Nov 24th, 1950 - Rex Layne beats a prime Jersey Joe Walcott by UD. Walcott's next fight is a title shot against champion Ezzard Charles. Why didn't Ezzard give Rex a shot at the title, instead of fighting the loser of the Layne-Walcott fight? At that point in his career, Rex Layne had beaten every man he had faced, with two draws. August 8th, 1952 - Rex Layne beats a prime Ezzard Charles by UD. At this point, Jersey Joe Walcott is the champion. He has to pick between Rex Layne, who beat him comfortably, and Rocky Marciano. He chooses Marciano, probably thinking he'll be easier to hit. Rex Layne was a good fighter who was never in the right place at the right time. He later almost got a shot at Marciano's title, but was narrowly outpointed by Roland LaStarza, who then fought Marciano.
I agree that Layne should've gotten a shot at Charles before Walcott, but as far as getting a shot at Walcott... A few points about that... 1. Layne's win over Charles was considered a bizarre and highly controversial decision. 2. Layne had also been brutally beaten up and KO'd by Charles in another fight. 3. Marciano had already KO'd Layne, so the case could also be made that choosing Layne as the next opponent over Marciano would be unfair to Rocky.
Rex Layne and Charles boxed an exhibition in 1949. His handlers may have felt that Layne needed some polishing first before challenging for the title.
I replied to this in the general but here: Charles was far from his prime in 52 maybe not shot but defiantly not in his prime and he would go on to dominate Layen a year later. Not to mention Charles stopped Layne in 51 as well. If Rex had beaten Charles in 51 he would have fought Walcott for the title but lost and Charles got a rematch with Joe instead. Plus Rocky was more popular and had KO'd Rex which is why he got a title shot.
Layne was a tough dude...I watched his fight with Satterfield, amazing recupritive power, Marciano ruined him
Layne was not even on the list of fighters to fight when Marciano got the shot. On Sept 23 1952, Marciano all but clear the way for a title shot. Had Layne goting the shot, there would be crys of Walcott ducking Marciano. Marciano was the number 1 contender. Lets not forget that. Belive Layne was ranked number 8 or so.
