It was as uncomfortable to watch as the fight that proceeded it had been enthralling.
Anthony Joshua's four-minute tirade after his split decision defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Jeddah was met with ridicule and scorn from most.
It was simply an emotional outburst from a man who knew he had been beaten and whose world was collapsing around him in front of over 10,000 people in the King Abdullah Sport City and millions watching around the world.
"You're not strong, how did you beat me?" Joshua near-enough shouted in the face of his opponent, having earlier dropped two of the belts he used to own out of the ring in disgust and almost scuffled with his opponent's corner.
Then, worryingly, he had the ring microphone in his hand.
Production staff frantically gestured from the ring apron trying to find someone, anyone, to take it off him.
Joshua though was allowed to ramble through a potted history of his personal life and the emotion he was feeling in an explosion of muddled feelings.
Heartbreakingly, we were watching the unravelling of a man's dreams in real-time.
"If you knew my story, you would understand my passion," he said.
"I ain't no f***ing amateur boxer from five years old that was an elite prospect … I was going to jail.
"The f***ing passion we put into this s***, man.
"This guy, to beat me tonight, maybe I could have done better, but it shows the levels of hard work he must have put in.
"I'm not a 12-round fighter. Look at me. I'm the new breed of heavyweight.
"'You don't throw combinations like Rocky Marciano', That's cause I ain't f***ing 14 stone. I'm 18 stone and I'm heavy."
Joshua was, all at once, trying to justify his style, explain what he had gone through in the lead-up to the fight and pay credit to a man he could not believe was better than him.
Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo, Frazer Clarke, said on Sky Sports in the UK that Joshua's team left him out to dry and that someone should have "saved him".
"To the people who was around him, where was you?" Clarke said.
"Someone should have jumped in then, someone should have stopped him and saved him from himself."
WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie though hit the nail on the head when he gave his opinion immediately after Clarke.
"We can only imagine the pressure he is under, exploding like that."
In this almost uniquely gladiatorial sport — one of the most uncivilised pursuits known that is still sanctioned as a form of entertainment — Joshua was pouring out everything he felt since being thrust into stardom as a gold medallist at his home Olympics a decade ago.