Top-rated welterweights Colin Jones and Milton McCrory fought each other to a standstill in Reno, Nevada and couldn't be separated on the scorecards in their battle for the vacant WBC title at the end of 12-rounds in March 1983.

Don King had secured the rights to the rematch with a winning purse bid of $615,000, which was due to be split 50/50.

So, five months later and 442 miles from the scene of their original showdown they resumed hostilities.

However, before that, Jones headed into training camp, initially at home before heading stateside to acclimatize.

"We had a month in Merthyr [Tydfil, Wales], where I stayed solid for a month [training]," Jones told The Ring. "Then to Reno, Nevada for a two-week stint, we trained outdoors, we had the ring set up outdoors, which was fantastic. Sparring was brought in, they were good sparring partners, proper six-footers [like McCrory] for the prep."

Jones, who had worked jobs as a gravedigger and coal miner in his native Wales, and his team including trainer Gareth Bevan and manager Eddie Thomas headed to Las Vegas two weeks prior to the fight.

"We were in the Dunes Hotel, we had a facility put on by Don King, we elected to go to Johnny Tocco's, which was a fantastic experience, with the champions that were coming there. Alexis Arguello trained alongside us with running sessions," he said. "It was the type of place if you shut your eyes and threw a dart, you'd hit a world champion. The walls were plastered with the great fighters who had trained there. I couldn't have prepped any more or any better."

Fight week was underpinned by news that the host resort was going to be sold and were unable to pay King the sight fee of $300,000.

"It was about 3-nights away from the contest when somebody came down from Don King's office in the Dunes Hotel and said, 'The Dunes Hotel has gone into liquidation, they're withdrawn their sponsorship and unless you take a $100,000 pay cut the fight can't go ahead.' Well to hear that when all the hard works done [was devastating] but luckily enough Eddie Thomas had all the correspondence to hand but there was a lot of turmoil and confusion," he recalled.

"Eddie Thomas decided to fly someone in, an American lawyer. When we did go up to Don King's office, the gentleman who had come and told me at my hotel door answered the office door. We went in and Don King was confronted about the withdrawal of the amount of money the hotel was putting into the fight, which took us another two days to come to that stage. It threw us a lot. It was a massive chunk.

"It was said by the lawyer, 'Once a promoter has signed a contract for that amount of money for a fight, it's not our responsibility how he gets it.' In the end, it came down to it was never said. It just went away and the next day the fight took place. I think the damage was done. I can't say whether the Dunes had withdrawn their funding for the fight, I'll never know, but it was definitely said to me and Eddie definitely got a lawyer. The turmoil had been caused."

Nonetheless, Jones, who was cheered on by around 400 of his countrymen, who made the transatlantic trip, was determined to put the disappointment of the first fight behind him but knew in the searing heat of Las Vegas, he'd have to be smart.

"We were going to start quicker, obviously you couldn't start too quick because of the temperature," he said, noting the 104-degree summer temperature at ringside. "It was an experience; I had most certainly never had before. Coming out in that heat was something, I don't think I could have done it again.

The Welshman, a 2/1 (+200) underdog, took salt tablets to help him retain liquid, got off to the worst possible start, and although he fought hard, wasn't able to claw back the deficit.

"He took off well, he dropped me in the first with a good shot, he won the first half of the fight, and I fancy I got stronger, and I took over the second half of the fight.

"I think it was more a draw than the first one. Some people thought I did better in the second one than the first one. That's boxing. You've just got to take that on the chin. He boxed well that night, I had my chances, I had him on the wrack a few times and he just managed to bob and weave and get out of the way when he was really in danger. He had the decision. I've no qualms, [he was] a worthy world champion."

In fact, McCrory also shared Jones opinion on the fight.

"To be honest, I thought the second fight should have been a draw," McCrory said. "The only difference in the second fight, I dropped him. The second fight was close."

However, the opinions of the people that mattered most were the three judges and while Angel C. Tovar sided with Jones 114-113, he was outvoted by Anselmo Escobedo 115-111 and Ray Solis 115-114, who scored the bout for McCrory.

Both men went their separate ways, Jones would unsuccessfully challenge IBF/WBA ruler Donald Curry (TKO 4) in Birmingham, England, in January 1985, before retiring.

While McCrory made four defenses of his WBC title before losing to Curry (KO 2) in a unification in Las Vegas, in December 1985.

Both have met a few times since and spent time in each other's company.

"We never bumped into each other until into a couple of years later," he said. "I went over to watch Barry [McGuigan] box Steve Cruz, and I met up with him there.

"I've met up with him about eight years ago. [I'm the national coach and] Wales were out in a boxing tournament out in Canada, and he came up from Detroit, he fetched his wife up and we'd arranged it, I had my wife, it was absolutely fantastic, we had a nice get together."