Burley Gets Bad Break In Bivins Bout .Gives Away 13 Pounds, Finishes Strong,Fails to

Sounds like one of those decisions that was only ever going to go one way - you see so many like that - sometimes it what you like and if they pick all judges who only like one way thats the only way they're going to go with - sounds to me like Burley was able to fight his fight but the judges didn't want that - they wanted him to fight Bivins' fight and - frustrating for fans and frustrating most of all for Burley - the fact that at 147 he could control a great 160 pounder like Bivins is just sensational.

 

Burley's hometown newspapers making excuses for the loss? Shocking.

Another newspaper admits Burley's defeat:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SwANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=b2kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2245%2C6442180


Burley winning rounds 2, 5, 8, 9 & 10, as the Pittsburgh Press reporter indicates, wouldn't get him any better than a draw anyway.

 

Yeah it's what you like I suppose - that one was saying Burley wasn't aggressive enough but from the film of the Burley Billy Smith fight - he didn't seem to fight in an aggressive way anyway - more poised and off the back foot - doesn't mean you aren't winning though - but yeah may have been a close one either way - I can't really say without seeing the fight because of conflicting opinions of people who did witness - my gut reaction is all I can give you and that is that Burley fought an amazing fight but his style just wasn't appreciated enough - I think his method of fighting would annoy the hell out of a lot of people - especially those who might have being saying before hand that theres no way he would live with a great fighter 10-15pounds heavier than him

 

Keep in mind that Bivins had weighed only 154 pounds a few months before facing Burley who was the same height as him. He was just 8 months into his pro career with Burley being the first big test he had faced (a huge test in this case) as Bivins had never gone past 8 rounds. He had the better of Burley in the early rounds, and apparently ran out of gas late.

 

Remember though Bivins was in his first year as a pro.

I think that more than compensates for the size advantage. Could you imagine a 1 year pro tackling say Paul Williams today?

And Williams aint near Burley's level.

 

Yeh definitely. I ain't disputing that. But it is still a WIN over PRIME BURLEY in Bivin's FIRST year as a pro.

Its astonishing.

 

I have been looking at Bivin's resume lately (yes, I am still remembering I said I would compare his resume to Moore's for you) and it really is amazing his longevity.

He is basically a world class fighter from his first year as a pro to the last, and basically until 1945 he was pretty much, arguably, the best at Light Heavyweight and even Heavyweight (because Louis was in the service)