His team offered Buchanan $25K to fight in Panama. Ken turned it down. He decided to act as his own manager after losing the title and by his own words he did a lousy job of it — basically sat and waited for the phone to ring rather than pursuing fights and trying to put together better opportunities. And while $25K doesn’t sound like very much, Duran got $35K to fight him in NY for the title. Not a vast difference, and with a manager negotiating he probably could have gotten it up to around that level but he just turned it down flat and that was it.
As far as I know there was no 'clause' for a rematch, rather it was just one of those fights where a return bout was expected somewhere down the line. Buchanan certainly told anyone who'd listen (at least up until 1975, which I'll get on to in a minute) that he wanted a rematch and it's fair to say he was chasing it for a while afterwards. Duran lost to De Jesus - his first career loss - in that non-title bout just a few months after he beat Buchanan, which I think played a major part in Buchanan-Duran II not happening. Duran, according to Christian's Guidice's Hands of Stone biography, had an intense dislike for Puerto Rican boxers at that point in particular, and took the loss to De Jesus very personally. So in short, I think that loss changed Duran's priorities, and from that moment on avenging that defeat and proving himself the better man than De Jesus became his primary aim. For the time being De Jesus was a more pressing matter than Buchanan. Meanwhile, Buchanan was getting down on himself, hitting the bottle (which blighted his life after boxing) and became disillusioned because of what he perceived as an injustice in his loss to Duran. He was frustrated that he didn't seem to be Duran's priority and started falling out with trainers, managers and apparently even sparring partners. All of that contributed to him being unfocussed and nowhere near his best when he fought Ishimatsu for the WBC title, where he dropped a decision to a fighter he really should have beaten. So Buchanan is as much to blame as anyone, really - had he beaten Ishimatsu he'd have stood a very good chance of getting a reunification match against Duran, but he blew it. That said, I have seen and read in some places - not guaranteed to be true, mind you - that Buchanan was allegedly offered a Duran rematch after his loss to Ishimatsu, and turned it down because without the WBC title to his name he was going to have to take it on pretty unfavourable financial terms. Don't take that as gospel, but I have seen that rumour flying around a couple of times. Maybe someone who knows Buchanan's career better than me can confirm either way. Whatever the truth in that regard, I don't hold it against Duran that there was never a rematch, and not just because Buchanan blew a potential opportunity by losing to Ishimatsu. More because while Buchanan gave him a good fight and was still in it to a degree, I don't think the first fight was close enough to automatically make a rematch a necessity. Buchanan had his moments but was a clear enough second-best on the night and there's really no great evidence to suggest a rematch would have been all that different, albeit it would have been a good and legitimate defence for Duran to make all the same. A shame how it ended, but even with that controversy I don't think a rematch was ever an absolute 'must'.
Buchanan potentially pricing himself out of this fight seems to be a recurring theme. The (London) Times of September 13 1975 reported an agreement between Duran and MSG to defend against Buchanan "before June 1976." However in the same article, Buchanan is quoted saying he wouldn't take the fight for less than $50,000.
I jumped the gun on that. Anyhow, thanks for the explanation. Makes a whole lot of sense. I was under the impression that Duran simply ducked the rematch.
