She's losing badly, but it's like a fighter who goes into the ring and gets knocked out. The first thing he says is, I want a rematch. I want to rematch.
The gangster struggling with tuberculosis in Drunken Angel really is struggling with his own self-image as a tough guy, as someone who doesn't let himself be knocked down by anything.
Sue tried to think away her tears as she heard the trifling sum that her dears were deemed to be worth advanced by small stages to the price at which they were finally knocked down.