Biggest ducking in boxing

Dempsey ducking Wills is probably the worst.

 

Ali ducked nothing and none in his career except Foreman II...he was the greatest not the dumbest.

 

That's one of those fights where the stars didn't align. I blame George more than Ali. Foreman stayed out of action all of 1975, had the life-and-death fight with Lyle in January 1976, and laid off six more months before fighting Frazier in their rematch. Meanwhile, Ali had unfinished business with Norton in September. That was a big, anticipated fight that year.

I suppose Ali-Foreman II could have happened in March 1977, instead of George fighting Jimmy Young. But Ali was winding down and likely didn't want two big challenging fights in a row. Then Foreman lost to Young and got out of the game for ten years.

Speaking of possible ducks and Jimmy Young, I recall Young, who was still active, calling out Foreman in 1987 or 1988, but George apparently didn't want that fight.

 

"Ali called me at home in California, just prior to my fight with Ron Lyle. He said I hear you want a rematch and that’s fine, but you must re-hire D ick Sadler as trainer. I said that Sadler would never work my corner again and Ali responded, angrily, by saying there would be no rematch.”
(quote of George Foreman on a rematch with Ali)

 

You remember the media was curious about this non existent occurrence. Thats some memory you have. The entire Patterson-Chuvalo fight was hyped around the winner facing Ali. They even had Ali ringside doing color commentary for the broadcast. Patterson beat Chuvalo and Machen before Terrell and then fought Ali. It was Terrell who was picking up Floyds sloppy seconds while Floyd was gunning for the real title.

 

Mayweather/Pac

Floyd should be disgusted for how long he let that fight cook for.

Was pointless by the time it happened.

 

Floyd Mayweather ducking Manny for several years.

 

I saw your post after I posted mine. I agree.

 

Its not even debatable. They were supposed to fight in 98 Roy choose Hill and Nunn ending up fighting for the vacant WBO title and lost to Rocky Graciano and that would be the last time Nunn would ever fight for title. Hill would go on to win a title at CW in spectacular fashion(arguably the best win of his career) and lost a super close fight in the Mormeck rematch

 

My personal trainer was trained by Roy Jones Sr and sparred/was there in Pensacola all through the 90's with RJJ. He portrays Jones Jr. as utterly confident and almost disdainful of any prospective opponents back then and laughed at the idea of him "ducking" anyone, much less a burned out Nunn. He said RJJ had all sorts of world class fighters come through to spar there in P-Cola and no one could even make the sessions competitive.

 

There are some who feel that Roy Jones ducked Dariusz Micahelczewski and there are others who believe it was the exact other way around. I myself aren’t sure... Dempsey not fighting Harry Wills was a big one, but was it a duck ? I don’t know. Larry Holmes refusal to fight Greg Page and being stripped of the WBC was a notable duck.

 

Might have been mentioned, but Foreman has stated pretty openly and unashamedly that he wanted no part of Tucker, even though it was an over the hill, or at the very least fading version of him. Says he was perfectly happy to give up the WBA belt in early 1995 rather than face someone who was, "too tough". Go to 52:40 in this video.

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I don’t think he did.

I think he’d have fought him at some point had Froch not destroyed him.

 

Stylistically, even a faded Nunn at LHW would have been tougher than Hill.

I’m one of Roy’s biggest fans, but he does deserve criticism for messing Nunn around.

Nunn was his WBC mandatory after he beat Griffin in their rematch.

Roy didn’t seem interested in fighting him. He then changed his mind and it went to purse bids. And then he changed his mind back again. So he definitely deserves criticism for that.

As to whether or not he feared losing to him, that’s a matter of opinion.

The fight brought no money to the table, and he’d been flirting with the idea of fighting a HW for some time.

In the end, he vacated the belt and signed to fight Buster Douglas for $6m. Everything was set up, until Roy’s father stepped in and wouldn’t let him go through with it as Buster was too big. When his father came forward, it was the first time they'd spoke in 6 years.

Roy then targeted Evander Holyfield instead. Jim Thomas, who was Evander’s attorney, states that Roy went to Atlanta to meet with them both to discuss it. But in the end, Evander wasn’t interested, as he felt that he was in a no-win situation at the time. But he told Roy he’d fight him if he achieved something at the weight.

That is why he ended up fighting Hill at a C-W.

Due to Roy giving up his belt instead of facing Nunn, people will always say that he ducked him. And I can’t really argue with that. But I would ask the question:

Would a guy who feared losing to a faded version of Nunn, have tried to have fought Buster Douglas, as well as Frankie Liles the previous year?

Personally, I think fighting Frankie Liles would have been even harder for Roy. And that fight was set up before Liles asked for more money. Both HBO and Liles’ manager at the time have confirmed that. So personally, I don’t think he feared losing to Nunn. To me it doesn’t make sense. A guy who feared Nunn wouldn’t try and fight Liles. Yes, they had different styles, but Liles was also a big southpaw with a lot of ability and power. They’d fought 3 times as amateurs, where Roy won 2-1. Personally, I think he was in a similar position to Evander, where had everything to lose and nothing to gain. Nunn could have made him look bad for about $1.2m.

He ended up fighting Hill for $4m.

He should definitely have fought Roch for his old belt back though. It was disgraceful how the WBC just handed it back to him after Roch had already beaten Nunn for the vacant title.

 

Roy didn’t fear Dariusz, he just feared fighting him in Germany.

If Dariusz had have been willing to have gone to the U.S. I’m certain that Roy would have fought him.

Roy’s advisors and HBO tried to make it happen. But in the end neither side would make the necessary concessions.