1. Vitali vs Lewis: Vitali needed something big to erase the stench of quitting versus Byrd and to dispel talk of no heart and a glass jaw. He lost, but won 4 rounds and took Lewis best shots and never quit despite the cuts. 2. Lewis vs Rahman II: "We've got a brand new Champ, and he's from the USA..." . Yeah well he was also as thick as fuck. The sight of Rahman wearing the canvas crown, stretched out and completely out of it more than banished memories of Lewis defeat in South Africa earlier that year. 3. Joe Louis Rematches vs Schmeling/Walcott/Godoy/Conn etc etc: King of Rematches, Joe Louis rarely made the same mistakes twice. Got blasted out by Schmeling, plain lost to Walcott and looked poor vs Godoy, he addressed all of those issues in due course with dominant rematch wins. Any others?
Barrera vs. Morales I ... This really brought Barrera back to the status he had been at prior to the humiliating loss to Junior Jones in their first fight. He had fought quite well in the rematch, which while admirable, still failed to convince people that MAB was an elite guy. When he came back like that against Morales, a star by then, in one of the greatest fights of all time, it really put him back on the map in a big way.
He never gets that Hamed fight without the Morales fight... he was basically a has-been going in to that fight against Morales That fight made him relevant again...
Losing to Max Schmeling is just a fail. Louis lost the only fight that mattered and he got battered much like Jorge Luis Gonzalez did afgainst Tim Witherspoon, although Gonzalez would have beaten Joe Louis.
That's the point, Its about fails and putting the fails right in due course. Riddick Bowe may have erased some of the stench of the Lewis debacle by refusing to fold in two brutal foul-fests with Golota. Golota never really redeemed himself. Hamed never redeemed himself. Khan redeemed himself vs Maidana and then went and rolled in some more shit vs Garcia. Cotto erased much of the stench of the first Margarito fight, but truth be told, Margarito had as much to do with that as Cotto did, but Miguel did make adjustments for the rematch.
It mattered so much they did their best to fuck with Schmeling. I bet the US soldiers who got chewed up on D-Day were glad Joe beat his ass and lightened their burden. Oh yes, Irish is on his feminax, and now nobody is safe.
Roberto Duran beating Dave Moore and conquering yet another title to me erased the "No Mas" quitting against Leonard. Evander Holyfield surprising KO upset over Mike Tyson redeemed him from the defeats against Moorer & Bowe IMO. Later he even avenged his loss against Moorer.
Only if you have an "agenda." From a boxing perspective, the first fight was far more important and Louis got battered like a smartmouthed whore.
"Battered like a smart-mouthed whore" :: I'll have to remember that. Next time a whore gets smart-mouthed with me, I'll remember to batter her. Good call on Duran-Moore, Panchy.
