I was watching some old video's of Ch Golden King's King 8XW, 1XGL ROM, the dog in his youth was an absolute monster. He was retired and was living as a 8 year old house dog when his owner decided to call out a prime killer in Gr Ch Atila's Dendy.

The match was set and King was conditioned to come in heavier then all his previous contests to meet Dendy's ideal pit weight. The match went as one would expect with King giving a good account of himself but losing game and then losing his life after the match.

I'm not taking anything away from Gr Ch Dendy or his camp, the dog was one of the all time greats and deserving of his level of fame.

Another example of this was a retired and 9 year old Big Apples Gr Ch Haunch who was living as a house dog being brought out to meet a prime Storm Trooper's Big Boy. Haunch took a God awful beating but at hour-forty three an out of hold's count was given to Big Boy where he stood the line and Haunch barley made it over to Big Boy where he took hold and won. Like King before him, Haunch died after the match.

A more recent example was that of Ch HMK's Ali Baba 8XW BIS, 1XL who had been brought out a total of 9 times (his match with Gold Day was a no contest as it was interrupted by someone yelling there was a raid) and was retired before being brought out at an older age to face a younger dog who was brought in especially to beat Ali Baba (sorry I can't for the life of me remember this dogs name, no disrespect meant for the dog or camp). In the end Ali Baba stood the line...

My question is it gameness being shown by the camp to give their dog every opportunity at further greatness doing what they love or is it more a case of ego before dog ?