By James Brown: There has been a lot of talk over the past 2 years or so about Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao ducking certain opponents. This may or may not be true depending on whom you ask. Boxing has produced some of the greatest fighters and greatest overall atheletes that we will ever see in a lifetime, but alot of the all time greats can be accused of ducking just as much as some will accuse Manny or Mayweather. Some of the names may surprise you.

I would like to start with the greatest fighter to ever step in the ring: “Sugar” Ray Robinson. For those of you that followed the original “Sugar” you may want to continue to scroll closer to the end of this paragraph about whom he ducked. For those of you out there that may not be familiar with Ray Robinson he was the absolute best, his prominence was at welterweight where he was undefeated for his entire career to the point of boredom. Ray didn’t move up in search of more money, he moved up in weight because there was nobody left in welterweight, he beat everyone. I digress, back to the original topic. Ray Robinson was an amazing 140-5-2 when he met a fighter by the name of Carmen Basilio. Basilio, like Ray, came up from welterweight to challenge Robinson for his middleweight title; this fight was the 1957 fight of the year by Ring Magazine. It was an intense fight both fighters giving their all, Basilio took the best punchers the great Sugar Ray had to offer and continued to come forward going to work on the body of Ray Robinson. Basilio took the middleweight title from Robinson on that night in a very close split decision. That fight took place on Sept 23, 1957 the rematch took place only a few shorts months after on Mar 25, 1958. The rematch was the 1958 fight of the year and went exactly the same as the first fight with one difference; Ray Robinson badly cut and swelled the eye of Basilio. Basilio was literally fighting with one eye and Ray was able to win a razor thin split decision. Basilio pursued a rematch and later admitted that “He (Ray) didn’t want any part of me” when the thought of a rematch was brought up. This still does not hinder the legacy in my eyes of Ray Robinson the man fought 200 fights. Does this diminish him to you all?

Next up is “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali. I’m sure we all know what Ali brought to the table, I don’t need to get into how good he was or how he would fight anyone and everyone. Muhammad Ali was 41-1 when he faced off against Ken Norton whom at the time was a heavy underdog and was outweighed by Ali by 11 pounds. Not only was Norton able to take the title from Ali is a close Split Decision he was able to break the jaw of the greatest during the fight. If my memory serves me correctly I believe the broken jaw was suffered around the 5th or 6th round, correct me if I am wrong. The rematch was also a split decision but this time it was a win for Muhammad Ali and he was able to regain his title. Here’s where it gets tricky and I will leave it up to you all to decide. The sports world begged for an immediate rematch and it didn’t happen until 3 years later when both fighters were approaching their decline, still it was an amazing fight that Ali was awarded a Unanimous Decision for. The problem was this decision was very highly disputed to the point where in the January ’98 issue of boxing monthly it was ranked the 5th most disputed decision ever. Ali did not grant Norton a 4th fight. Does this tarnish his legacy? Not in my opinion, his accomplishments are endless and speak volumes for themselves.

The next Sugar man Ray Leonard: Once again the accomplishments of Ray Leonard are very well documented in the huge spectrum of boxing he did not fight that long ago when compared to Ali and especially Robinson. When Ray Leonard met the undefeated Thomas hearns he also had an impressive record of 30-1-0. The fight would become the 1981 fight of the year. Hearns dominated the fight, he outboxed a man that at that point was thought to never be able to be outboxed. Roberto Duran has previously beaten Leonard but he flat out beat Leonard up. Hearns kept Leonard at the end of his jab and was able to move just as well as the sugar man. The problem came when Hearns lost his gas and Leonard showed the heart of a champion, his eye badly swollen and his trainer telling him “You’re blowing it kid” sparked Leonard to come at hearns and attack him with everything he had. Leonard forced the ref to stop the fight in the 14th. In a rematch more of the same took place, Leonard was smart and would unload towards the ends of rounds in the same way he did years later against Marvin Hagler. Hearns and Leonard fought to a draw, a draw in which Leonard admitted later that he felt Hearns won. Leonard did not grant hearns a rematch. This also to me does not diminish Leonard. He fought and beat everyone, the only clear cut decision in their two fights was him winning an undisputed 14th round stoppage.

“Iron” Mike Tyson: One of the most feared fighters of all time was much more vocal in the way he “ducked” a particular fighter. Shortly after Mike won the title and was terrorizing the heavyweight division Don King proposed to him to fight the returning “Big” George Foreman. When Tyson heard this challenge he immediately said “I am not fighting that f***ing animal, if you like him so much why don’t you fight him?” Tyson went on to still cement his own legacy and is still to this day feared for the way he ran through the heavyweight division like an unstoppable freight train.

Last but not least Julio Cesar Chavez: When Julio Chavez met Pernell Whittaker it was one of the biggest robberies in the history of boxing. I am not taking anything away from Chavez, the man was consistent and had a great body attack and fought everyone in that division. Chavez was an impressive 87-0 at the time they fought. From the fourth round on Whittaker used his quickness and elusiveness to confuse and tire Chavez still the fight was ruled a draw. Chavez wanted absolutely nothing to do with Whittaker in a rematch. Still, Chavez goes down in history as one of the greats, but to me personally I feel this duck does hinder his legacy because there was no clear-cut decision for either fighter. The entire world that watched saw Whittaker evade Chavez expertly in the ring, only to have Chavez evade Whittaker after the fight outside of the ring.

There are more that can be mentioned but for this essence of time I will save those for a later date. The point of this was that even though I feel that Bernard Hopkins is the best of this generation, with the respective achievements of Manny (8 titles) and Floyd (undefeated) the people they say they duck should not hinder there place in history. To me, if and when these two warriors fight whomever wins will hands down usurp B-Hop in my opinion as the best of this generation. Some say Pacquiao ducked Marquez, but lets face it, Pacman won their last fight. People can say Floyd ducked Margarito, but lets face it, Floyd said there was something “not right” about Margarito and turned out he was fighting with plaster in his hands. Some will agree, and some will not but these two fighters should go down as part of boxing history for sure. The people that we praise like Robinson, Ali, Leonard, Chavez, Tyson can all be accused of ducking if that’s what you would like to call it. But that doesn’t change the fact that when push came to shove they were all great showmen, great fighters, and most of all great champions. The same can be said for Mayweather and Pacquiao.