With all due respect, I believe you need to look more into.
First, from that Yahoo article you posted he is not willing to fight
anybody, because he always qualifies it:
“We will fight anyone
high caliber.”
“He’s still willing to fight people ranked beneath him,
so long as they’re great fighters.”
There is no problem with above statements, there is nothing wrong with qualifying his willingness as such. But, in doing so you are certainly not saying you are open to fighting anybody. Everybody isn’t
high caliber, and that’s according to Hall himself, which brings me to my second point.
He’s been saying this since before he was ranked, in direct contradiction to your assertion; “[T]hat’s when he famously accused everyone of ducking him.“
In March 16, 2018 in an article written by Brett Okamoto for ESPN:
“Hall's issue is he is only willing to fight someone he believes is a legitimate, high-level challenge.”
“As far as stringing together wins, Hall won't do that either if it means facing opponents not on his level. He's simply not interested in doing so, and isn't convinced it would get him where he wants anyway.”
"If I go and fight 10 randoms -- and everyone in the UFC is very tough obviously, but there are significant levels between tiers -- there is no correlation between winning fights against randoms and fighting top-tier people. Look at [lightweight]
James Vick. People still won't fight James Vick [9-1 in the UFC].”
He’s unwilling to fight anyone he deems beneath him - well that’s convenient, for only Ryan Hall can be the arbiter of such a statement. Using his own reasoning, anyone he claims to have ducked him could have made the same value judgment about Hall himself; that he’s not a worthy opponent.
Victories over Artem Lobov, Gray Maynard, BJ Penn and Darren Elkins are simply not “high caliber” victories. 3 out of those 4 guys are no longer in the UFC. In the case of Penn and Maynard, Hall fought them after their considerable decline. Maynard was 1-4 in his last 5 and Penn was 0-5 in his last 5 UFC bouts.
Only Elkins was positive in his last 5 at 3-2, and Hall fought him on a two fight skid, that would turn out to be a 4 fight losing streak.
Aside from Lobov(as TUF fights are considered exhibitions) half of all Halls victories came from opponents on a losing streak.
Legacies aside, how can Hall qualify his previous opponents as “high caliber” if half of them are on losing streaks?
His claims to being ducked are his opinion, that his fans have propagated as if it were a fact. His claim that he is willing to only fight high caliber or non-randoms doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. He’s very clear that he will only fight on his terms, but when it comes to other fighters doing the same, they’re ducking.
This is why people may not like him.
My .02, take it or leave it.
