Number of fights vs. quality of fights.

[Kid McCoy]

Um...no.

He also didn't fight:

Larry Holmes
Earnie Shavers
Jimmy Young
Floyd Patterson
Ron Lyle
Ernie Terrell

I could go on and on...

Due to the nature of boxing and the constant churn of contenders there's always someone a fighter fails to meet. You can go through virtually anyone's career and pick out a few they didn't face. What's more important is what was going on when they were supposed to meet and who they were facing instead.

Holmes and Frazier’s careers never really intersected. Holmes was not a relevant heavy by the time Frazier retired, and in fact didn’t fight any kind of ranked contender til Shavers in ‘78. In any case, I very much doubt King would have risked Larry against someone like Frazier at that point in his career. Incidentally, you can make a much longer list of prime contenders Holmes failed to meet in his era…

Okay I suppose he could have fought Terrell and Patterson in the 60s/early 70s but given his schedule in that time frame included Ali, Bonavena, Quarry, Mathis, Ellis, Machen and Chuvalo, it’s unlikely he was avoiding them. Floyd and Terrell were hardly two of boxing’s great duckees.

I know Shavers’ current rep is that both Foreman and Frazier ducked him, but the reality is he wasn’t even ranked in the top ten for much of the 70s. He first cracked the top ten in late ‘73 (World Boxing Magazine) by which time Frazier-Ali II had already been signed. He then promptly lost to Quarry, who subsequently fought Frazier, and within a year had also lost to Bob Stallings. Shavers wasn’t a big factor in the division again til Frazier had retired.

A Lyle fight in 74-75 would have been more meaningful than the Ellis rematch, so I agree on that. Even so, Frazier’s post-title resume of Ali (twice), Foreman, Bugner and Quarry is not the resume of someone ducking significant challenges.

[TheGreatA]

Holman Williams
Cocoa Kid
Jack Chase
Charley Burley
Archie Moore
Lloyd Marshall
Eddie Booker
Rory Calhoun
Spider Webb

Weren't black?

Cocoa Kid a welterweight contender in the early 1940's ranked below Jackie Wilson who beat him (and whom Robinson defeated twice). By 1943 he fought as a middleweight.

Jack Chase a middleweight for much of the 1940's until campaigning as a light heavy from 1945 onwards.

Charley Burley vs Ray Robinson could have been made but it wouldn't have done Robinson's welterweight campaign any good, since Burley left the welterweight division by 1941 (when Robinson was 19 years of age).

Archie Moore was a middleweight/light heavy. The only point in time this fight could have happened was in the late 1950's when both were old men. Robinson was more interested in a match-up with Floyd Patterson, the heavyweight champion.

Lloyd Marshall was another middleweight/light heavy. Tough to accuse a man of ducking a fighter who fought a division or two above his.

Eddie Booker yet another middleweight/light heavy whose career came to a sudden end in 1944.

Rory Calhoun the fringe middleweight contender in the late 1950's?

Webb was good but he couldn't beat Gene Fullmer in two attempts.

Robinson always beat his top ranked challenger whatever the colour of his skin.

Henry Armstrong was the number 1 welterweight contender before Robinson beat him.
Jackie Wilson was top 3.
Tommy Bell was number 1.
Bernard Docusen was top 3.
George Costner was top 2.
Kid Gavilan was number 1.

[princemanspoper]

What we are not going to be is heroes, taking those cats everybody has avoided. Every ranking fighter for the past six years has got position by staying away from Zora Folley, and that's what we are going to do.

anyone wish to guess who made this statement?

[StarshipTrooper]

Due to the nature of boxing and the constant churn of contenders there's always someone a fighter fails to meet. You can go through virtually anyone's career and pick out a few they didn't face. What's more important is what was going on when they were supposed to meet and who they were facing instead.

Holmes and Frazier’s careers never really intersected. Holmes was not a relevant heavy by the time Frazier retired, and in fact didn’t fight any kind of ranked contender til Shavers in ‘78. In any case, I very much doubt King would have risked Larry against someone like Frazier at that point in his career. Incidentally, you can make a much longer list of prime contenders Holmes failed to meet in his era…

Okay I suppose he could have fought Terrell and Patterson in the 60s/early 70s but given his schedule in that time frame included Ali, Bonavena, Quarry, Mathis, Ellis, Machen and Chuvalo, it’s unlikely he was avoiding them. Floyd and Terrell were hardly two of boxing’s great duckees.

I know Shavers’ current rep is that both Foreman and Frazier ducked him, but the reality is he wasn’t even ranked in the top ten for much of the 70s. He first cracked the top ten in late ‘73 (World Boxing Magazine) by which time Frazier-Ali II had already been signed. He then promptly lost to Quarry, who subsequently fought Frazier, and within a year had also lost to Bob Stallings. Shavers wasn’t a big factor in the division again til Frazier had retired.

A Lyle fight in 74-75 would have been more meaningful than the Ellis rematch, so I agree on that. Even so, Frazier’s post-title resume of Ali (twice), Foreman, Bugner and Quarry is not the resume of someone ducking significant challenges.

Tyson didn't fight Witherspoon, Dokes, or Page (who dropped Tyson in sparring). Bowe didn't fight Rudduck, Witherspoon, Mercer, Bruno, Tua, or Lewis. Holyfield didn't fight Rudduck, Bruno, Witherspoon or Tua. Marciano didn't fight Patterson. It's endless the way this can be done with any fighter's resume.

Poet

[GJC]

Think this happens when you look at a fighters record retrospectively. You look at who was around in that era and think he was good why didn't he get a shot. What is sometimes difficult to work out via boxingrec etc is that the guy would lose a fight and go back a year. Win a few good fights then lose another and so on. Lots of fighters are one fight off of a shot and screw it up. The gut in my avatar being a classic case, Louis offers him a shot and he decides to pick up a bit of spending money in Sweden on the way home. Gets robbed in Stockholm and end of broadcast. There is often a small window of opportunity for contenders and not all climb through it at the right time if at all.