"Ducking" is a widely used term on this forum and there are no set definition. But it's most commonly used when a champion doesn't meet his his best Challengers. It can be in the form of refusing a mandatory (Bowe to Lewis) but doesn't have to be. And that's very reasonable. If you're going to call yourself champion you have to prove you really are by facing the best out there. With all the different belts, the situation has become more muddled. Because you want the beltholders not only to face the mandatories for that particular organisation, but also try to unify. In those cases it often becomes a point of contention who's ducking who (DM/RJJ, Pac/PBF and now Wilder/Joshua). But if you have an undisputed champion, I don't think that a contender is obliged to face all other contenders out there. If there are two contenders that are clearly above the rest an eliminator might in demand to decide who should get the title shot. Sometimes it's in the form of a tournament. And yes if a contender refuses this, you can perhaps speak of ducking in some manner (but this seems to be a rare occurence - the one instance I can think of right off is in that case Frazier refusing to take part in the tournament for Ali's title). But I don't think it's a duck if the nr 1 contender hasn't faced everyone else in the top 10.
Nor do I ,but if a champ or contender misses out most of the other contenders sonething's wrong yes? Since I mentioned him lets look at Lastarza.During his time as a ranked fighter he somehow missed the following ranked men: Louis Charles Walcott Oma Thompson Savold Bivins Valentino Agramonte Maxim Baksi Williams Baker Dunlop Harrison Neuhaus Satterfield Wallace Valdes Walls Gardner Woodcock Henry That's a lot of names to be missing don't you agree? I say he ducked some of them .
Yes Mills who had been stopped by Lloyd Marshall who was spotting him significant weight.Jack Solomons virtually bought the title for Mills.
Yes, boxing was in an atrocius state in many ways during these decades, I agree with that. So called champions could avoid the most dangerous challengers with nothing really being made about it. Actually the exploits of Armstrong and Robinson, together with Louis, is probably the main thing that somewhat remedied the situation.
The elephant in the room is the vast, vast majority of wins are taken at face value when we evaluate the era. Meanwhile, we freely acknowledge the mafia had a huge impact on the sport at the highest levels as many of the powerbrokers were connected. I understand that nobody likes what implications I'm getting at, but it seems impossible for the real world to fit both viewpoints simultaneously.
My post here is satirical. I admit it is a reductio ad absurdum. Here are fighters rated in The Ring annual rankings or active between 1969 and 1977 Jimmy Ellis Jerry Quarry Leotis Martin Mac Foster Sonny Liston Oscar Bonavena Al Jones Henry Cooper Cleveland Williams Zora Folley Jose Urtain Jose Garcia Floyd Patterson Jack Bodell Joe Bugner Ernie Terrell Earnie Shavers Henry Clark Larry Middleton Duane Bobick Randy Newman Larry Holmes Howard Smith Johnny Boudreaux Stan Ward Kallie Knoetze Alfredo Evangelista Leon Spinks Gerrie Coetzee and fighters rated in the Ring Annual Rankings between 1990 and 1997 Mike Tyson Razor Rudduck Buster Douglas Tim Witherspoon Carl Williams Francesco Damiani Riddick Bowe Ray Mercer Tony Tucker Lennox Lewis Alex Garcia Michael Bentt Oliver McCall Phil Jackson Mike Hunter Herbie Hyde Henry Akinwande Jorge Luis Gonzalez Lionel Butler Bruce Seldon Frank Bruno Alexander Zolkin Andrew Golata David Tua Ike Ibeabuchi David Izon What do these long, long lists have in common. They didn't get to fight George Foreman. What a list of ducks. And Foreman wasn't just another contender. He is often listed as a top five all-time great. Many and perhaps most, including myself, list Foreman as a top ten all-time great. Almost all probably put him the top 15 or 20. And look at all the guys he didn't fight. It dwarfs LaStarza's ducks. And these are big ducks--Holmes, Lewis, Bowe, Liston, Patterson,Terrell, Tyson, Shavers. Of course Foreman would easily beat some of these guys. Fights with others couldn't have been or weren't made for various reasons. But no doubt Foreman's resume would look better with the likes of Holmes and Tyson and Lewis among his victims, wouldn't it. *there are so many names here that if Foreman actually fought someone and I missed it, I apologize up front.
