Usually it’s the winner who takes the spoils, including being named first when a fight or series is mentioned historically. Everybody calls it the Ali-Frazier trilogy, with Muhammad getting the honors by winning two out of three. Had Joe won the second fight, I think we’d call it Frazier-Ali whether there was a third meeting or not, and irregardless of outcome of same. It’s Holmes-Cooney, Hagler-Hearns, etc. But in some cases, it’s backwards. The loser of the fight or the guy who comes up on the wrong end of the series gets his name first. Examples: Duran-Leonard (Ray won two out of three, of course, but lost in Montreal) Tyson-Holyfield (Evander going 2-0, both inside the distance) Pep-Saddler (Willie won the second but was stopped cold in four rounds in the first and lost inside the distance in the third and fourth installments) Dempsey-Tunny (Gene swept both fights) So … 1) Why is this? I don’t think we can chalk it all up to ‘well the guy who lost was more famous,’ because Leonard was more of a household name than Roberto, for instance. So what over reasons could there be? 2) What are some others?
I think in the examples mentioned the loser was the bigger draw. Loved Holyfield, but no way was he going to get top billing name wise over Tyson, though Pep and Saddler are legends of the sport, Pep gets the nod over this one for being the bigger star, not sure why Duran is over Leonard, but Jack Dempsey is the bigger star. Had Ali done the same as he did, IE beat Foreman, Liston ete, but just went 1-3 vs Frazier, I would think Ali would still get top billing in that series.
Barrera-Morales. Barrera won 2 of 3 but Morales won the first and most people write Barrera-Morales 1 (myself included). Plus, I think a lot of people felt Barrera really did win the first fight (myself included).
In Duran’s case, he wasn’t the champ the first time they thought (I think sometimes these things get etched in peoples’ minds for the first fight because you don’t know if there’s going to be a rematch or trilogy) and he was definitely not the bigger draw than Leonard. I think most people also go with Hearns-Duran rather than the other way around but I’ve probably seen Duran-Benitez more than the reverse.
