Brendan doesn't really need to win the tournament to provide for his family. If Sparta is as big of a deal as it's presented, making it into the second or third round would generate enough publicity for his dual life angle that he could earn quite a bit in speaking engagements, endorsements and so forth, even if he didn't want to fight again.
Motiviating him to win the fight accomplishes that. If you get the fighter on taking the W, it should (hypothetically) motivate them to go the distance, even if they at any point realize they're not outright going to win the fight.
Fridge Brilliance
Throughout the movie, Paddy Conlon listens to Moby Dick on tape, with long passages audible to the audience. Tommy, his son and pupil, is similar to Captain Ahab. He is incredibly driven out of feelings of anger and vengeance, and in the end, he fails at his appointed task and suffers for his actions.
And the moment of his defeat, so to speak, mirrors Ahab’s defeat. Ahah gets tangled up with the whale and still lunges for it, and gets pulled down into the briny deep. Tommy gets locked in an omoplata shoulder lock, an *extremely* dangerous hold that should signal to a fighter that they need to tap or else. Tommy refuses to tap, even slapping Brendan in defiance. So Brendan is left with no choice but to demonstrate to Tommy that the fight is now over.
