People always say Robinson ducked Burley and although they should have fought Robinson never had a bounding to fight him the match always just seemed unviable due to a recent loss or the rankings were different. Now i dont doubt Ray didnt want to fight him but he didnt have to fight him as from reading Rosenfelds book on Burley. Burley was only ever ranked as a number 1 contender by Ring at Middleweight for a month during the war when Zale was chaampion. Have i missed any other rankings? Also Burley after a few years was almost fighting exclusivly as a Middleweight although he could still make Welter maybe this hampered his chances.
Burley floated around the rankings at both 147 and 160. Unless you can get every ranking for each individual month, there's no way to keep track of where exactly he was ranked at any particular time. I believe his highest standing in the division was in early or mid '42, heading into his two upset losses to Ezzard Charles. As for Robinson, he was still a WW campaigning for a shot at the title there while Burley was a leading MW. Robby was under no obligation to fight him. The claim that Robby "ducked" Burley has always been either an example of Robby being held to significantly higher standards than other fighters, or an argument used to trumpet Burley's quality.
Yeah it's true from what i've heard, that Burley was hardly ever rated numero uno much at all. I still gotta fell he's a unlucky not getting a title shot in his career though, he was a constant world level performer for years and mixing in the company he did, well come on, lesser fighters get shots all the time and always have done. On the Robinson ducking him thing, well he called him out outright. No disrespect to Robinson, i'm high on him at the moment moreso than any other boxer.
Yeah, with all that contractual madness. At least Burley got his chances with him though, now that likely is a duck because he knew what Burley was all about and never fought him with the title.
well there was the contrcts also the fact that Burley had arguably beat him twice before and Zivic didnt fancy fighting him again anyways im off
