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Not fighting someone who "calls you out" doesn't always mean that much. I mean if you're a big name and represent a big payday, damn near everyone's gonna call you out. You can't fight everyone.
The Leonard-Pryor thing is blown out of proportion due to HBO's Legendary Nights. It's not like Pryor was a welterweight anyway.
Saying Tyson ducked McCall when McCall had the belt is rather humorous, considering the fact that for about half of McCall's reign as WBC titlist, Tyson was doing push-ups in an Indiana prison. Then he came out and beat Peter McNeeley in his first fight back. A month later, McCall loses to Bruno. Tyson then beats Bruno 6 months later. McCall almost crying on the way to the ring was nothing really knew to him. He was an emotional headcase.
I don't see how a middleweight champ has an obligation to fight the light-heavyweight champion, so Hagler not answering Spinks's and Qawi's challenges hardly qualifies as a "duck".
A "duck" is hard to define because of the situations. There's a lot of **** going on behind the scenes, and the lines can be blurry. Offers are made, but sometimes they're just smokescreens, or demand options on a fighter, or low-ball the fighter. There's promotional **** involved.
Mayweather re-signed with HBO in 2004/2005. Everyone knows HBO has a bigger budget and pays their fighters more than Showtime fighters. Does this mean Mayweather ducked Tszyu?
Jack Dempsey was quoted early on as saying he'd pay "no attention to colored fighters". Well later on, he signed to fight Harry Wills, but Tex Rickard cancelled the fight. He also didn't want to fight Langford, early in his career. Did Dempsey duck Wills and Langford?
Fighters like Ezzard Charles (at LHW), Archie Moore (at MW and a long time at LHW), Charley Burley (WW and MW), Sam Langford, etc...didn't get title shots despite their credentials. You can say there were "ducked", or "avoided", due to the risk/reward being too high (which is probably the cause for damn near all the perceived ducks).
The Leonard-Pryor thing is blown out of proportion due to HBO's Legendary Nights. It's not like Pryor was a welterweight anyway.
Saying Tyson ducked McCall when McCall had the belt is rather humorous, considering the fact that for about half of McCall's reign as WBC titlist, Tyson was doing push-ups in an Indiana prison. Then he came out and beat Peter McNeeley in his first fight back. A month later, McCall loses to Bruno. Tyson then beats Bruno 6 months later. McCall almost crying on the way to the ring was nothing really knew to him. He was an emotional headcase.
I don't see how a middleweight champ has an obligation to fight the light-heavyweight champion, so Hagler not answering Spinks's and Qawi's challenges hardly qualifies as a "duck".
A "duck" is hard to define because of the situations. There's a lot of **** going on behind the scenes, and the lines can be blurry. Offers are made, but sometimes they're just smokescreens, or demand options on a fighter, or low-ball the fighter. There's promotional **** involved.
Mayweather re-signed with HBO in 2004/2005. Everyone knows HBO has a bigger budget and pays their fighters more than Showtime fighters. Does this mean Mayweather ducked Tszyu?
Jack Dempsey was quoted early on as saying he'd pay "no attention to colored fighters". Well later on, he signed to fight Harry Wills, but Tex Rickard cancelled the fight. He also didn't want to fight Langford, early in his career. Did Dempsey duck Wills and Langford?
Fighters like Ezzard Charles (at LHW), Archie Moore (at MW and a long time at LHW), Charley Burley (WW and MW), Sam Langford, etc...didn't get title shots despite their credentials. You can say there were "ducked", or "avoided", due to the risk/reward being too high (which is probably the cause for damn near all the perceived ducks).
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