by Tom Drury: I have been following boxing for many years, also been engaging in debates on boxing websites. It seems some fans of the sport don’t have the basic understanding of the sport they love and how it is run. This article is aimed at what many fans claim is “ducking” of a fighter. “Ducking” is a phrase aimed at a fighter that does all he can to avoid a fellow fighter or waits while that fighter is past his best to fight him.
I just watched a interview on youtube with former undisputed Heavyweight champion “Iron” Mike Tyson with Hollywood radio station, Tyson was talking about how boxing is the only sport in the world where everything is not what it seems, everything is not on top of the table and there is always something going off behind the scenes. From watching that interview I feel Tyson was talking about promoters and how they treat there fighters as puppets on strings.
Boxing today is big business and truth be told the promoters are the godfathers of the sport. Fans of the sport [not all] claim fighters are “ducking” but the truth is the fighters have very little pull when it comes to who they fight especially when they are tied into long term contracts with promotional companies, unfortunately fans are the losers in this business but there are some benefits for fighters that have been signed to established promotional companies and promoters [Top Rank] [Golden Boy] [Mayweather Promotions] [Frank Warren UK] etc. These companies are established and experts in promoting fights and generating serious revenue for themselves and there fighters, the motto of boxing today is less risk-big reward. The governing bodies are also impacting the sport and helping the promoters by not making champions fight there mandatory challengers.
Paquiao-Mayweather here we have a perfect example of boxing and the business it has become and “ducking’, many fans have lost interest in this episode i am not one of those fans, in my opinion this fight needs to happen for our sport. There are only two people to blame for this fight not happening and they are the two fighters involved. Paquiao did not agree to the rbt at first which was a mistake any fighter who is clean should not have a problem with proving it [period] Paquiao and Top Rank also asked for a 50/50 split which is not justified due to the high revenue Mayweather generates in his fights, no fighter generates money like Floyd Mayweather, then Paquiao signs onto Top Rank for another two years which is a big sticking point in making a fight happen due to Mayweather and his dislike for Bob Arum. At this present moment Mayweather is coming off worst and looking like a ducker in the process.
Paquiao has now agreed to the rbt, he has also agreed to take the lesser purse but Mayweather is still reluctant to fight him. Mayweather has a phrase that he has used for many years “if it makes money it makes sense” now let me tell you Floyd Mayweather will make the biggest purse of his whole career fighting Manny Paquiao and so will Paquiao. These two fighters are guilty of ducking Mayweather more so especially now because there is nothing stopping the fight.
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