BoxRec

Automatic rematch clauses in title fights are killing boxing.

We saw it in the Wlad vs Fury match, and again in this weekend fight Kov vs Ward.

Both champions decided to play it safe and not press the issue, hoping to get the decision. They knew they would get a second look anyway at the title if things got sour.

Just coast to the decision and hope for the best.

100 % correct

I think I'm in agreement.

If a fight turns out to be a barnstormer or maybe controversial (ie Tyson v Ruddock 1), then a rematch would generally be warranted, but to insist on one before they've even fought the first fight is bonkers.

When we get away from the nonsense that judges are throwing up then you can definitely ban rematch clauses but the main reason they exist is situations like this one, where you have no neutral judges and a contentious decision. Fury v Klitschko would be an argument for not having them or immediate ones because it did totally fragment the titles again.

GPTM1403 wrote:When we get away from the nonsense that judges are throwing up then you can definitely ban rematch clauses but the main reason they exist is situations like this one, where you have no neutral judges and a contentious decision. Fury v Klitschko would be an argument for not having them or immediate ones because it did totally fragment the titles again.

If fighters actually tried to impose their will on opponents, we wouldn't need said judges.

They won't try, because it's safer for them to wait for the decision.

"Safety-first" fighting.

crow wrote:

GPTM1403 wrote:When we get away from the nonsense that judges are throwing up then you can definitely ban rematch clauses but the main reason they exist is situations like this one, where you have no neutral judges and a contentious decision. Fury v Klitschko would be an argument for not having them or immediate ones because it did totally fragment the titles again.

If fighters actually tried to impose their will on opponents, we wouldn't need said judges.

They won't try, because it's safer for them to wait for the decision.

"Safety-first" fighting.

I don't disagree in some cases but others like Ward-Kovalev are always going to be close and it is always going to be hard when you have one whose skill is to spoil and shut down and another whose skills are going to be nullified by that. As a rule though I do agree that in some fights there is a reliance and you can see it that they do just enough knowing they'll get a rematch if they lose and I suspect some of those who have that are also relying on knowing they tend to get the close decisions anyway. A lot of wanting the odds in it.

I agree, I think it makes the divisions boring. Way below 175 but like with Crolla, he's one of my favourite boxers and I absolutely do not want to see him fight Linares again, he had him well beaten and I can see Linares stopping him in a rematch.

In these situations they should be made to take two or three other fights before going in for a rematch.

DannyMCR wrote:I agree, I think it makes the divisions boring. Way below 175 but like with Crolla, he's one of my favourite boxers and I absolutely do not want to see him fight Linares again, he had him well beaten and I can see Linares stopping him in a rematch.

In these situations they should be made to take two or three other fights before going in for a rematch.

that would be my solution as well, yes a rematch clause but within next x months and providing they beat a top 10 or 20 ranked fighter or something similar. Not just a straight have another go.

GPTM1403 wrote:

DannyMCR wrote:I agree, I think it makes the divisions boring. Way below 175 but like with Crolla, he's one of my favourite boxers and I absolutely do not want to see him fight Linares again, he had him well beaten and I can see Linares stopping him in a rematch.

In these situations they should be made to take two or three other fights before going in for a rematch.

that would be my solution as well, yes a rematch clause but within next x months and providing they beat a top 10 or 20 ranked fighter or something similar. Not just a straight have another go.

The governing bodies definitely need to come up with a solution, maybe fight for the international/inter-continental belt or fight an eliminator of some kind, it seems unfair on the other top contenders who have to wait and wait for their shot

Disagree. Only Klitschko should be banned from rematch clauses.

crow wrote:Automatic rematch clauses in title fights are killing boxing.

We saw it in the Wlad vs Fury match, and again in this weekend fight Kov vs Ward.

Both champions decided to play it safe and not press the issue, hoping to get the decision. They knew they would get a second look anyway at the title if things got sour.

Just coast to the decision and hope for the best.

So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

thechump wrote:

crow wrote:Automatic rematch clauses in title fights are killing boxing.

We saw it in the Wlad vs Fury match, and again in this weekend fight Kov vs Ward.

Both champions decided to play it safe and not press the issue, hoping to get the decision. They knew they would get a second look anyway at the title if things got sour.

Just coast to the decision and hope for the best.

So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

. . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

I think a near shut out would class as having schooled someone; to get a win in a close fight where there was no domination happening doesn't qualify for me. Though I go along with Ward being most likely to take a rematch, it's still a dangerous enough fight to make the outcome uncertain. I'll gladly watch that rematch, it was an absorbing fight on Saturday and a decisive win would end all debate.

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote:

crow wrote:Automatic rematch clauses in title fights are killing boxing.

We saw it in the Wlad vs Fury match, and again in this weekend fight Kov vs Ward.

Both champions decided to play it safe and not press the issue, hoping to get the decision. They knew they would get a second look anyway at the title if things got sour.

Just coast to the decision and hope for the best.

So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

. . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Hahaha are u serious? If ward could school kov he would of done saturday night rather than get the favour off 3 men who probably have never put on a pair of boxing gloves so dont know what to look for in a fight.

thechump wrote:

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote: So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

. . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Hahaha are u serious? If ward could school kov he would of done saturday night rather than get the favour off 3 men who probably have never put on a pair of boxing gloves so dont know what to look for in a fight.

Ward UD (P4P #1)

Krusher and the eastern euro-centric Breitbart.com gang must deal with the L. That entails squealing like a giant litter of piglets.

I do agree with this, and some very good points have been made.

If rematch clauses were banned, would we see these kind of fights - it's rare enough seeing the top 2 or 3 boxers competing against each other as it is.

If ever there was a fight worthy of a rematch it's Ward and Kovalev. Everyone is so certain that they saw it correctly and opposing views are 100% wrong.
Neither guy nailed it down, it they had, the debate would be over by now, bar the hurt complainers.
Both sides have worthwhile cases here. Let them rematch and next time around the winner should be crystal clear, but as is, no-one dominated beyond argument.

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote:

Tanzio wrote: . . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Hahaha are u serious? If ward could school kov he would of done saturday night rather than get the favour off 3 men who probably have never put on a pair of boxing gloves so dont know what to look for in a fight.

Ward UD (P4P #1)

Krusher and the eastern euro-centric Breitbart.com gang must deal with the L. That entails squealing like a giant litter of piglets.

Put it this way ward is nowere near p4p no.1

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote:

Tanzio wrote: . . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Hahaha are u serious? If ward could school kov he would of done saturday night rather than get the favour off 3 men who probably have never put on a pair of boxing gloves so dont know what to look for in a fight.

Ward UD (P4P #1)

Krusher and the eastern euro-centric Breitbart.com gang must deal with the L. That entails squealing like a giant litter of piglets.

I would put crawford alvarez GGG and chocolatito above ward in the p4p list,ward is a great boxer but his inactivity has a lot to do with why he isnt top of the pile,after the super6 he should of been in the elite and fought the likes of hopkins stevenson pascal if he was strugglin at 168 or had a rematch with froch and fought the rest of the top 5 168 fighters before moving up,fighting the likes of paul smith isnt gonna get him credit from us fans

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote:

crow wrote:Automatic rematch clauses in title fights are killing boxing.

We saw it in the Wlad vs Fury match, and again in this weekend fight Kov vs Ward.

Both champions decided to play it safe and not press the issue, hoping to get the decision. They knew they would get a second look anyway at the title if things got sour.

Just coast to the decision and hope for the best.

So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

. . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Are you on drugs or pissed or something? Seriously do you know anything about boxing? I don't mean to be rude, honestly I don't, but you're making yourself look silly here.

If you're serious about what you say you seriously need to sit down and think properly. Neither boxer was"schooled" at all. Both are top, top fighters.

thechump wrote:

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote: Hahaha are u serious? If ward could school kov he would of done saturday night rather than get the favour off 3 men who probably have never put on a pair of boxing gloves so dont know what to look for in a fight.

Ward UD (P4P #1)

Krusher and the eastern euro-centric Breitbart.com gang must deal with the L. That entails squealing like a giant litter of piglets.

Put it this way ward is nowere near p4p no.1

After such poor performance, I wouldn't put him in top 10.

boxing_rocks wrote:

thechump wrote:

Tanzio wrote: Ward UD (P4P #1)

Krusher and the eastern euro-centric Breitbart.com gang must deal with the L. That entails squealing like a giant litter of piglets.

Put it this way ward is nowere near p4p no.1

After such poor performance, I wouldn't put him in top 10.

Really? It's relative to the opponent. If Ward fought Stevenson he'd have made Stevenson look silly. Kovalev is proper top notch.

Both are top 5 for me. GGG no.1, Gonzalez 2, Kovalev 3, Ward 4, Canelo 5.

Ian1973 wrote:

boxing_rocks wrote:

thechump wrote: Put it this way ward is nowere near p4p no.1

After such poor performance, I wouldn't put him in top 10.

Really? It's relative to the opponent. If Ward fought Stevenson he'd have made Stevenson look silly. Kovalev is proper top notch.

Both are top 5 for me. GGG no.1, Gonzalez 2, Kovalev 3, Ward 4, Canelo 5.

Maybe. Or maybe they are both not top 5 material. After this fight, I put Kovalev somewhere in 7-10th position and Ward in 11-12th position.

Ian1973 wrote:

Tanzio wrote:

thechump wrote: So u think kov played it safe cause he knew he would get a rematch? I disagree,i think kov would prefer to keep his unbeaten record than have to wait 4/5 months for a rematch to win his titles back

. . . and end up getting more thoroughly schooled.

Are you on drugs or pissed or something? Seriously do you know anything about boxing? .

He obviously does, since he's included in the few 2% who saw Bradley beat Pac the first time.

pablothunder wrote:If ever there was a fight worthy of a rematch it's Ward and Kovalev. Everyone is so certain that they saw it correctly and opposing views are 100% wrong.
Neither guy nailed it down, it they had, the debate would be over by now, bar the hurt complainers.
Both sides have worthwhile cases here. Let them rematch and next time around the winner should be crystal clear, but as is, no-one dominated beyond argument.

Too true.

A rematch is definitely the order of the day in the case of this contest, although I do agree with the OPs original point too.