Quote Originally Posted by jehoshaphat View Post
This is very true and also very much glossed over. You're referring to the Murderers Row. No one wanted a part of them and yes the very own Sugar Ray Robinson avoided them too. Some people just won't admit the old timers weren't so special/different or really don't know their history and just go with the snowballing consensus opinion. With a set opinion it will only turn a debate into an argument with no chance of resolution. So I just leave the facts on the table and walk away.

Yeah, and to clarify to others I'm not saying SRR was afraid of anyone. SRR would have fought any of those guys people say he ducked, had they been the biggest money fights at the time IMO.

It's all about risk and reward. As a fighter, you want to take the fight that offers you the most reward. This is prize fighting, after all. Most of the time, the biggest reward fight is against the toughest guy. But every now and then you get it where the toughest guy is relatively unknown (most likely because he's the toughest and nobody of note wants to fight him), and it isn't the money fight.

I mean if anyone has an example where a champion turned down a big money fight to take on a notoriously tough but relative unknown for a fraction of the purse, feel free to post it. I can't think of one.