Roy Jones vs Billy Conn (resume and p4p standing)

Why not fight both?

 

Because first off, there was no demand for a Burley-Conn match. Second, it was a maximum risk, minimal gain proposition for Conn. When you're lined up for a big money fight with the heavyweight champion of the world (it was already signed, sealed and delivered) you don't jeopardize it by signing to fight somebody else, especially someone like Charley Burley. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by fighting him.

If Burley had earned a shot at Conn then I'm sure he would have gotten one. Conn ducked no one in his career.

 

Conn a fair boxer in his own right but c'mon, this is Roy Jones!

I've always said nobody stands against Roy in a boxing match. Even as a lightheavy he did more with his career, defenses, even unified it and across four divisions, was dominant

 

this might be like Camacho Davis

 

In terms of resume Conn towers over Jones.

That almost makes discusion of which of them would have won head to head irrelevant.

In that respect I would favour Conn, but you never know.

 

Conn has much better wins at light heavyweight than Jones.

He beat people who were greats in their own right, in their primes.

 

Pretty much, yeah. The offer was so absurd on it's face. It just made absolutely no sense whatsoever at the time. Burley wasn't even on Conn's radar. Especially not from the perspective of weight division, professional status or drawing power. When monetary backing and status are taken into account Burley's people were in no position to throw out any credible challenge to Conn. It would be like Mike McCallum challenging Michael Spinks before Spinks fought Tyson.

 

I love this Conn ducked Burley crap... it's LAUGHABLE

 

The genesis of this myth is the story that when Johnny Ray was offered the fight he said something to the effect of "No! I don't want Burley! Don't ever even mention his name again!" Whatever it was he said, some Burley-booster decided to twist it out of context(or make it up altogether) and make it sound like Ray was afraid to see Conn fight Burley.

Ray was an alcoholic and a very irascible, impatient man. It's very easy to imagine him exploding at some clueless dolt who was wasting his time with absurd challenges. Conn's record clearly shows that Ray and Conn avoided no one. In fact they were sometimes criticized for taking TOO MANY risks!

 

I thought that PP was a better poster than this.

The 'why not fight both' line was the icing.

 

Surf, your on target logic will not sway biased questions. :good