Amanda Nunes for the bantamweight title. Nunes entered that battle in December of 2021 as an unstoppable pressure, and solely a valuable few outdoors of Peña’s family and friends envisioned her rising victorious. But she did, in exceptional vogue, bludgeoning Nunes with a flurry of strikes earlier than forcing her to faucet. She additionally is aware of the lows of defeat, which stung her final July when she misplaced the belt again to Nunes.
“These powerful occasions, you may’t enable them to carry you again,” says Peña. “You want to be sturdy. I’ve misplaced, and I do know that ache–and I’ve tore up each my knees, too. All these cases, they made me ask myself, how can I get higher? That’s been my driving pressure, to get again and compete on the highest stage. Being higher each day, that continues to push me ahead.”
Morrison performed his school basketball at Gonzaga, spending three years on the courtroom for the Bulldogs, sharing the distinguished Oscar Robertson Trophy throughout his junior 12 months with Duke standout JJ Redick for nationwide participant of the 12 months. That was the season that an NCAA championship appeared like a really actual chance for Gonzaga–and people desires had been delivered to life within the Candy Sixteen when the crew held a 17-point benefit towards the famed UCLA Bruins.
Not like final evening, when Gonzaga held on to win, it was totally different in 2006. UCLA emphatically stormed again to win that recreation, a comeback that has completely embedded itself into the month of March as the faculty basketball match begins anew. The loss left Morrison devastated, and the sight of him on the parquet in tears whereas UCLA joyously celebrated stays a heartbreaking-yet-iconic reminder of the enjoyment of victory and the heartache of defeat.
