Greatest fights (between two fighters of the same era) that never happened

Williams was a full fledged middleweight in 42 ranked no 3 ,Burley was too, ranked number 2 Robinson was a welterweight contender. Burley's biggest purse was $6000.Why would Robinson fight men top ten ranked in a division above him for peanuts?
Given adequate reward Robinson would take on bigger heavier men,as he did with Lamotta, but it made no sense to do so for chump change ,and neither Burley or Williams were ever draws.

 

Whitaker - Chavez
Mayweather - Pacquaio

 

John L. Sullivan vs. Old George Godfrey.
Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk (They have not actually gotten into the ring yet.)

 

You don't think that the fact that Lamotta had 16lbs on Ray had anything to do with his 1 win out of what? 6 fights?
Robinson beat 174 men, were none of them pressure fighters?
How about the 5 wins over Lamotta, did Jake change his style for them??

Robinson also beat Brimm.

 

SRR contested more fights at MW than he did at WW between 1942 & 1946.

Williams & in particular Burley weren't big MWs, I suspect Burley could have made WW for the vast majority of his career.

Of those fights I suggested, the size difference between Walker & Leonard was more substantial than any between Williams or Burley & SRR, during the timescale I proposed.

I was answering the thread title, i.e. great fights that never happened, solely from the retrospective view of 2 x ATG fighters of similar sizes competing at or close to their prime, at the same time, that never fought.

In no way was my post intended as an accusation that SRR, or any of the other fighters I referenced, ducked the opponent cited in my suggested fights or that those fights made commercial sense at the time.

 

Tom Sayers vs. Jem Mace

 

1990 and 1991 were ridiculous top 10s.

 

92 even moreso, imo.

RJJ, Hopkins, Toney, McCallum, McClellan, Kalambay and Jackson. Wow.

If it wasn't for the introduction of LMW and SMW, that could have been a golden era in MW history.

 

I'm sorry if my post came of as accusatory, especially as it was to you.I was replying at the same time to another,and my response would have been more appropriate had it been directed to him. Burley stated he and Robinson would just have knocked one another off ,that there was no money in a fight between them.
Robinson had no problem fighting bigger men if the financial reward justified the risk,as far as Burley and Williams were concerned it did not.
When they were all ranked in the same division, Robinson beat 3 men who were ranked above them.
Burley was a great fighter but he did himself no favours being based where he was,nor was his style crowd pleasing.As Teddy Brenner once said of Harold Johnson,,"he represents perfection,and there is no room for perfection in this game".Something like that.

 

No problem Mcvey, no apology necessary.

I rank SRR as my p4p #1 of all time, so you're preaching to the converted here. Burley and Williams were great fighters, too.

 

Page-Dokes
Rosenbloom-Loughran
Zapata- Gushiken.

 

Cerdan, while in the States for Fights already made, stays hardly more than a few weeks, doubtful he could have taken on anymore 'while' he was there...

said to have left the Gym when watching Burley sparring or something to that effect. Anecdotes which are not allowed in such cases, unless of course you are the person determining which anecdotes are 'acceptable' and likewise which Actual Documented Reports aren't!

funny old set of rules by some around here... Cerdan would have faced damn near anyone in his division.

 

You’re right, Greg, 1992 was at least as good. I completely agree about LMW and SMW, particularly super middle. That division took away a lot of fighters from middleweight - it’s a shame.