most blatant ducking you've ever seen from a fighter.

[burningspear]

Have to admit GSP was my first thought.

 

[hot carl]

Shogun ducking Glover to fight a huge name like Brandon Vera

 

[Bob Sagat]

One was a revenge fight, not a super fight.

It was a fight he had absolutely no business being in given the line of legit contenders he should have been facing.

 

[Shaddows]

My vote goes to GDR.

Male: Bisping
Female: GDR

Honorable mentions
- GSP (signs a contract stating he would defend his belt but still runs away)
- Conor (forfeits two belts while refusing to defend)

 

[aichokyu]

bisping or dolly
they don't give a very good image of british champs, those ducks

 

[Hotora86]

Conor literally ducked MMA as a sport for 2 years - and it still at it.

 

[Megalodon]

The entire Lightweight division ducking lower/unranked Lightweights.

 

[sampuncher]

GDR but at least she was open about it.

I think I'd have to go Conor now, I really don't think he has any plans to fight Khabib.

I'm also pretty sure Bader ducked Rumble for a while until he eventually had to take the fight, we saw what happened there.

 

[TUFNewb]

Anderson actually admitted he was trying to duck weidman but dana would have none of it.

 

[Luvhawky]

It was a fight he had absolutely no business being in given the line of legit contenders he should have been facing.

So you agree it was a revenge fight, it was personal. Not on merit, but it was because of something else.

 

[Bob Sagat]

So you agree it was a revenge fight, it was personal. Not on merit, but it was because of something else.

That's the whole point, it wasn't on merit. And neither was the other fight. Are you just trying to be pedantic?

 

[Luvhawky]

That's the whole point, it wasn't on merit. And neither was the other fight. Are you just trying to be pedantic?

You called it a super fight. It wasn't. The second one was. And to be a super fight there is merit. GSP was on merit.

 

[Bob Sagat]

And to be a super fight there is merit. GSP was on merit.

That statement doesn't make any sense. Ducking top contenders twice isn't in any way 'on merit'.

 

[Luvhawky]

That statement doesn't make any sense. Ducking top contenders twice isn't in any way 'on merit'.

Merit for a fight is created by the challenger. Multiple fighters at the time had merit. Some would have been "ducked" as soon as a fight was chosen. One wouldn't have been. The argument of inactivity is fair. But so is GSP did enough in his career to earn it.

 

[pride_is_back]

Woodley recently ducking GSP was the biggest chicken shit I've seen.

 

[Mr hanky]

My vote goes to GDR.

Hard to top GDR tbh. A lot of the stuff people call ducking here isn't actually ducking, but being offered a fight and dropping a title to avoid it is pretty blatant.

GDR set the standard lately. She knew if she won the belt Cyborg was the next fight.
While I defended him early in his reign Woodley really acted like a quacker in the 2nd half of 2017. I'm fine to defend my title against Nate Diaz but if it's a WW contender I have to go for surgery. Boooooooo.

GDR has to get the nod, because I've never seen a fighter duck someone to the point where they were willing to give up their world championship. I've seen it in boxing when Riddick ducked Lennox, but never in MMA.

Notable mention goes to Tito, who tried to use the "but we're friends" excuse to not fight Chuck, who reportedly beat the shit out of him in training. When Chuck said "...no we're not, we can fight", he still tried to duck.

It's been said that Tom Erikson was HIGHLY avoided in his prime, to the point where certain fighters put it in their Pride contracts that they wouldn't be made to fight him.

GDR is the easy answer.

Honorable mention goes to Woodley ducking Lombard because it was “bad for my brand”.

GDR could have taken the Cyborg fight, picked up $140k and dropped from the first body shot. No-one would have screamed dive, instead folk would have been too busy cheering the power of "the goat."

This makes me think that maybe Germaine's reason for refusing to fight Cris was indeed a matter of principle.

Can someone explain the GDR ducking? I never followed that story.

Male: Bisping
Female: GDR

Honorable mentions to GSP (signs a contract and still runs away) and Conor (loses the belt but does not defend it)

GDR but at least she was open about it.

I think I'd have to go Conor now, I really don't think he has any plans to fight Khabib.

I'm also pretty sure Bader ducked Rumble for a while until he eventually had to take the fight, we saw what happened there.

Never understood why people are thinking that GDR was ducking Cyborg.

She got simply fucked by UFC and then fucked UFC in revenge and i would do the same honestly.

Her quote:

“During the negotiations on the battle with Holly Holm, I said in advance that after this fight I want to return to my natural weight class of (135 pounds). My task has not been completed yet. The UFC has promised me that this would be no problem and I can just return to my natural weight class. This is why I am focusing on this moment.”


Situation was as follows:

- UFC sets up a fight Holm vs De Randamie
- Holm was supposed to win it like that they can do some sort of super fight Holm vs Cyborg
- They lured De Randamie by saying that after the fight she can go back to her weight class (135), no problem
- De Randamie won the fight (controversies aside) , so UFC was left with nothing
- UFC decided to force De Randamie to fight even though they promised her come back to 135
- She said fuck it, UFC stripped her

And that is UFC in nutshell.

Obviously for other champions this rule does not apply (Conor can hold up even two divisions and UFC and Dana can't literally say word "stripped" till last day before Khabib Vs Iaquinta" )


Article: https://mmajunkie.com/2017/05/ufc-c...amie-breaks-silence-return-135-pound-division

 

[jasonjonesmma]

Shogun ducking glover back in 2012-13

 

[tkotom]

Never understood why people are thinking that GDR was ducking Cyborg.

She got simply fucked by UFC and then fucked UFC in revenge and i would do the same honestly.

Her quote:

“During the negotiations on the battle with Holly Holm, I said in advance that after this fight I want to return to my natural weight class of (135 pounds). My task has not been completed yet. The UFC has promised me that this would be no problem and I can just return to my natural weight class. This is why I am focusing on this moment.”


Situation was as follows:

- UFC sets up a fight Holm vs De Randamie
- Holm was supposed to win it like that they can do some sort of super fight Holm vs Cyborg
- They lured De Randamie by saying that after the fight she can go back to her weight class (135), no problem
- De Randamie won the fight (controversies aside) , so UFC was left with nothing
- UFC decided to force De Randamie to fight even though they promised her come back to 135
- She said fuck it, UFC stripped her

And that is UFC in nutshell.

Obviously for other champions this rule does not apply (Conor can hold up even two divisions and UFC and Dana can't literally say word "stripped" till last day before Khabib Vs Iaquinta" )


Article: https://mmajunkie.com/2017/05/ufc-c...amie-breaks-silence-return-135-pound-division

If that's the case then fuck the UFC. Not the first shifty move they've pulled.

 

[PeterGriffin]

GDR turned down the Cyborg fight, and was stripped almost immediately, because there really was no other WFW's and the UFC wanted Cyborg as champ anyways.

GSP relinquished the MW title citing health concerns, he's only ducking by haters' logic and standards. He said long ago he had no interest in being a defending champion again, and he vacated the title very quickly afterwards which in my opinion was respectable. I don't know why anyone thinks GSP would be scared of Whitaker, it's not like he brings anything new to the table, and I would bet money on GSP UD'ing Whitaker with ease. Rockhold, Romero and Souza would all have given GSP trouble (for varying reasons) though.

When Conor had his windfall with Floyd he had pretty much run out of excuses to avoid defending his title and he clearly wanted nothing to do with either Ferguson or Khabib. I say he's ducking because even though Conor didn't need the money anymore he still felt the need to, and chose to, run his mouth on social media and in Khabib's case, act up outside the cage.

If Conor actually WANTED to fight either of those guys, the UFC would absolutely have made it happen, so I don't buy any of Conor's excuses and see his acting up for what it is. A means to try to save face and cover up his ducking. He was warned on several occasions about not defending his belt by the UFC, and he chose to let them take it away instead of fight.

 

[fightfan84]

Not at all. It adds up that Khabib and Conor are the other 2 biggest starts in the UFC right now and that's where the big fights are.

GSP was never a small welterweight, I can't remember him ever being smaller than anyone at 170 or looking like he was giving up size in the cage. So anyone acting like he should have been at lightweight all along is kidding themselves. BUT noone cares about Woodley, so why fight him at this stage? He has nothing to prove... Whitaker and Romero would have been way higher risk for way less reward. GSP's intelligence is what made him so great to begin with, he never intended to come back and take on all challengers, he already did that and was one of the greatest champs in the history of the sport. He saw an opportunity to beat a poor champ at 185 then dip out and seek other opportunities.

But the way it was handled (allegedly signed a contract agreeing to fight vs Whit if he beat Bisping) didn't fool me and shouldn't have fooled anyone but his biggest fanatics. EVERYONE saw this coming and knew he would never fight Whit. Why the hell would he fight massive MWs when he can go make 10x more money fighting Conor or Khabib where he will have the physical advantage?

But it was still an obvious duck.

or, he bulked up to 185, got colitis so he couldnt keep the weight on, dropped weight. and now can easily cut to 155. When he knew he had health issues he gave up the belt instead of trying to hold onto them for no reason like most duck champs typically do.