Great Fighters and the Men they Avoided...

Yeah they were ducking a guy who had to go 10 rounds with Butterbean!

 

Ali wanted a rematch with Foreman. He called George up personally and offered his Deer Lake Camp and sparring partners if Foreman would fight Ken Norton a second time. Foreman declined because he was becoming an ordained minister at the time. But I guess that's the opinion from a guy who thinks Vinny Maddalone would beat Wilder lol. Ignore button. Beam me up Scotty there's no intelligent life forms down here!

 

Ali and Foreman rematch has many tales surrounding it ... As to what exactly happened, it's unclear ... Seemed as if Ali would only fight Foreman again if Sadler was in Foreman's corner according to what I've read as the most accurate narrative surrounding the rematch

He also invited Foreman to beat Norton and said he would give him a shot at a rematch if he did so.

I don't think Ali ducked Foreman out right but he wasn't keen on fighting him again ... He was at the end of his career and had taken enough damage already ...

 

Thistle, one fighter really flies under the radar, whom I think bears looking at in terms of a pop-culture trivia question. What fighter beat the world champ twice in non-titles, but couldn't get a title shot? It's an amazing question for sure - one which I never thought of. We have seen fighters beat the champ in a non-title and simply get side-stepped (Jimmy Bivins, Halimi Gutierrez), but never twice. Unless I'm missing another, the answer is Jimmy Warnock who beat Benny Lynch twice while he was champ and never got a sniff at the brass ring.

 

Mike Mccallum says Hagler ducked him

 

This is the silliest narrative of a duck I’ve ever seen.

A geriatric heavyweight who wasn’t offered a fight by several guys is somehow ducking them?

 

"All I hear...is BURNNNNNNN!"

Sorry folks, inside post.

 

Bowe ducking Lennox

 

Spinks was favoured I believe (but, yes Cooney was a very live underdog with plenty of backing), and as you suggest it was for decent money that he would not have got for Tucker.

 

Cooney was an 8-5 favorite. I don’t think Tucker was regarded much more highly than Cooney back then.

 

Cooney probably was 8/5 hence Spinks was Favourite as he would have been around 2/1 on.

But anyway, the point was Tucker was dangerous and was not going to be a big payday, hence the reason Spinks did not touch him.

 

Cooney was favored. Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-16-8702140487-story,amp.html

The point I’m making is that a lot of people now think Spinks took a soft touch by fighting Cooney instead of Tucker, but that’s just hindsight bias. The difference was in dollars not perceived risk.

 

Mayweather- Thurman, Brook, Spence, Khan at 147, Margarito too. De La Hoya rematch.
Johnston at 135
Also Winky Wright

 

That seems kind of off.

Spinks fought Cooney like 2 1/2 months before Tucker fought Tyson.

And after Cooney, Spinks fought Tyson ... after he beat Tucker.

With a Tyson payday on the table, what makes you think Tucker wanted to fight Spinks?