The first time I heard Stayed Gone - specifically Valentino's line about Alastor almost beating Vox - my brain immediately went, "Okay, so Vox absolutely lost that fight and is just telling everyone he won, right? Everything about this screams, 'if you think I look bad, you should see the other guy'." And then actually watching the show locked in that interpretation for me, because spinning things in his favor is what Vox does.
I can't say I'm surprised that so many people just accept his victory without question, because there is a sizable contingent of fans who take whatever the characters say at face value, and I'm sure it has plenty of overlap with the one that thinks Alastor is a fraud. But I am confused that most people take it for granted that Vox won because the other Vees showed up, considering I can't think of a single thing that implies that was the case.
Anyway, I'm convinced that Vox lost, and here's why:
He never brings it up. Barely winning is still winning, but he never says a word about it to anyone under any circumstances. And it's not because he only won with help; the other Vees did help in the fight before Alastor's surrender, but Vox is still very vocal about how he won, including when talking to Alastor himself. So if he also won that mysterious fight, with or without help, why does he never brag about it?
When other people bring it up, he gets agitated.
Obviously Valentino mentions it in Stayed Gone, and Vox replies with a very toothless, "Uh, fuck you."
There's also a news crawl in S2xE5 that reads, "Breaking news! Alastor to join the Vees after embarrassing defeat at the hands of beloved Media Overlord Vox. Who saw that coming?! Like didn't Vox almost lose last tim-- VoxTek Video premier tonight. "The Inevitable Fall of the Radio Demon" captured in 4k". Which is obvious revisionism.
One could argue that Vox is upset because people always focus on how close the victory was rather than the fact that it was a victory... Except Vox literally controls the news, and he spins everything. He could have flooded the media with reports of his clear victory, and if he made enough noise for long enough, people would stop thinking about the part he didn't want them thinking about. The only reason he would let people remember it as a near-defeat is if he was doing damage control on a worse narrative, which implies that he wasn't able to control the narrative himself before it reached the news. Which would basically require him to be unconscious.
Not a single Overlord took Vox seriously before Alastor's surrender. Even Prick and Hatchet - who are presumably minor Overlords, since they weren't at the S1 meeting - thought so little of him that they had a five dollar bounty on his Wanted poster. Meanwhile, Alastor is regarded so highly, even after his seven-year absence, that people were surprised by his defeat. If Vox had already beaten him once, even if only barely, why was everyone so shocked that he pulled it off a second time?
One could argue that it was surprising because this time it was a clear victory, with no room to question if Vox actually won. But if Alastor is perceived to be so powerful that people assumed Lucifer must have taken him down, and his fight with Vox was close enough for the winner to be in doubt, then even losing would be something worthy of respect. Because it would mean Vox was powerful enough to at least rival Alastor. But again: none of the Overlords took him seriously. So they clearly think he lost, and badly.
Alastor is an unreliable narrator, because of course he would deny ever losing. But he does make a comment about putting Vox in his place a second time, and claims that none of his previous fights with Vox have been a challenge. So one of them has to be lying about who won that fight (Alastor also mentions putting Vox in his place when talking about the "tantrum" he allegedly threw during their falling out, so it's possible he was referring to that when he says he's going to do it a second time. But the thing about none of their other fights being a challenge still stands).
Alastor cares about his reputation, yet he never publicly challenges the allegation that he once lost a fight against Vox, even if narrowly (which could be because he disappeared right after, but we don't actually know where the Mystery Fight falls on the timeline).
Vox, at his most powerful and in his full demon form, fighting an injured Alastor with a broken staff, still manages to lose their fight in the finale. He does turn the tables by calling Shok.wav, but he loses the part of the fight that's actually a fight. And it isn't close. Vox draws some blood, Alastor forces him back into his normal form (mostly) and into a position where Vox, for whatever reason, isn't even fighting back. If he couldn't call Shok.wav, the battle would have been pretty much over. So there's no way he's ever defeated Alastor one-on-one, unless it was through far more clever use of his powers and environment than he's ever demonstrated.
Every time it comes up, it's that Vox "almost lost", not that he "barely won". Considering what normally happens to Overlords Alastor takes down, it's possible the implication is supposed to be that Vox isn't considered to have lost because he escaped. Which is a sort of victory, though certainly not the "winning a fight" kind. And not the kind one would want to brag about.
In conclusion, the evidence that Vox won that fight amounts to "trust me, he did". It's not even his word against Alastor's, because Vox himself doesn't talk about it.
Until/unless canon proves me wrong, my theory is that Vox escaped (or was allowed to escape), and merely surviving the Radio Demon means he didn't technically lose. But he certainly didn't win, which is why he couldn't spin it to say he did, why the other Overlords don't take him seriously despite his not losing, and why he doesn't like people bringing it up.
Which might sound like a stretch, but it wouldn't be the first time the exact meaning of words was important with these two.
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