No professional opponent had beaten Tyson Fury until Oleksandr Usyk's brilliant performance in May saw the Ukrainian become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
It was the first time Fury's hand was not raised at the end of the fight since Russian amateur Maksim Babanin defeated him in 2007.
The Briton's unbeaten record was a great source of pride. But let's go to the second leg, which is played live this Saturday Sky Sports Box OfficeFury didn't think about losing.
“I was undefeated for 17 years as a boxer. That's a long time,” Fury said Sky Sports.
“I didn't really think about it. It didn't affect me. I didn't do anything different than what I would have done if I had won the decision.
“I wouldn't have done anything differently if I had won the decision or not. I didn't really think about it to be fair. I don't even focus on the past, I just concentrate on the day in hand.”
Oleksandar Usyk and Tyson Fury rematch live on Sky Sports Box Office on Saturday
But he couldn't deny that the reverse gave him a new edge for the rematch.
He said: “Sometimes I think about it, if I'm going to run in something, I think about if this (person) got a decision over me, I want to turn it around in a rematch.
“Obviously I'm a competitor, I'm competitive. So I think so.”
Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes Fury, sees the fighter who suffered his first loss. “I think it really shook him up and he trained a lot harder than before,” Arum said Sky Sports.
“In other words, he's always trained hard, but the commitment for this one is far and above what it's been for any fight except maybe the second (Deontay) Wilder fight.”
Famously, after a controversial draw in his first fight with Wilder, Fury ran into the American and stopped him in their rematch.
Undercard fighter Isaac Lowe, who has trained with Fury since he was a child and knows him better than most, is confident that the former champion will also recover from this ordeal.
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“Look at his record, when he's been down or whatever, he's always come back and knocked the other guy out,” Lowe said Sky Sports.
“I expect the best version of Tyson Fury. There's not much different that he has to do right. Just less things, staying more focused and focusing and I think little tweaks here and there will make a difference in this. I expect him to do the number this time.
“Everybody wrote him off throughout his career. When he got to 30 stone, before he boxed (Wladimir) Klitschko, when there was the Wilder fight, this and that, and he always comes back against the odds and does it.
“What a stage to do this time.”
It was a high-pressure, high-level event when Fury took on Usyk for the first time. But Fury's youth provides another clue as to how he will respond to that defeat.
In 2006, Tyson Fury boxed David Price in the final of the North West ABA National Championship. That might sound like a small thing, but on the amateur circuit at the time it was about as big as it could get.
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Then Macaulay McGowan trained with Fury at Jimmy Egan's amateur boxing club.
Recalling that moment McGowan recounted Sky Sports: “It was just the North West final. It was massive. Tyson wanted to make GB. Obviously David Price was a Commonwealth international gold medallist. He was going to the Olympics. All of a sudden this 17, 18-year-old kid came along out of nowhere, started trashing him on the boxing news and all that.
“It came out a few weeks later that David Price wasn't even worried about the ABA, but then he saw Tyson giving him rubbish on the boxing news.
“It was a big fight. It was like an undisputed fight for the world title, I remember it today. He wanted a place in the 2008 Olympics and he was given the chance to prove it.”
Fury lost that decision to Price. “He was a little depressed, (thinking:) 'I'll never do that, I'll never do this.' Then he went back to the gym and trained that bit between his teeth and it goes even harder,” McGowan recalled.
“He won the ABA and went pro after that. It's like water off a duck's back. He just snapped. Don't get me wrong, he has his low points, he's dead, he's disappointed, he was devastated. I don't think he wanted to feel that again so he collapsed and went even harder.
“I see Tyson said, 'No, you won't have it this time,' and put his head down.
“I think he'll come back stronger. Definitely.”
The big heavyweight rematch between Alexander Usyk and Tyson Fury will be live on Saturday 21st. Sky Sports Box Office. Book Usyk v Fury 2 now!