REMATCH clauses are a pet hate of many modern boxing fans. The feeling is that they are more likely to result in a Haney–Kambosos II (same old story) than a Fury–Wilder III (unexpected barnburner). In an era when elite fighters fight infrequently, contractually obliged rematches clog up the schedule. Recently, discussions of the dreaded rematch clause even allegedly torpedoed the biggest fight in the heavyweight division; Usyk–Fury. When negotiations for Usyk–Fury II throw a spanner in the works to prevent them even fighting a first time, we have a problem.
But rematch clauses are far from a modern phenomenon. The contract signed by Sonny Liston to fight Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight championship of the world in September 1962 dictated that in the event of a Liston win, Patterson would have the option of a rematch within a year.
If the heavyweight division had been in the doldrums, the intrigue around Patterson-Liston brought it greater attention. Sonny had wreaked havoc through the division, while Floyd had kept him waiting for a title shot, handpicking safer opponents as he went. Even Esquire magazine sent Norman Mailer to cover the fight. He was among more than 600 writers to attend the event. In his biography of Patterson, WK Stratton noted that “no event in American history, in or out of sports, had focused so much attention on an event in which the leading players were black.”
In hindsight, it is hard to imagine anything other than a Liston win, but when magazine ran a poll of
