If we're talking about the true championship, and not all the various belts and trinkets, this is still a fairly rare feat. For the first 60 or 70 years or so of the championship 7 ex-champions tried and failed, a total of 11 attempts : Corbett - 2 attempts Fitzsimmons - 1 attempt Jeffries - 1 attempt Dempsey - 1 attempt Schmeling - 1 attempt Louis - 1 attempt Charles - 3 attempts Walcott - 1 attempt Floyd Patterson was the first to regain the championship, in 1960 (The others, in order : Muhammad Ali 1974 and 1978 Evander Holyfield 1993 George Foreman 1994 Lennox Lewis 2001 How would you rate these feats ?
It just shows how important re-matches can be to a fighter, and to history. The feats are somewhat rare, but I see them becoming a bit more common in the future.
Ali (1974) and Foreman (1994) did not regain from rematches. Incidentally, I think there's were the most impressive instances of regaining the title.
Apart from the embarrassing Ali-Spinks series, I think Lennox's win over Rahman is the least impressive but only because I don't think much of Rahman. It's still a mighty impressive win considering how he did it against a man that had KO'd just 6 or 7 months earlier. To some extent, people could - and do argue - that Patterson should have beat Johansson first time out too, but I tend to think Johansson was on Floyd's level anyway, and a real test in 1959, not just some "bum". Holyfield's win over Bowe was quite amazing at the time. People forget than now. Bowe had so many advantages over Holyfield.
1. Patterson over Johansson 2. Ali over Foreman 3. Foreman over Moorer 4. Lewis over Rahman 5. Ali over Spinks 6. Holyfield over Bowe I would probably rate Patterson's win over Johansson at the top. No one had ever regained the title before. Ingemar was undefeated and he'd also destroyed the top contender Eddie Machen in a round. And Johansson had absolutely destroyed Floyd - dropping him seven times and stopping him in three rounds. (Only Foreman's destruction of Frazier in their first fight compares.) Floyd couldn't say it was a lucky punch (like Lewis did after losing to Rahman and Moorer did after losing to Foreman). Nobody thought he "threw" the fight (like some idiots did after Ali lost to Spinks). Ingemar destroyed him. So the fact that Floyd didn't try to run and look to score a points win in their rematch and instead knocked Johansson stone cold was big. Patterson and Johansson aren't the best fighters on the list you posted, but I'd rate that first time someone regained the championship as the biggest accomplishment. I'd put Ali over Foreman at number two. Foreman turned out to be an all-time great. At the time, he was just the most destructive force in the division. Today, it's easy to look at Ali's career as a whole. But, back then, when Ali lost to Ken Norton in their first fight, everyone thought that was the end of his career. He'd been a great champ in the 60s, lost years off his career, lost to Frazier, came back with some strong wins in 1972, and then was beaten and broken by a relative no-name in Norton. That was going to be how it all ended. Then Ali came back to edge Norton and outpoint Frazier. And even after that, he was an 8-1 underdog to Foreman. And, again, the fact that he knocked George out was more impressive than just edging him by decision. Looking back, everyone assumed George would destroy Ali like Johansson beat Patterson. Now, I don't know if George ever could've beaten Ali. But we know Johansson could beat Patterson soundly. So that's why I rate Floyd's comeback win over this one. I'd put Foreman's win over Moorer next. George had virtually nothing left. Nobody expected him to win after he'd failed against guys like Tommy Morrison and had been beaten up by Alex Stewart. But Foreman-Moorer was an all-time great heavyweight at the very end against a guy who was never a great heavyweight, and the great heavyweight had one punch left ... and it was good enough. Had Foreman been George in his 20s, Moorer would've lasted about 30 seconds (like he did against Tua). George pushing 50, it took him 10 rounds to land the one shot. But the guy he knocked out was nothing special. Lewis-Rahman is next. Lewis was knocked the F-out in fight one by one punch. But Lennox had been doing well and had Rahman cut before Hasim landed his shot. And Rahman appeared to win the studio brawl before their rematch. It was kind of a toss-up as to who would win the rematch, but after Lewis easily won the rounds and wiped Hasim out ... with a single blow ... you could look back on the first fight as just a blip. In Lewis' career we learned if you didn't knock him out with one punch (and only two guys did it) ... you didn't win. Lewis was an all-time great. Rahman wasn't. I'd put Ali over Spinks next. Their first fight was one of the greatest 15-round heavyweight fights ever. The 15th round was one of the best 15th rounds ever in any division. But Ali was old, didn't train much at all for Spinks and stood toe-to-toe with him because he believed he could stop Spinks. The rematch is the fight everyone expected the first time. It was a pretty straightforward, boring decision. But, again, it was a great fighter at the end against a guy who wasn't great at all. However, the fact that Ali just coasted to a decision (and Spinks turned out not to be nearly the fighter Rahman was) makes it far less impressive than Lewis starching Rahman. I'd put Holyfield beating Bowe last ... which is odd because it's the best and most competitive fight of all listed. Why I put it last, though, is that despite the fact that it was a classic and one of my favorite heavyweight fights ever ... in addition to bringing us the FAN MAN, and a BRAWL outside the ring, and a long delay ... I don't think Evander deserved the win. One poster the other day said he didn't know how a champ could lose when he outlanded the challenger. Bowe LANDED 100 MORE PUNCHES (not threw 100 more, LANDED 100 more) than Holyfield did in that fight, in a bout that was hotly contested the entire way, but Bowe lost his title. In all the other fights listed (except Ali-Spinks near shut-out), the guy regaining the title knocked the reigning champ out. Holyfield not only didn't knock out Bowe, Bowe dominated the punchstats. So I have to rate Holyfield's fight to regain the title the lowest on the list. Great fight though.
Good post. :good I actually thought Holyfield deserved the win when watching it live, and have score it for him since, but I will absolutely agree that it could have gone Bowe's way for sure. Convincing argument for Patterson's win over Johansson too. :good
Thanks. Yes, the night of the fight, I thought Holyfield edged him. It was a more competitive fight than their first - which was also great - so it gives the impression that he was doing better and Bowe wasn't doing as well, but Bowe did plenty to win. It's a really close fight no matter how many times it's viewed. And it's also one of the best heavyweight title fights ever. It was great. But the closeness of it is why it's hard to rate it above performances like the Patterson win - where he left the guy unconscious twitching on the floor. I mean, if Frazier had come back in late 1973 to knock George Foreman out with one shot to regain the title - and left George on the floor twitching - that would top everyone's list because Frazier was beaten so thoroughly the first time. Same with Patterson and Johansson.
