Who Ducked Who?

Controversial views in each of the last three posts!

For what it's worth, I would say that the terminology is bollocks - each case needs to be judged on it's own merits, though I see the argument.

I have no idea of the RJJ/DM situation, but it appears that neither man was willing to travel, therefore the fight never happened. Shame.

In terms of the schedule of who ducked who, many of them are correct. What annoys people more than actual ducking is a fighter that denies actually doing it - for instance Ricky Hatton denied ducking Junior Witter whilst Steve Collins has always been honest about ducking Calzaghe, admitting he was past it etc.

Another for the list

Calzaghe ducked Glen Johnson :deal

 

Hand injuries

 

Yes it makes a big difference. For instance if Calzaghe said he didn't fancy taking on a young up and comer like Pavlik there would be no shame in that.

 

I'd call it ducking if you take an easy defense over one where the following criteria is met....
1) It's the one the boxing public wants to see.
2) The opponent is willing to fight at a reasonable price
3) This fight would generate more money

For example Calzaghe may not be ducking Pavlik because Jones may well be the more financially sound opponent.

Pavlik is not ducking Winky Wright because Winky apparently is not being financially reasonable.

Calzaghe is not ducking a Hopkins rematch because who wants to watch that bad style matchup again?

But I'd say that Felix Sturm has been ducking Arthur Abraham for years as Arthur has made a decent offers and it would be a highly popular fight in Germany.

 

:huh

Where they willing to come to the states to fight Roy? NO!

 

I still insist on using ducking only in the most despicable instances of avoiding - when you are not fighting your mandatory but still hugging the belt. Thus, Dawson is ducking Diaconu, Calzaghe was avoiding Kessler before he fought him (not his mandatory but the other Champ, the fight people wanted to see and the biggest fight out there, financially, and the biggest threat to Calzaghe too!)...and I would say, if Calzaghe isn't fighting Pavlik...he's not avoiding him but just not fighting a fight that many fans would be interested to see...but since there are other fights that fans want to see too...e.g. against Dawson, Kessler rematch or Bute, say...well, he's not really avoiding Pavlik...

 

Absolutely ridiculous! Yes there are instances in boxing where fighter does not want to fight another but the term 'duck' suggests a fighter not taking on a potential opponent for fear of a loss.

I dont think you can class not taking a rematch as a 'duck' given that the one fighter has already stepped up to the plate for a fight. Nothing more needs to be proved.

Out of those listed only Herol Graham seems to warrant any kind of ducking. And it was not just by Benn and Eubank!

 

Bowe Lewis is a possibility but think Bowe chased the cash rather than ran from Lewis

 

No Kessler is not ducking Pavlik. Nor do I think he ducked Miranda as his current fight has a lot of local European interest.

But how would you rate the Sturm-Abraham example? Abraham has been trying for years to arrange a unification fight with the other German belt champion. But Sturm has shown no interest and when Sturm is not fighting mandatories none of his opponents come close to cracking the top ten in his division.

 

Spot on. Yeah witter was ducked because its was not going to be a spectacular british fight as benn v eubank was. Christ watching witter and Bradley was like watching paint dry luckily I was on a morphin drip as I had a operation my spine, the only thing I remember is witter being dropped on his arse.

 

The one that always comes to my mind as it sticks out as being pretty funny at the time is James Toney (I wont say ducking) but not sticking to his word that he would come and clean out Benn and Eubank. This happend on a special British TV show filmed during the week before Benn/Eubank 2 . Both boxers were in the studio and Toney was live via satellite link.

Both Eubank and Benn (but particularly Benn threw down all kinds of challenges) but Toney kept saying, "you dont have anything, , you'r nothing etc etc, despite the fact they were both long standing champions and he wasnt. Benn even offered to fight Toney in toneys own house but he rejected that offer too. Then the fun satrts with Eubank standing up with his monacle and usual posturing basically deriding Toney for being all mouth. According to some press reports of the time Benn did managed to get a contract to Toneys people but he still refused the fight.

I still have this on VHS video tape so if anyone knows how to get it into a format so that i can post it here then i'll be happy too .

 

I think the Lennox Lewis ducking John Ruiz and Chris Byrd statements are daft also. If he had taken those mando's, you could have accused him of ducking the guy who he actually fought!

If this is the case, did Ricky Hatton duck Souleymane M'Baye, Oktay Urkal and Naofel Ben Rabah, or Joe Calzaghe ducking Denis Inkin?

I think not!

 

Tyson paid Lewis money so he didn't have to fight Lennox. Either way, Lewis was not going to be able to get into the ring with Tyson. Tyson then gave up the WBC title to avoid having to fight Lewis. So if you're going to hold to these-

- then you have to admit, Tyson ducked Lewis in 1996.

 

Ray leonard ducked aaron pryor