Who even ducked Luis Ortiz?

I didn't say a word about povetkin

 

He would of been in an eliminator had whyte gone ahead

 

Andy Ruiz, most recently. Whyte, Stiverne, Lucas Browne, Takam(opted to fight Duhaupas instead, which fell of when Johann stepped up against Povetkin on a day notice. Not really a duck, but still.), Jarrell Miller(that was also around 2016), Ustinov(not exactly ducked but rejected VADA testing), Joe Joyce.

 

Did he? I thought Whyte had the choice of Parker, Pulev and Ortiz, and so chose the guy who'd fight in Britain and would make him the most money.

 

According to resident poster The Clan it is the Challenger who is ducking the champion even if the champions camp never tried to make the fight.

Clan, care to counter this?

 

I can't think of anyone that outright ducked him, but quite a few chose others when given the opportunity. Ortiz isn't particularly great, but he can be hard to look good against, and poses a certain level of threat for little recompense, so he's always going to be one of those guys that's going to get passed over for bigger names.

Ortiz himself though is hardly one to seek out challenges, which his resume bears out. Jennings, Scott and an old ass Thompson are basically his only good wins, Hammer as well. After that his resume drops way off. Allen, Kaufmann, Martz, Cojanu. Those are the types he looks good against, but so what?

I think there's compliance on both sides.

 

I think it was actually proven that Joe Bugner did.

 

IMO Ortiz should have fought Ustinov. As I remember it there was some kind of eliminator on the table and he passed on it ... due to management issues of something similar. Turning down Joshua was a dumb play too IMO.

With Malik Scott in mind ... I actually don't trust anything related to Wilder. I remember an Ortiz warm-up prior to Wilder where Wilder was ringside and they exchanged words after Ortiz's win ... it all seemed very 'professional wrestling'. It wouldn't surprise me if (late career) Ortiz wasn't some kind of stooge being used to keep Wilder in a belt without him having to risk it against someone not 'in-house'. ..

 

WBC ordered that fight before the others. He wins, he becomes the actual mandatory, not just number 1. Then IBF called the Pulev fight. He’d become AJ’s mandatory. And then after all those fights are called, he opted to sign to fight Parker and then complain about no one giving him a title shot. I’d happily exchange the word duck for avoided though, in this instance.