David Benavidez most ducked current boxer?

Ye

Yes Canelo did avoid Benavidez because he isn’t daft and he’s fully aware that he gets smashed to bits, as he has to be selective fighting at a weight he doesn’t belong at, which essentially goes against my argument.
But I think it’s less of a duck situation when you are clearly under matched against a fighter, but in the context it is certainly a duck because he is a former champion at the weight, but alternatively is it a duck if you and the rest of the world are fully aware that you will lose the fight against a bigger, younger and more powerful fighter when you don’t need the money and there are other opportunities that are more winnable and more profitable.
I think in this case, Canelo is abit of an anomaly in that his fights sell regardless of opposition. So the argument for it making financial sense to the promoter doesn’t apply, but with declining performances and two losses in his last three or four fights, it makes no sense to fight Benavidez, it’s like putting a bet on Jake Paul beating Joshua there was never really any chance of him winning, so you know the limited chances of a positive outcome common sense would not allow you to place the bet.
There are some fighters that are clear duckers and tank is a prime example of that, but then you have people saying Usyk ducked Wardley, or that fighters are ducking Moses, neither of those are true.
Usyk has been in many high profile and highly rewarding fights financially, with the fights with Joshua and Fury his opponents brought the money to the table, rightly or wrongly he didn’t have the profile that would do those numbers against someone like Wardley, so a lot of the time it’s about finding the right dance partner this is particularly important towards the end of your career, when your ability to generate wealth is finite.
In the context of ituma and the narrative that he is being ducked is also not true, talent or perceived talent doesn’t put you in a position to challenge the best or automatically put you in position of a title shot, and to those who have similar aspirations to Moses, he poses a risk to their strategic plans to build a career that will allow them to generate as much money as possible and to potentially challenge for a title.
When you think about tank he has ducked many opponents at many weights, because he’s been overpaid for most of his career and he is likely aware that while his boxing skills are underrated by many, he has avoided shakur, Haney and in my opinion Lopez, he had difficulty with Garcia and with roach.
So he is ducking or has previously.

 

its widely reported and well known. the fact you were totally unaware proves you shouldn't be talking about who ducked who.

 

Sometimes ducking is thrown around too easily just because fighter A does not fight fighter B, when in reality context matters.

My definition of a duck is when a fighter avoids the toughest guy at the front of the line and fights an easier opponent. The guy has to be at the front of the line though, if he is ranked 10th then there is no obligation to fight him. Bivol turned down benavidez to fight an easier opponent for less money, so that is the perfect example of a duck. Same as Canelo multiple times regarding david.

Usyk has no clear number 1 opponent to fight so I wouldn't say he is ducking anyone, unless he fights a bum next.

 

I can't find any other reports aside from that dodgy link you posted. Oh it proves I shouldn't be talking about who ducks who? Give is a rest lad

 

it took bivol and beterbiev 7 years to work up the nerve to face each other, david didnt want to wait another 7 for one of them to work up the nerve to face him. and canelo straight ducked that smoke from the get go. its easy to get away with ducking when all your fan girls make up excuses for you.

 

I would argue that Bivol not fighting Benavidez even though he was a mandatory is as bad an example of ducking as there is, particularly when you are accusing him of pursuing easier opponents. This is the guy that fought Beterbiev back to back and was actually looking to fight him in a trilogy fight rather than the mandatory fight with Benavidez, so in this case you are incorrect, I’m not sure if this was a contractual obligation but being the honourable fighter that he clearly is, I would expect that he felt morally obliged to give his greatest opponent another opportunity.
During the process of arranging the trilogy fight, he had a back injury and had surgery.
He had to vacate his WBC title that made Benavidez become the champion, he didn’t pick Michael as a voluntary defence it is a mandatory for his IBF, coming back from back surgery and after already giving up one belt this fight is perfect for him as a comeback fight but the important point here is that it is a mandatory fight. So clearly no ducking here mate

 

You have the story messed up. Bivol was already trying to play games with the trilogy by trying to make it in Russia, rather with Turki. That also fell through so he clearly did not want the final fight with Beterbiev.

There was zero mention of any injury because there was no injury. He just elected to get surgery on something that was niggling him for years, so in reality this surgery was a delaying tactic to duck Benavidez and Beterbiev.

There was nothing stopping Bivol fighting Benavidez rather than dropping his belt. The was no contract with Beterbiev and no back surgery in march 2025. You speak of Bivols honor when Beterbiev himself said Bivol turned down a huge offer for their third fight and is now fighting a bum.

Bivol turned down a huge offer to fight Benavidez in vegas, and dropped his belt. He then decided to fight his bum mandatory. That ticks every box of a duck. I bet he won't fight David at all and will keep looking the other way.

 

It's often hard to tell when one fighter is avoiding another. Some fighters represent too high a risk to be worth taking without a significant financial offer. Obviously, when Canelo (WBC super middleweight world champion) is asking over $150 million to fight Benavidez (WBC interim champion in the same division), he's avoiding Benavidez, no doubt about it. In the past De La Hoya avoided Wright, the risk (Winky's skill) wasn't commensurate with the reward (a fight with Wright would have generated less revenue than a fight with other names). Even today Winky has sweet words for Mosley, who decided to fight him.

But, as I mentioned at the beginning, it's sometimes hard to tell when one fighter is avoiding another (every now and then we read rumors that 'Fighter A made an offer that Fighter B refused,' and we might assume Fighter B avoided Fighter A. Some time later, we read that Fighter B had been offered a 25-75 purse split. Wouldn't we have refused it too?!?!?)

I'll conclude with one last thought, Opetaia is now with Zuffa Boxing, Dana White's new promotion, financially supported by Turki Alalshikh. Well, I think that if Jai beats Glanton in March (as predicted), they'll try to organize a fight between him and the winner of the Ramirez-Benavidez bout for late 2026. I could be wrong, but my guess is that this time there's the financial capacity to organize a reunification fight in the cruiserweight division. As always, time will tell.

 

I think its too early to tell if Bivol intends to duck Benavidez. I think hes aging out Beterbiev. With Benavidez the tables of time will turn and Bivol should want to fight Benavidez before he gets too close to 40.

I think Canelo was its own situation. Benavidez was at 168 and hes a big 175er. Benavidez was clearly leaving the division anyway and Canelo didn't feel like dropping his belts to a guy who'd be gone anyway. Canelo left 175 because fighting guys smaller then Benavidez was a bridge too far. The only reason Canelo would have fought Benavidez is if Benavidez generated so much more money then his other fights to and Benavidez was never going to be at 168 for that to line up.

Benavidez is a small HW hes not really someone Canelo should be expected to fight so I don't blame Canelo. Canelo is that little guy who compensates so well people forget hes a little guy and expect things of him that should not be expected of him. It would be like being mad at Floyd for not fighting Tarver.

 

He has definitely struggled to secure elite level super fights

I was lenient toward Canelo until a certain point. Canelo did dodge Benavidez

Bivol and Beterbiev is a bit more complicated. They fought each other twice with a third hanging in the balance, delayed by injuries. It is hard for me to accuse Beterbiev and Bivol of ducking when they are fighting each other in prestigious series of fights

Despite not being able to secure those fights he has had PPV main events and fought names and champions like Dirrel, Plant, Andrade and Morrel and has a bout with Zurdo Ramirez on the way. That's not what I would call being ducked.He is still getting high profile fights

Opetai is struggling to get anyone to fight him. I think Opetaia is wasting his time at cruiserweight waiting for fights that may not come and he should just move up. Benavidez has not been waiting for opportunities to arrive, he has moved up weight classes in search of fights and pay days

 

Bivol just fought Beterviev twice, its crazy to accuse him of ducking.