I think Larry Holmes during his title reign should of rematched Weaver, Witherspoon, Williams. I been watching alot of the Light Heavyweight division in the 70s/80s recently. And a few rematches there I would of liked to have seen were. Matthew Saad Muhammad vs Eddie Muststa Muhammad 2 Michael Spinks vs Eddie Davis 2 Michael Spinks vs Dwight Muhammad Qawi 2
Holmes should have rematched Norton most of all imo. None of those other guys gave him that kind of fight. Hagler-Leonard Lewis-Vitali
I will offer a variation: rematch got made but too late to matter... -Leonard vs Duran III; After episode I and II, it was expected there would be soon a 3rd bout to settle the discussion on who was the best boxer, specially after the infamous "No mas" episode. However, it took them almost 10 YEARS! 10 F**** YEARS to fight again, when they both were old and faded, back from retirement. Senseless bout if you ask me. -Fairwearther vs Pacquiao Not a lot to say here; but it was a dissapointment how Fairweather proscastinated and delayed as much as he could the fight. Fairweather vs Paquiao was supposed to happen in 2009-2010, when Pacquiao was stil prime ... but no way Fairweather was going to risk his coveted "invictus" record. Instead we had to wait six years for a travesti of a fight in 2015 between an old injured Pacquiao and a "safety first" Fairweather.
I think Norton actually would of got rematch vs Holmes, but Shavers blowing away Norton scuppered that plan. That's the only reason I didn't mention it. Where as I think there was a decent window, when Weaver and Witherspoon won the title. That Holmes possibly could of fit in a rematch against one of them.
Leonard-Duran 3 was definitely a horrible bout but Leonard did not want to fight Duran a 3rd time after the debacle in New Orleans, and many thought Duran didn deserve it quitting the way he did. The third fight was ridiculous, as Leonard raqn basically the whole time and Duran landed a few shots late in the bout busting Leonards mouth. It was a whimper compared to the first two.
Not sure if you were around during the time of No Mas, but there was no way to put together that level of fight after Duran quit. He had a long road of redemption back and that’s because nobody is going to put down money for tickets or closed circuit (if PPV existed then it was in its infancy and not widely available) to see a guy who had quit fleece them again. Duran was also one win away from a Leonard rematch (or so it seemed at the time) when he faced Wilfred Benitez and put forth a listless performance. (Turned out Leonard’s detached retina was discovered soon after and he went into retirement — advances in surgery techniques allowed that problem to be fixed later but it was considered career-ending at the time.) So blame Duran for quitting and fate for taking Leonard out of the game. And the Duran who did fight Leonard a third time was coming off an inspiring win over Iran Barkley but showed up pretty tame for his longed-for shot at Leonard again. As for Pac, that fight would have happened if Manny had agreed to blood testing. Even Freddie Roach later said that was a huge mistake. I suspect Manny had his reasons for not wanting a more scrutinizing, Olympic-level testing to take place.
Someone who posted that there should have been a Tyson-Douglas rematch, explain to me why. It was a one-sided drubbing. Just because you like the guy who lost?
Codwell vs Sanchez. Now technically Martinez and Zoo Nelson had a rematch but with fair judging it’s 1-1. Nelson has one win over Martinez with a damaged hand and Nelson would be slapped throughout the third like in the early rounds before the break in the rematch. Benitez vs Duran was definitive but not repeatable I think, so it’d be a good place to start if I just got to pick one I wanted. Antonio Cervantes deserved one against Benitez and so did Palamino IMO.
I wasn't born when the fight took place but there's a few things, 1 is that the supposed long count Douglas had was a talking point and controversial. Now you and i both know Tyson and Douglas, each got the the same amount of time for both counts. But still there was quite a bit made of it and still is. Also did people consider it a fluke at the time ? because of Tyson's training habits and etc prior to the fight ? I still think an immediate rematch should of been made, it would of been IMO a massive fight and would of sold well. But did Tyson or Tyson's camp really push for the fight ? i don't know. But the issue also was Douglas pretty much faded from the spotlight, after an abysmal showing against Holyfield coming in grossly overweight. So any chance of a rematch after that was pretty slim as Douglas's stock dropped immensely after that. As for your other comment about the about being one sided, yes that's true but as i said the knockdown Douglas suffered, was a big talking about and could of sold the fight. And if i can use another example Joe Louis got beaten up pretty convincingly by Max Schmeling and got a rematch, Deontay Wilder was destroyed by Fury in their 2nd fight and still got a rematch.
Did you edit your comment? I could've sworn you were unaware of the 3rd fight between Leonard and Duran.