I'm going to forward this appreciation on to an interesting match up in another topic if anyone cares to comment.
My father is from the Pittsburgh area. His sister, my aunt, was the first female vocalist, lead vocalist, for the Dusquesne University Tamburitzans. In 1940 she was invited to perform at a fundraiser for some charity. At that fundraiser she got autographs from Fritzie Zivic and Billy Conn. The Zivic autograph is, and long has been, my most prized possession. The Conn autograph, sadly, was lost long ago, and I would gladly kill all of you to recover it. One of my favorite boxing quotes came from Conn. When asked if he began his career as a street fighter, he replied "No. I had hundreds of fights in the alleys before I worked my way up to the streets." Another..."Work is for horses and mules and they turn their ass towards it."
I did some research and, no, there was no conflict to speak of at the time. Conn was just a lazy *******.
My grandfather was a very big fan of Conn's. In his later years he always happily recounted stories for the thousandth time about listening to the radio and hearing the commentators wax poetic about Conn's big fights. He never saw Conn fight live, but for what its worth he always maintain Conn wouldn't easily snatched and held on to the heavyweight title if he'd come along before Louis, picking him to trounce Sharkey, Baer, Schmeling, Carnera, and Braddock. Its hard to disagree with the old man, though I think Sharkey could possibly beat Conn at least once in a three fight series.
Yes, but was Burley a ranking LHW? No. Were boxing fans around the country buzzing about the exciting possibilities of a matchup between Billy Conn and Charley Burley? No. In their native Pittsburgh was there a demand for this fight, one which would pit the two finest fighters p4p in the Smokey City? No. Burley didn't have the status or the money or drawing power to presume to challenge Billy Conn at any point in their careers. The challenge had all the resonance of a pug barking at a mastiff. I wonder if even Burley's people took their challenge seriously. It was a shot in the dark. They had nothing to lose, so why not?