BoxRec

The risk vs reward explanation is sometimes valid

Mayweather is the perfect example of a man at the top of his division who everyone wants to fight.
Rewards = biggest payday, winning propels you to superstardom.
Risk = Defeat, yes but he's not likely to seriously hurt you and the loss doesn't damage your reputation too badly

Golovkin or Kovalev are the perfect example of a fighter I can understand being ducked
Rewards = Very little, if you're a middleweight/lightheavy today you're chances are negligible. The pay day against either of these guys, up until recently, would have been nothing spectacular
Risk = Lets be honest, an effing good hiding.

Entering a fight you have little chance of winning is not a risk many like taking with their careers, it puts a 1 in the loss column, may lose you an ABC trinket, may set your career back.
But against a guy like floyd where you're not likely to get hurt, your reputation wont take too great a dent and the payday makes it all worthwhile, where as the Golovkin fight you run a very real risk of getting hurt chasing an impossibl;e dream and are unlikely to get compensated as well for the bother, there are paydays out there as good for significantly less risk.


There are some times I just don't get it.
Why would you duck Andre ward or Terrence Crawford for instance?
The biggest one that gets me is Guillermo Rigodeaux.
You fight Rigo there is a good chance you are going to lose, the guy is a talent, that goes without saying.
Does he bring the big bucks? He may not be the biggest name, but I'm certain it would be a career best payday for Frampton, Quigg or Santa Cruz.
Would you lose significant credibility losing to Rigo? No, he's the recognised no1 and thought to be potentially a top 5 p4p boxer.
Are you going to get a beating? The guys not heavy handed, no one would be worried about facing him.
But the biggest factor for me, he's beatable. Yes he is a master boxer and technician, but that last fight showed he can be got to. It may have been a below par performance, even a one off, but if you're Frampton, surely it gives you confidence watching someone like Amagasa putting him down.

Now I'd fancy Rigo to take a wide UD against anyone at SBW, but why not take the gamble?
Risk vs reward doesn't explain ducking him. Not for Davie anyway.

Based on their seeming lack of interest I guess they simply do not feel the need to fight him and there isn't enough to gain from facing him from the position that they are now in (but also points to not being confident of beating him.) As alphabet title holders they already get the acclaim of being called world champions by far too many. Obviously to a lesser degree with Quigg but he's still WBA world champion to the undiscerning newspapers and the likes of Sky Sports who'll airbrush Rigondeaux out of the picture whenever it suits their agenda. A loss to Rigondeaux means their title and undefeated status goes and it's a possiblilty that if the loss is so decisive or exposing then they will have a lot of work to do to return to their current status.

The problem really is is that there's nothing to make them fight him or each other for that matter. If Rigondeaux was the only champ then to get where they would want to be they'd have no choice but to fight him.

Cholo_cws wrote:Based on their seeming lack of interest I guess they simply do not feel the need to fight him and there isn't enough to gain from facing him from the position that they are now in (but also points to not being confident of beating him.) As alphabet title holders they already get the acclaim of being called world champions by far too many. Obviously to a lesser degree with Quigg but he's still WBA world champion to the undiscerning newspapers and the likes of Sky Sports who'll airbrush Rigondeaux out of the picture whenever it suits their agenda. A loss to Rigondeaux means their title and undefeated status goes and it's a possiblilty that if the loss is so decisive or exposing then they will have a lot of work to do to return to their current status.

The problem really is is that there's nothing to make them fight him or each other for that matter. If Rigondeaux was the only champ then to get where they would want to be they'd have no choice but to fight him.

I knew that before I asked the question (why ask the question then?)

I like to think that sometimes, fighters might not be as micromanaged as they are (although i know they are) and that they might see Rigo as worth the gamble.
I mean whats to lose? I know they lose the ABC strap and the chance to be called a "world champion" to the gullible masses. But really what are they losing? what purpose does that belt serve if you don't use it to get the really big fight.... and Rigo is that really big fight and what real risk does he pose other than that he'll beat you in a fairly routine points win.
What does that strap give you if not that.

Lets take quigg, is he a big name to the casual fans, is he getting big money paydays?
Even after a defeat the Frampton fight would still be there. He's the B side in that fight now, lose you're make believe belt to a p4p rated guy and you're still the B side in that fight. McGuigan isn't going to let him be the A side in the fight after his ranting, he couldn't back down and let Quigg the ordinary WBA "champ" be the A side, he knows he holds all the cards now.
So why doesn't he just fight Rigo?

Take Frampton.
He's a live underdog against Rigo, I give him an actual chance, for me he's a 60/40 underdog against Rigo.
He must feel that himself. Lose and it's the same scenario as with quigg, win and you're a superstar that dethroned the man.

Rigos team are even now talking about derailing the frampton quigg fight by making Quigg take a mandatory.
they don't even really want quigg, it's frampton they're after but they'll play games to get their fight and good on them, they must be sick of being avoided.

Although Rigo is unlikely to hurt you, he'll probably make you look like crap. Someone like Quigg could potentially be humiliated & make to look a total novice by Rigondeaux, so better to keep pretending to be a world champion by beating up the over-matched, under-sized, obscure opponents that Hearn keeps putting in front of him.

Maybe I'm biased but I honestly believe Frampton would grind out a decision against Rigo in Belfast. Hopefully it'll be Quigg next and then there is a real possibility of Getting Rigo over to Belfast. I don't see Santa Cruz rushing to come over anytime soon. Stevenson v Kovalev has to happen this year surely!

I pretty much agree with the OP but would follow it up with a bit of a caveat about how this can then 'tarnish' a fighters reputation.

For the reason stated at the top, everyone wants to fight Mayweather. He'll outbox you and make you miss but there's always that hope that you might be the one to catch him or age catches him. It's a no-brainer to call him out to get that payday so there is always a stack of fighters willing to face him. The problem for Mayweather then is that if he picks fighter A and wins as expected, everyone will say he should have fought fighter B/C/D/E etc and he never seems to get the credit he deserves.

A lot of the fighters who crow for a fight with him are purely chasing the money as it is potentially a purse that is 10 times higher than their standard one purely down to being in the ring with Mayweather rather than anything else they bring to the table.