Like if a fighter from 154 asks a fighter from 160 to drain down to 154 to face him. How about going up in class to face him??? If you issue a challenge to a fighter you meet them up at their weight. That's why we have weight classes. So that we don't have walking zombies.
It all depends who is issuing the challenge. Example: If the 154 fighter calls out the 160 fighter, then go to 160... If the 160 fighter calls out the 154 fighter, then go to 154. OR you can settle on a catchweight in between (although for the sake of clarity and history I prefer not to see too many catchweights).
Good points. I have no problem with a 160 fighter calling out a 154 fighter. The fight should still be made at 160 IMO. But I wouldn't call it a duck if the 154 fighter flat out says he's too big for me. With all these half divisions you can argue that they are pretty much the same size. So a better example would be a larger weight difference. So if Hagler called out Leonard the fight should be at 160 which it was. But I wouldn't say Leonard ducked Hagler if he refused because he could still make 147.
Better yet, weigh-ins should be done half hour before the fights. Weight is a serious matter and it shouldn't be a draining/rehydrating game. Fighters should be in their proper weight. Moving up or down will be less of an issue if you take out draining/rehydrating from the equation. Right now every fight we watch in fact belongs to between 1-3 upper weight division.
No dude. If a fighter from the higher division calls out the fighter in a lower division, he better be willing to drop down and fight him at the weight of the guy he's challenging. Otherwise it's illogical. A-sides who bring money to the table can reverse this and dictate an advantage and that is the problem with these sort of things. If Uchiyama called out Rigondeaux, that'd be cool. But if he then expected Rigondeaux to move up to face him, that'd be weak. If Uchiyama called out Rigondeaux and was willing to fight Rigo at his weight, that would be awesome. If Rigondeaux called out Uchiyama, that'd be cool. But if he then expected Uchiyama to move down to face him, that'd be weak. If Rigondeaux called out Uchiyama and was willing to fight Uchi at his weight, that would be awesome. I don't understand how you seem to automatically give the bigger fighter the benefit of being able to call out anyone in a lower division than him and then have no responsibility to make a realistic weight limit. Why is that burden on the smaller fighter? If you aren't willing to face fighters in your division and want to call out others, you better be willing to fight them in their division. That is why it is called "talking sh!t."
Which is why I said if a smaller fighter simply tells him you're too big than we just move on. If Leonard said to Hagler you're too big I don't have any trouble making 147. Then so be it.
I agree that fighters have no obligation to move up or down from their current division for any reason if they don't want to... Dawson called out Ward and said he'd drop to 168 lbs. Ward held him to his word. That is fine. The fault (if there was one) goes to Dawson. Alvarez called out Mayweather and said he'd drop to 150 lbs. Mayweather spotted him 2 lbs and settled at 152. That is fine. The fault (if there was one) goes to Alvarez.
It's like Golovkin calling out Ward and then saying the fight must be at 160. Who can support that? Golovkin called him out to fight knowing Ward fights at 168 so that's just weak sauce. Golovkin has also called out Chavez Jr but with him has said that he would move up to 168. Which is awesome (as long as he didn't shove his foot in his mouth by challenging Ward, a 168'er, but insisting on 160 for him).
