A minor boxing mystery to solve-need input

Perhaps Brown was originally scheduled and the sportswriters simply reported by the schedule without noticing Dykes had substituted for Brown...for whatever reason...and under whatever circumstances. I've even heard of some sportswriters report on fights they never even were in attendance for.

 

Is there not a slight chance it was the Robinson-Brown fight you saw, with Brown being a last-minute replacement for Dykes, with many in attendance (including your very youthful self) not-realising this?

 

SRR's newest biography has a few paragraphs about him fighting Dykes in 1950 in his tv debut on Nov 8 in Chicago, no reference of an earlier fight

 

Maybe so Burt

But I have done a quick bit of research and it isnt looking good. I checked Cyberboxingzone's records of both men. These are usually much more reliable than Boxrec.

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/dykes.htm

It has Dykes fighting in Florida on the 13th September then again in October, so a journy to New York could have been possible but he had about his average wait between bouts so there wasnt a suspiciously long delay between fights.

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/sugrob.htm

It has the Bobby Brown fight listed.

 

Is cyberboxing really "much more reliable" than Boxrec?

 

Well they are usually for the older fighters, yes. Because they are more specialised and researched due to the limited number of fighters documented in CBZ.

Do you disagree?

 

I'm asking the question, do you have any examples? Also, I'm sure the thread starter may have looked a cyberzone also. I doubt there'll be much difference between both sites when it comes to opponents of someone like Sugar Ray Robinson. This is hardly Teddy Red Top Davis we're talking here.

 

Fair enough. It is mainly people like Jeffries and of that era that's record is more complete on CBZ.

But like you say Robinson probably wont have no missing bouts due to his popularity.

 

I've checked my 3 SRR bios and they only show one Dykes fight in Chicago, they also show the Brown fight in New York, no mention of of it being at the CI Velodrome though

 

Burt, because I love a challenge, I tore into this and the results are not that good for how you remembered it, amigo. Perhaps someone smarter than I (which shouldn't be a stretch) can delve deeper. Anyway, here is what I found. First of all, there is indeed a Billy Brown. He fought out of Hartford and his record was 53-29-6 going into the supposed Robinson fight. Youtube has a couple of posts on Robinson-Dykes. There is one that is part one and a part two. Part one is pretty much all preliminary buildup, intros and such. Part two is the first 4 rounds. At about the :45 second mark of part one, listen to the commentator mentioning how Robinson has trouble with boxers, "Including his last fight at the Velodrome with Billy Brown". I checked several pieces on the Sept. 4th fight in Coney Island and both the AP and the UP have clear articles on Robinson fighting Billy Brown of Hartford. I checked the day of the match and it was Billy Brown scheduled. It wasn't a wire result which can be flawed (I'll get to that in a moment) but very descriptive (a 5th round rocking and a cut eye) including the officials and their scorecards (10-0, 10-0, 9-1 all for Robinson). This much detail suggests more in depth coverage. Just to go deeper, I checked Brown's next fight against Jimmy Curl to see if the Robinson fight was mentioned and sure enough it stated, "Either Brown, who recently went 10 with champion Ray Robinson, has an iron jaw, or Curl's left has lost some of its power in a long layoff." However, to throw back how things can get flawed, all the wire services reported that fight as a Jimmy Curl win (the one line fight results) but the article I found from the Miami Herald describes a split decision win for Brown including the officials scorecards. So, things can go awry. Sorry I couldn't have found anything to substantiate your memory of the event, Burt. I say, just embrace the memory, because the way you described it it is a cool one.

Scartissue

 

Burt, I realise what you are saying now. You are well aware of the Dykes/Brown fights (as detailed in Ray's official record with the respective dates) and want to know about a further fight with Dykes at Coney Island that has disappeared from the record. Seems like the plot thickens.

 

Burt--is it possible Dykes fought under Brown's name? They were both active in Florida. The man who fought Robinson made a quick trip from Florida. The Robinson fight was probably a big money shot. If Brown were signed, but couldn't make the fight due to illness or having been arrested or some such, I could see a greedy manager taking Dykes up to New York instead and palming him off as Brown. Such things happened in the old days.

You say you were a long way from the ring. You remember Dykes. Do you remember if he was announced from the ring as Dykes or as Brown?