Duran Leonard poster

 

Boxing Rematches Past and Present Are Chess Matches: A Writer’s Perspective

 

By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent

 

Rematches require a certain mindset. They either result in redemption or repeat.

Experience can count, but tactics and a different game plan are clearly more important in a rematch. Quoting Tony Thompson after winning his rematch with David Price, “I am a great thinker. David was in great condition, but his mind was not. You cannot change a fighter’s mindset in one training camp,” Thompson referring to Price being trained for the rematch with Lennox Lewis.

 

Seth Mitchell versus Jonathon Banks II. David Price versus Tony Thompson II.

Sugar Ray Leonard versus Roberto Duran II and III. Travis Walker versus Tony Thompson II. Sugar Ray Robinson versus Paul Pender II. Archie Moore versus Yvon Durelle II. Muhammad Ali versus Smokin’ Joe Frazier II and III. Manny Pacquiao versus Juan Manuel Marquez II, III and IV. Thomas Hearns versus Sugar Ray Leonard II. Larry Holmes versus Earnie Shavers II. Evander Holyfield versus Mike Tyson II. Joe Louis versus Billy Conn II. Lennox Lewis versus Hasim Rahman II. Rocky Marciano versus Ezzard Charles II. Rocky Marciano versus Jersey Joe Walcott II. Gentleman Jim Corbett versus James Jeffries II. The list of boxing rematches is endless.

 

From a writer’s perspective, some of these rematches are legitimate, while others are a miserable excuse to sell tickets. Others, may I said, had rematch results which stunk (in terms of believability). To me, in addition to the above, rematches involve being properly conditioned, and carefully fighting the right second fight. It appears some fighters cannot shake their cockiness, and wind up in telephone booth toe-to-toe slugfests, which will result in disasters in rematches. In my professional view,

 

David Price, overreacting to his sudden knockdown of Tony Thompson in the second round while Tony Thompson was backing up from a punch, proceeded to punch himself out in the third round. Billy Conn, seeking a knockout in the thirteen round, got knocked out in his first confrontation when he was ahead on points and could have won the bout on points outright. Joe Louis, who lost to counter puncher Max Schmeling in the twelfth round of their first confrontation, opted to finish Schmeling in the first round of their rematch and not let the fight drag.

 

Rematches do involve both desire and fire, and can yield strange results, such as Rocky Marciano’s nose split in half and only being given ‘one more round’ to finish Ezzard Charles in the rematch, which a heart and soulful Rocky did. Some rematches, like George Foreman versus Muhammad Ali II, and Diego Corrales versus Jose Louis Castillo III, and Lennox Lewis versus Vitali Klitschko II, never came to past. We can only wonder about might have been. Some rematches, like Muhammad Ali versus George Chuvalo II and Muhammad Ali versus Floyd Patterson II, and Muhammad Ali versus Joe Bugner II, simply did not prove anything. As for Muhammad Ali versus Ken Norton II and II, like the Frazier rematches, those bouts were something back in the day.

 

Fighters like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns were big draws back in the day. Carlos Monzon fought Rodrigo Valdez twice, and Muhammad Ali fought Leon Spinks twice. Some rematches are significant time wise at the time they are fought.

 

The truthful bottom line is if the general public wants to see the rematches, and the money is on the table, well then, money does talk. If Floyd Mayweather were to lose to Saul Alvarez, or to anybody else for that matter, the public would want a rematch. The true test occurs when a fighter is brought in by a promoter as a stepping stone, and knocks out the promoter’s fighter. If the rematch is not a fix, and the promoter’s fighter loses, the promoter has made a costly rematch mistake.

 

Perhaps the best rematch is one involving not money, but knowledge of self. World Boxing Association Junior Middleweight champion Miguel Angel Castellini of Argentina, who lost his title by 15 round decision in Nicaragua to Eddie Gazo in 1977, knocked out Gazo in Argentina in the ninth round of their rematch in Castellini’s final ring appearance. Of all rematches, this bout is the only I remember most because the outcome was, as we say, poetic justice.

 

 

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