Fighters that were better in rematches?

SRR, Emile Griffith & Koichi Wajima

 

Almost too obvious but: Joe Louis.

 

Muhammad Ali,Joe Louis,Marvin Hagler and Alan Minter.

 

Currently, Wladimir Klitschko

 

Lennox Lewis.

 

Joe Louis

 

Antonio Tarver. Barring his recent rematch debacle against Chad Dawson.

 

Tarver had a much closer fight the 2nd go around, starting in the mid rounds. He was simply too old to execute.

Other candidates:

Joe Louis
Lennox Lewis
Wlad Klitschko
Muhammad Ali

 

Hagler.

 

A lot of "rematch specialists" are just fighters that needed two fights to solve or become dominant over lesser talented fighters.Or lazy *******s that tended to take opposition lightly.

That's not always the case, but generally i prefer fighters that don't need two fights to think on their feet.

 

Jimmy Carter and Fred Apostoli

Scartissue

 

Azumah Nelson was a stand out rematch fighter. Second only to Ray Robinson, IMO.

 

I'd say Evander Holyfield can get a mention. He's not quite as consistently good in rematches as other fighters but has won some big fights in rematches. He had that war with Dwight Qawi the first time around, then stopped him in 4 in the rematch. Won the 2nd fight against Riddick Bowe. Avenged the loss to Michael Moorer with an 8th round TKO in the rematch. Was certainly more competitive against Lennox Lewis the 2nd time around, and some felt Holy deserved a win or draw (I am definitely NOT one of those however).

It's been years since I saw the rematch with Alex Stewart, I remember it being boring after the first fight was good so I don't know how this compares. Other rematches were the infamous bite fight, and the 2nd and 3rd John Ruiz fights. The 3rd match against Ruiz, a god-awful fight, was probably an improvement for Holyfield over the first two.

 

Humberto Gonzalez in his rematches with Michael Carbajal. Completely changed things up.