Did Sugar Ray Robinson "duck" anyone as champion (WW or MW)?

charles burley!!!!!!!!!!

 

There's a good argument for Burley yeah, I've read a good argument why it made no sense to fight him as well.

With almost 200 fights,many against top class opponents I reckon we can let him off for the handful of fights he didn't take...don't you?

 

im trying to think of people but cant think of many besides burley and even then i dont think its a strong claim

 

"As champion" eliminates Burley, who retired seven months before Robby dethroned LaMotta at 160. Also, Charley last competed under 147 while Ray was still an amateur at 126. (This is why I give SRR no stick when it comes to not squaring off with Burley. He was substantially heavier than Ray at most stages of their respective careers.) By virtue of frequent non-title forays, he eliminated an awful lot of top contenders.

Once again, :readthre: How can he be accused of ducking Burley as champion when Charley was no longer competing at the time Ray took Jake's Title?

 

The misnoma's spouted by some of the people here commenting on Robinson 'ducking' Burley is nonsensical. That obviously applies to the rest of 'murderers row.

Ray simply wasnt in the same weight region at each point in their respective careers.

Lest we forget Burley was about as exciting as Johnny Nelson (Thompson fight notwithstanding).

 

this is off burley's page at cyberzone:

A chance meeting with Ray Robinson in the lobby of a hotel in New York, when Charley was in town to fight Phil McQuillan, (April 20, 1942) led to the two meeting on the same bill at the Minneapolis Armoury. Charley kayoed Sammy Wilson of Detroit in two rounds while Ray beat Dick Banner in the same number of rounds, (April 30th 1942). Watching from ringside the 'Sugar Man' told his manager, "I'm too pretty to fight Charley Burley".

Despite great efforts to make the match the two would never meet in the ring, although it nearly happened twice and dates were set. Robinson signed for a May 1946 fight, but raised the price to close to $25,000 when he wanted an out. Although he wanted to fight Robinson in the worst possible way Charley was never bitter about the way Sugar Ray avoided him because he knew that he was the better man and that he would have beaten Robinson. Though never boastful Charley Burley had the utmost confidence in his own ability and when he did lose he made no bones about it he could always tell the truth.

 

Not as champion, Burley I don't think would come down to WW when SRR was WW champion (which took a while to get his shot), I'm pretty sure Burley wanted the fight at MW when Robinson was a WW fighting MWs. At MW as champ, he took a long time to get his title. Imagine if Robinson asked for a 142lb catch weight, if only Freddy Roach was his trainer

As WW Champ, he turned down Cocoa Kid I believe, but mainly because it was a charity exhibition and he wasn't fight the KEEEEEEED for free

 

Just reading Allen Rosenfold's 'the life and hard time of an uncrowned champion'; whilst his fact finding and level of research is excellent; the flow of the book is a bit stop/startish and is not an 'easy read'.

You can tell he's not a natural writer by trade.

To be fair, he's very impartial towards Burley and has no issue with making a point of the many occaisions when Charley stunk the joint out.

 

How biased an article that is.

I remember when Monte Cox used to post here, he was an arrogant bore.

 

Robinson was a LHW and Sugar was a WW, no wonder Robinson was so damn good at WW, he's a damn ringer :yep

 

very true. i do remember another article, in "the ring" i think, that talked about a 2 fight series that was scheduled between rob and burley. the catch was that robinson was to win the first fight so burley didn't want any part of it. i don't have a link but i remember reading that. it's probably all bullsh!t. no other sport has as many made up stories and myths as boxing.

 

Agreed. A complete Jack Dempsey jocksniffer

 

Hmm so he didn't duck Burley? Burley was older anyways and Robinson tested himself countless times so it doesn't sound like him to avoid Burley also when they weren't in the same division while Robinson was a champ as you said. Thanks for clearling this up, I'm relieved as a Robby fan lol.