He should've fought Foreman in 76/77 but the sanctioning bodies wouldn't strip him. The fact that he already beat Foreman decisively kind of makes up for it, though.
The elite fighters in the heavyweight division back then rarely if ever ducked people.. Real warriors.. Who times have changed...
I once read in Foreman's autobiography, that Ali had approached Foreman and asked him to fight Norton. I can't remember exactly what Foreman said word for word as I read it years ago but the gist of it was: 'Ali asked me to fight Norton as he admitted he could't beat him and he needed me to get him out of the picture before he would fight me again' Obviously I don't know how much truth to that there is but who knows?
Some reason Norton had Ali covered in my opinion.. Quess every fighter has that guy they really struggle against..
He ducked a rematch with George but he knew he was coming to the end around then. So it's forgivable.
I don't think Ali ducked anyone.Ali fought everyone.That was his problem.He gave fighters Like Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley a shot at the title,even thought they were past it.He knew they deserved a shot years before.I guess there are two types of champions.Patterson had the rep of ducking people,Ali,Louis etc,had the rep of fighting an occasional bum.
You might be right, it was a long time ago when I read it. I think it was in George's autobiography I believe it was called 'By George'. I could be wrong.