By Matt H: 2014 saw a number of rematches, such as Froch vs. Groves, Mayweather vs. Maidana, Pacquiao vs. Bradley, Bellew vs. Cleverly and Fury vs. Chisora. Historically boxing has seen a number of classic rematches and a few trilogies, like Gatti vs. Ward, Ali vs. Fraser and Leonard vs. Duran.
In many sports it is common place for opponents to face off on a regular basis, however, it is generally rare in boxing. Occasionally a rematch will be immediately granted, paths sometimes cross later on in careers and their are cases where boxers have previously had bouts in the amateur ranks before battling it out as professionals.
Winning breads winning
In the above mentioned rematches from this year all those winning the first fights when on to win the second, with the exception of Bellew vs. Cleverly. Mayweather and Fury knew they had the beating of their opposition and it allowed them a fairly straight forward means to an end. Mayweather a big pay day and the chance to reaffirm his dominance over Maidana by improving a majority decision into a unanimous decision with the second fight. For Fury, a relatively decent pay day for his career to date, and an opportunity to gain a mandatory position for Wladimir Klitschko’s. Both matches looked very low risk for the for the winners of the first match and the rewards evident. Especially in the case of Chisora the previously beaten boxer it soon became obvious that nothing could be done to overturn the outcome of the first fight in the second. In another heavy weight rematch, Tony Thompson vs. David Price, it was apparent that Thompson had a clear mental edge going into the fight of Price and paid dividends in the result. From the opposite perspective Price was scared from the first fight. He was too eager to right the wrongs of his first defeat he failed to box to a game plan and wasted a lot of nervous energy that resulted in his stoppage. The interesting case in the ‘winning breads winning’ is Carl Froch vs. George Groves. Despite winning their first contest Froch was regarded by many to have been given a premature stoppage of Groves and was behind on the scorecards prior to the stoppage, hence in some eyes being the real loser of the fight. Therefore, you could argue that Groves should be full of confidence heading into the second bout. However, it was clear that Froch had took Groves’ best shots and they did not prevent him from winning first time round. Going into the second fight Froch knew he could win at his worst so if he tightened up his game he could win in a more convincing fashion, this he did. Also, Groves knew that he couldn’t have a better chance to put away Froch than he did from the moment he dropped him in the very first round, and failed to do so.
Learning from your mistakes
It can be said that those winning their first contested learnt from their mistakes to win the rematches more emphatically. This is also the case when loses have been overturn. Tony Bellew managed to put to bed his defeat against Nathan Cleverly, matching the Welshman’s work rate and out lasting him second time around. In another case Manny Pacquiao defeated Timothy Bradley second time around after losing his first battle. Both of these fights saw very close and disputed judges decisions first time around. Often when their are close points decisions fight can be argued to go either way. When this is the case it is possible for the loser of the first bout to sharpen up and gain revenge in the second bout. Lennox Lewis one of the Heavyweight greats of recent times learn from his mistakes to win three rematches in his career. A draw against Evander Holyfield was turned into a unanimous points victory just 8 months later. Whilst his two knock out defeats against Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman were avenged in brutal fashion with Lewis scoring knock outs of his own. Lewis learnt from his mistakes in both of these reversals, especially Rahman where his mistake was to take Rahman too lightly.
In the sport of boxing, where one loss can be so detrimental to a career, rematches are all the more unique. In many fixture based sports it is teams often several times throughout a season or athletes have long head to head records. In boxing multiple fights would very rarely work. The public get bored of seeing two fights go at each other time after time. Another Froch vs Groves or Pacquiao vs. Bradley would draw very little interest. The boxing fans would much rather see the career of the fighter develop taking another step up the ladder to face better competition win or lose.
History has proven that it is possible for either man to win the rematch. 2015 could provide some more rematches; Arthur Abraham vs. Paul SMith, James DeGale vs. George Groves and Billy Joe Saunders to name a couple. In these it could be argued again either way that the winner of the first bout could win or lose the second. What is interesting looking at the previous rematches is that there is very rarely a third bout. Despite how close the first bout may have been, it is interesting that the winner of the second very rarely offers a rematch if it is made 1 all in the series. The winner of the second bout in almost all occasions is seen as the better boxer. Therefore, I guess the saying you are only as good as your last fight is apt. It will be interesting to see what fighters try and avenge losses next year, which fighters offer an opportunity for beaten opponents revenge and which can simple accept defeat and move their career on in a different direction.
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