Archie Moore says Billy Conn ducked him

He must be related somehow to Wilder.

 

Archie had some very interesting ideas about many issues. And many of them were definitely out of the
box. Like sucking on meat to get at the "juice" but not actually eating the meat. Saying he was the "smaller guy" in there against Marciano when he was about the same weight...Rocky wasn't a Klitchko.

 

I saw an interview where he insisted that Rocky got a long count in their fight. The tapes just don't bear this out to any degree or chance.

 

Archie certainly thought he was good enough to fight Conn and Jake Lamotta and he probably was good enough to fight them. But he was just one guy. There were an awful lot of great fighters at that time and only one title. It was tough enough just to stand out among all those great fighters.

I don’t think we can blame the champions too much. They all had to be great too. They just got the opportunity. Did their management duck fighters or did they just look for more money? It’s okay saying this guy wouldn’t fight me if there was nobody else to fight. It’s not okay when the ratings were bursting with talent and bigger Money fights.

 

Conn would have won at the time the fight could have been made. I have seen film of Archie at the time he fought in Australia and he was a more physical but less crafty version of his later self.

But there were a lot of guys just as good and no room for all of them. Melio Betina, Lesnavich, Bivins, Lytel, Charles, Holman Williams, Charley Burley, maxim, Lloyd Marshall, Tony Zale. Georgie Abrams and they are just the better known ones. There were guys as good we never heard of.

 

Past him prime? *chuckle* Yeah, I figure I could have taken him the distance by that point. Seriously though, he seemed quite mentally sharp to me, and not just for an octogenarian former boxer.

 

I'm not sure I could see Moore giving a tough fight to Joe Louis, but that has far more to do with styles than absolute ability. I'd have to go re-watch a few films (and a few more for the first time) before forming a resolute opinion.