Fighters 'ducking' other fighters - does it happen and are they scared?

[Master]

Bowe ducked Lennox, because he knew Lennox was better.

Bowe was due to fight Lennox if Lewis did not lose to McCall. Bowe was confident of beating him after Lennox poor performances against Tucker and Bruno.

[Fenster]

Bowe ducked Lennox, because he knew Lennox was better.

Bowe was due to fight Lennox if Lewis did not lose to McCall. Bowe was confident of beating him after Lennox poor performances against Tucker and Bruno.

People will always remember Bowe dumping the WBC belt in the bin and going back on his word to face the Ruddock-Lewis winner.

Plus refusing a 75-25 purse split and demanding 90-10 (well his manager, Rock Newman, can be blaimed for that)

[IamInuit]

I don't even know what a duck is anymore. Its seems like a great tutorial on situational ethics. The definition has become so broad and yet so vague that its meaningless. The "boxing is a business" excuse is really starting to pick my ass. I think egos do get in the way but even that could be shown to be a duck. I mean the greatest example of this in boxing history is that one fight that nobody can stop talking about. Nothing remotely close has ever happened. Its like Hearns, Leonard, Duran and Benitez not fighting each other. Any two of them would have fought twice during their silly negotiation period. Its also rather convenient having 4 main belts and about 10 splinters in each division.

[justaguy]

I don't even know what a duck is anymore. Its seems like a great tutorial on situational ethics. The definition has become so broad and yet so vague that its meaningless. The "boxing is a business" excuse is really starting to pick my ass. I think egos do get in the way but even that could be shown to be a duck. I mean the greatest example of this in boxing history is that one fight that nobody can stop talking about. Nothing remotely close has ever happened. Its like Hearns, Leonard, Duran and Benitez not fighting each other. Any two of them would have fought twice during their silly negotiation period. Its also rather convenient having 4 main belts and about 10 splinters in each division.

... and this is a lot of my point. What even constitutes ducking? One man's duck is another man's smart decision or promotional issue.

[CutMeMick]

As mentioned by @Fenster Bowe was dumb for listening to Newman... He could have been a man about his shit and told Newman lets fight Lennox but instead he just listened to him. In a sense it is a duck.


Also the whole legendary nights of boxing bit where they quickly mention Pryor-Leonard bout not happening started this "myth" that SRL ducked Pryor... LMAO.
People need to dig deep and know the facts before they say SRL ducked him.


It's a little funny to think that JMM has fought Pacquiao 4 times and Floyd once and has even said he would fight Floyd again (I personally think it's useless he will never beat Floyd) and yet those two can't agree on fighting once. Think about that for a bit and what that means as far as a fighter like JMM and other fighters.

[Silkeyjoe]

Fighters definitely duck other fighters. I doubt its because they are scared but more likely they are avoiding a hard fight or avoiding a possible loss. One example I always think of is Fury and Price. Price was mandatory for Furys British title and Fury vacated to fight Rogan for the Irish title. There is no doubt in my mind Fury avoided that fight because he though he could lose. He knew he would not lose to Rogan.

Fury gets criticised for this but in fairness it is the more logical move. Price and Fury were both big up and comers. I think Fury was offered 250k for the fight. But if Price had continued ontrack 2 years later after not beating anyone special they could have got a couple of million for the fight. Its really risk v reward most of the time. If I can make 20 mil to fight a washed up name or 30 mil to fight a live dangerous fighter Ill take the 20 mil everytime. Do you really think boxers give a shit about the fans?

[15rounder]

Yes and it happens...due to fear of the unknown...Some fighters duck because they don't know what's going to happen, Some duck because they know EXACTLY what's going to happen

Lennox Lewis retired rather than face Vitali again (watch that fight, Lennox was getting owned but Vitali's cutman couldn't stop the bleeding.

Sturm wen to court to avoid fighting the MANDATORY challenger Gennady Golovkin because Sturm is a bitch who pisses his pants anytime he sets foot outside of Germany or fights anyone with a decent KO percentage

And who can forget the Floyd/Pac deal...oh he don't wanna take a drug test...oh he does? Then he need to take an unfair flat fee rather than the 55% to me, 45% to him that he offered...

[Onetime]

I don't think many boxers fear other fighters but if I make 500,000 fighting journeymen why would I fight a one punch KO for 300,000. You can say pride but to often teams don't act in good faith, teams need to look at it as a way to make the most money, which would give us the fights we want.