Lineal title if every champion had insisted on a rematch-if-I-lose clause?

If every champion from Sullivan onward had gotten a contract clause where they're guaranteed a rematch in the event of a loss, what would the lineal champion lineup look like? Would you expect any big changes?

 

Going down the list...

- Sullivan probably doesn't exercise his rematch clause against Corbett. If he does, he loses again.

- Corbett definitely exercises his rematch clause against Fitzsimmons. Likely loses again. He scored his successes in the first fight by blowing through more stamina than Fitz.

- Jeffries fought Fitz twice in real life. Same result.

- Hart might actually beat Burns in the rematch. Which would change history by giving Johnson a much tougher champ to face who'd beaten him before.

But assuming Hart loses...

- Burns may not even insist on rematch Johnson, considering the humiliating slaughter from fight 1.

- Johnson would definitely insist on a rematch. Probably loses fight 2, since Willard is now champion so has even greater leverage to insist on fighting in extreme heat for a million rounds.

- Willard might give a better account of himself if he trains for the second Dempsry fight, considering he did OK in his comeback. But really, this isn't going to change much.

- Dempsey got his two shots.

- Tunney doesn't need no stinking rematch clause.

- Neither Schmeling nor Sharkey was champion when they fought for the vacant belt.

- Schmeling may well beat Sharkey in a rubber match, leaving their score basically as indeterminate as it was in real life.

But if Schmeling loses...

- Sharkey might beat Carnera if given a shot.

- Carnera probably gets flattened again by Baer.

- Baer may well beat Braddock in a rematch.

- Assuming Braddock wins the rematch with Baer, Braddock might be willing to go in for a second payday against Louis. But he loses.

- Depending on whom you consider the challenger, Louis rematches Charles and makes more money for his IRS bills. But loses again.

- Charles would lose a rematch to Walcott

- Walcott would (did) lose a rematch as well to Marciano.

- Floyd vs Moore was for a vacant title, so no rematch clause.

- We saw what happened historically with Floyd, Ingo, Liston, and Ali rematches.

- Ali-Frazier, assuming you insist Ali is the lineal champ, still probably ends like FOTC part deux. It'll have a more diligent ref than the real life Ali Frazier 2.

- Foreman beats Frazier again.

- Foreman probably still loses the Ali rematch, although Ali is on the decline and may not fight somewhere like Zaire again.

- Ali probably wins the Spinks rubber match. Gets destroyed in a second Holmes fight, though.

- Holmes lost his Michael Spinks rematch.

- Spinks gets slaughtered a second time by Tyson

- Tyson takes out Douglas in an immediate rematch, and wins the trilogy. If not, Holyfield wins the Douglas duology.

- We saw Holyfield/Bowe 1-3.

- Holyfield comes out on top in Moorer trilogy.

- Moorer probably beats Old Foreman twice more.

- Foreman gets robbed again by Briggs.

- Briggs gets defeated twice by Lewis.

- Interregnum.

- Wlad is unlikely to do better against Fury a second time.



I'm probably missing some people, but overall, it would have made a difference if older champions insisted on rematch clauses like the current crop do.

 

In real life, I don't know.

In this scenario, every loss by a champion is followed by a rematch for that champion. So if Tunney loses Fight 2, the following happens: Tunney gets a rematch, and Dempsey is guaranteed Tunney/Dempsey 4 will happen if Tunney beats Dempsey in Fight 3.