Why no questions about Frazier not giving Ali a rematch ?

Yes, I know. I'm talking about years later. People hardly ever talked about it. There was a thread about it on here a couple of years ago and people seemingly couldn't believe there may have been ducking involved.

 

But they do. What are you on about?

 

not

 

I don't think Foreman really deserved a rematch much. He went more or less into hiding for 16 months, and his aura was gone, and the silly exhibitions he indulged in made him look like a parody of what he was before.
Sure, he was more deserving than Coopman, Dunn and Evangelista, but so were a dozen or dozens other heavyweights.

Foreman didn't last 8 rounds with Ali, then almost got KO'd in his next fight by Lyle. He only really established himself with a few more wins in 1976, then was beaten by Young in March 1977.
A seriously-over-the-hill Ali may have ducked him in the latter half of '76, but before that Foreman didn't have much of a claim to press for the fight.

I don't think Foreman, Frazier or Ali critically ducked any of each other when they we're champions.
People are making a lot of mileage out of nothing.

I will say all three were guilty of fighting farcical undeserving "challengers" in mismatch "defences" of the title.

 

Who do you think gave Joe Frazier a tougher fight in 1972.
Terry Daniels, or the 450 spectators who watched his 'Smokin Joe Musical Revue' in
Hamburg, Germany at 'Das Das'.
$12.50 American dollars per seat.
They had to sit through 45-minutes of 'Frank Sinatra' cover songs.

 

Yes. But was it really an age-old tradition ?
At heavyweight it had been rare up until the 50s. I think the immediate return bout was in effect mostly in the1950s and 60s.
As far as dethroned heavyweight champions go, Walcott was given automatic rematch with Marciano, without having to fight anyone in-between, but I think he was the first deposed heavyweight champ to get that benefit.
I may be wrong, but I can't think of one right now before Walcott who also got one.

Of course, some challengers probably got "immediate" rematches off of champions, if they were considered suitable challengers, often because there was no one else to fight, or the promoter thought he could sell them,or because they'd given a good account of themselves - (or because they hadn't !). These weren't really worked out on merit. Again, ironically, Walcott probably qualifies here, he was used as a perennial challenger for various reasons - he merited a rematch with Louis, but his 2nd and 3rd fights with Charles were really Ezz's routine "keep busy" fights.

 

I gotta give Patterson some credit, he kept coming back.

He could never have beaten Liston or Ali, or even given them much of a fight, and I suspect Frazier would have murdered him too. But he kept himself up there by beating the others.