When Joe ‘The Brown Bomber’ won the world heavyweight title by stopping champion James Braddock in June 1937, he said, “Until I beat Max Schmeling, I’m not the champion!” He talked about his KO loss in 1936. He avenged it in 1939 at Madison Square Garden, knocking Schmeling out in the first round.
When ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, 27-0, lost to Roberto ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran, 71-1, in June of 1980 Durans fight, he got a rematch. He boxed Duran so badly that Duran quit on the chair in November.
In April 1987, Leonard defeated Marvin Hagler for his middleweight title. Hagler retired and moved to Italy and did not want a rematch.
In April 2002, lightweight champion Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather was awarded a decision over Jose Luis Castillo. Eight months later he gave him a rematch and easily defeated him.
In June 2012, Manny ‘Pac Man’ Pacquiao was defeated by Tim Bradley, Jr. robbed, but in April 2014 he defeated Bradley in a rematch.
In November 2016, Andre “SOG” Ward got a split decision over Sergey Kovalev in a light heavyweight title fight and immediately gave him a rematch, stopping Kovalev and then retiring from boxing.
Heavyweight champion Rock Marciano won a close, if uncontested, decision over Roland LaStarza in March 1950 before winning the title. After stopping ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott for the title and again in his next fight, he stopped LaStarza.
In November 1986, Super Featherweight Champion Alfredo Escalera won the worst split decision over Philadelphia’s Tyrone Everett in Philadelphia. He never got a rematch, and the Pennsylvania judge who voted for Escalara never worked another show.
Historian Jim Jacobs told me the worst decision he ever saw was in June 1963, when light heavyweight champion Harold Johnson was robbed by Willie Pastrano by a split decision and never got a rematch.
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali lost to Ken Norton and Smokin’ Joe Frazier in their first fights, but defeated both twice in rematches.
In June 1983, heavyweight champion Larry ‘The Easton Assassin’ Holmes, 42-0, was awarded a split decision in a defense against ‘Terrible’ Tim Witherspoon, 15-0, never giving him a rematch.
What fight did you want to see in a rematch that never happened?
