Great fighters who ducked and avoided fighting top contenders and other P4P greats?

Floyd Mayweather's the most obvious one.

 

who did mayweather duck? . davis and russell jr are not even close to great.

 

Its looks like Crawford may be the winner here.. If he stays with top rank well never get to see the fight with spence and that will officially be a duck imo. I dont want to see Crawford fighting Spence Leftovers, get in the ring and see who the best is.

Sig it.

 

Surely they became 'great' by fighting all comers, top contenders etc ?
It's difficult to be seen as a top boxer without taking on the best.
I'd love to be proved wrong but this could be a short thread !

 

spot on.
following on from my recent comments in the calzaghe thread, calzaghe is an obvious candidate for me.
he's the best fighter i can think of who allowed his promoter to run his career for $$$ over any sort of legacy (beyond SMW).

an excellent fighter, who can't be seen as anywhere near great since kessler was his best win against a fighter in his prime in 46 fights.

 

For most of his career, Joe Calzaghe.

 

Lopez should meet Bud at 140, that would be a tougher fight for Bud than Spence would.

 

Calzaghe wa the best fighter of the 90`s.

 

Chicken Bowe.

 

Have to disagree he battered the undefeated Kessler who was superb eubank Lacey who was a hot prospect Hopkins was still elite when they fought and RJJ out of prime but still dangerous i dont think Calzaghe ducked anybody the big names wouldn't fight him all risk no reward the big names had to fight him after Lacey they all then took a beating off him. Now I do agree he was mismanaged and the fights could of come sooner however I dont put it down to Joe ducking.

 

frank warren consciously kept his fighters away from the US back then, which is why amir khan and ricky hatton left him.
they then got fights (collectively) against prime canelo, pacman and floyd.

joe didn't, and therefore never got his fights against the world's best when it mattered.
joe was better than khan or hatton, but i have no sympathy for him because he knew warren did this and did nothing about it.

 

which fighter did he beat who was in his prime that makes you think this?

 

When have the americans ever had a great SMW except Ward and McClellan both who weren't in Calzaghes era. I dont buy this argument you need to go to America to prove yourself. RJJ offered Cslzaghe **** terms for a fight so did Hopkins I take my hat off to Lacey for becoming world champ and offering Calzaghe a fair purse to fight. B hop and RJJ only done it because they couldn't ignore Calzaghe any longer after Kessler Manfield and Lacey.