Archie Moore said Conn avoided him. How true is that?

Moore was Fighting Catchweight contests as early as 1940 or before, he was a globetrotter who went to Auz, where he met Richards, who was also a MW cum L-HW (most were), and Moore met him and others at @Catchweights'...

again, Damn Near ALL Fighters under HW spent much of their Careers at Catchweights!

 

But Moore wasn't ranked at HW while Conn was still active. His first year in The Ring annual ratings was 1955, by which time Conn had been retired for seven years.

 

What strategic moves? He was never ranked in a weight class that Conn was still active in. Moore was a MW when Conn was fighting for the HW title.

 

But hard to imagine that he ever felt turned by Conn, who left LHW when Moore just started to figure in the MW rankings.

 

I’m not sure what that has to do with it … did Conn only fight contenders?

Just because Archie wasn’t ranked didn’t mean he didn’t want to fight Conn. Heck, probably wanted to fight him because he was unranked and a win over Conn would elevate his status.

It’s not like Archie was a novice or that he hadn’t beaten good heavyweights. By the time Conn resumed his career after the war, Moore was a known quantity.

 

No, but to claim that someone is avoiding you, you should be in contention for s a shot at the person's title. He never was.

Yes, he probably wouldn't have said no, but that is not the same as being avoided. Lots of fighters that aren't deserving of a title shot would still accept one if offered.

He wasn't anyone at HW, though. And Conn's first fight after the war was for the championship. There just isn't any time where Moore was a logical opponent for him.

 

Today you must be 200lbs, this is why we haven’t had the chance to see the Marcinaos of the world in waiting rise to the top of HW. That’s the only reason I’ll accept.

 

I honestly think Archie vs Conn may be my favourite fantasy fight now.

 

I think the timeline establishes he’s not talking about Conn ducking him for a title shot when Conn was light heavyweight champ and Moore was an up-and-coming middleweight. So there’s no ‘he ducked rightful contender Archie and wouldn’t give him a title shot’ element to this.

So I’m going with the premise that Archie is talking about after the war. So Billy fought Joe first after the way … doesn’t mean Archie didn’t try to get a fight with Conn then. And if Conn didn’t fight him then he avoided him — either they did or did not fight, and they did not.

There’s also the very real possibility that Archie is talking post-Louis. Billy took 18 months off and fought a couple of times — are Mike O’Down and Jackie Lyons ‘somebody’ as compared to Moore at that time, who had a few nice heavyweight wins?

 

Do you? Maybe so, I haven’t explored it. Could a 180-pounder ‘legally’ challenge for the heavyweight title? Do the sanctioning bodies now define heavyweight as ‘over 200 pounds’? And is the WBC over 215 because they invented something called bridgerweight (or was that the WBA?).

 

At that time, some really respected fighters like Hugh Cregg, Bart Ehrman, Hugo Mendez, Sean Hopper and Johnny Colla, were calling Billy "The Long Conn." They were egging him on to fight both Archie Moore, Michael Moorer, and a unique hybrid fighter called Mike Chi Mooremoorer, whose last name baffled announcers and fans alike for nearly three imaginary years before his career was ended by a fluke gardening accident. Mooremoorer was ranked 89th in Ring's list of the imaginary greatest punchers of all time, in 1997. July issue.

 

Far as I know, without looking anything up, yes you need to be at least 200 lbs. for any pro boxing dsanctioning body to allow you to fight as a HW. As it has been for many years.
I assumed the one body who invented "Bridgerweight" also kept the standard for HW, so folks could choose what division there.

 

Yes you must weight 200lbs, Spring Toledo said so, I stole it from him.

 

He "avoided" someone who wasn't ranked at HW to face the actual champion? That's certainly not my definition of avoiding.

Sure, there are many he could have fought instead of those two that was as good or better. By that logic he avoided a lot of people.

 

Well I haven’t seen or read the interview/source, but if Archie said it then I’m going to assume he’s not lying (when did Archie ever lie?) and to me that would mean he actually tried to pursue a fight with Conn at some point and Conn declined, ignored him or, as we know for fact, did not fight him.

He did’t say Conn was a dirty, rotten, ducking dog afaik (think we’d all know if he called him out in a big way), but he said Conn avoided him. If we assume that Archie did actively pursue it and Conn didn’t want the fight, then to me that’s not the same thing as saying Conn avoided everyone he didn’t fight, to include all fighters who showed no interest in fighting him.