Should Clarence Henry Have Gotten A Title Shot?

No, Charles lost his title in July 1951. Henry didn’t pick up his two peak wins over baker and satterfield until nov 1951 and Jan 1952

The target for Henry would be Walcott in 1952

 

Marciano fought Savold in 1952. Ray fought Savold in 1946.

There’s your answer. Savold was cooked by the time Marciano fought him.

And yes, Ray left a top 10 ranked prime Savold face first out cold on the canvas in 2 rounds, while Marciano hit a washed up Savold with everything but the kitchen sink and couldn’t put him on the canvas in 6 rounds...

 

“Lastarza beat every man he faced outside Marciano”

Did you look at the list of cream puffs on his record? Not hard to accomplish that

 

Yeah it doesn’t get much better than that. The three men (Valdes baker Henry) no one in the division wanted to fight, Moore swept them 4-0. Throw in a knockout over Harold Johnson and Moore really earned that number 1 rating

 

Yeah maybe Charles could have squeezed him in there..but Charles was in negotiations for a huge rematch with Louis in September of 1951. Charles took on Walcott as a tuneup in Pittsburgh in July.

 

Ok...they both ko'd the same guy but Savold was a sailboat captain second time around. Got it.

 

LaStarza had a big name in the NY area in his day he beat Gino Buonivino who lost only once in his last 17 fights then LaSatarza beat the 6"3 25-2 Cesar Brion ( who was off a Ko of Bernie Reynelds & Tami Mauriello)

35-0 Roland acually gave the kid from Boston 25-0 Marciano a good fight (although my uncles said Marciano won clearly) they were rooting for Roland NY Bronx)

Roland went on to have some ordinary fights beating Keene Simmons & Tiger Ted Lowry 2 X

He lost lost 2 X and avenged them agaist Rocky Jones and 6'3 41-2 Dan Bucceroni ( who beat Danny Nardico, Rocky Jones,Tommy Harrison,Jimmy Slade,Feddie Beshore,Hein Ten Hoff KO'd James J.Parker (who drew with Earl Walls & went the distance with Nino Valdez)

Then LaStarza beat 40-5 Rex Layne to get rematch with Marciano

So LaStarza was 16-2 after the 1st Marciano loss and he avenged both losses and beat Rex Layne so he was 53-3 and top contender & Marciano wanted to punish him because of his mouth and he did punish him.

 

Come on bummy,

Other than Layne who was shopworn by 1953, the other men you listed were 2nd raters, some of them third raters

Brion, Bucceroni were not top 15 heavyweights of the era and lastarza only split with Bucceroni

Jones was a 3rd rater and lastarza only split with him

Bounvino was a borderline tomato can


Lastarza never defeated Charles, Walcott, Louis, Moore, Johnson, Henry, Baker, Valdes, Jackson, Satterfield. That’s 10 top contenders lastarza failed to beat one of them. Funny, they all happened to be black

 

Layne and Bucceroni were both top ten when LaStarza beat them. Layne was #2 and I cant recall where Bucceroni was but he was also top ten. Brion was rated in the top 10 as well when lastarza beat him. Brion got his rating by beating Bernie Reynolds who was rated number 7 when they fought. When Lastarza beat Brion it was a big deal and the winner had been promised a title shot within three months by Garden matchmaker Al Weill. A lot of the guys mentioned as LaStarza ducking werent even ranked yet when he got his title shot. A guy like Walcott was tied up for two years fighting five fights with two guys from 1951 to 1953 then retired. Prior to that he lost to Layne, who LaStarza beat. Some false criticism floating around here.

 

Charles Walcott Baker and Henry were all top 5 rated in the world 1950-1952. Louis was top 5 1950-1951 and he beat Brion far worse than lastarza did. THe New York RING rated these guys highly, even higher than lastarza.

Bucceroni was only top 10 because he beat Lastarza! He had recently been destroyed by light heavyweight Irish bob Murphy. Have you seen Bucceroni on film? I have. Not very impressive

Brion LastarA was an absolute snooze fest. Read the New York Times article. Brion was ranked, but clearly a second rater. Louis at age 37 and already whipped him twice. It’s funny brion lost 19 out of 20 rounds to a 37 year old Louis whom posters make fun of on this site for being so washed up. How good was brion then? He won twice as many rounds against lastarZa!

The RING promoted lastarza Brion because it was 2 white boys one from New York fighting in the garden. Lastarza was undefeated. But he **** the bed, did not impress at all.

Where was lastarzas title shot in 1950 like you claim he was promised by beating Brion?

Baker, Henry, Charles offered fights to lastarza in 1951-1952. Lastarza turned down fights with all of these men.

Walcott’s loss to Layne in 1950 is irrelevant here since lastarza didn’t fight Layne until 3 years later. Layne had been exposed numerous times since, a recent loss to tomato can Willie James. He was only number 2 in the world due to a crooked hometown decision win by a very bias referee. He lost to that same fighter in dominating fashion in rematches

Why didn’t lastarza fight Charles? Charles camp offered him a fight. Charles twice destroyed Layne. Lastarza fought Layne to a controversial close decision.

Why didn’t lastarza fight Henry or Baker?


Bernie Reynolds? My goodness. Who didn’t beat that guy. Charles destroyed him in 1952 in 2 rounds. Fights on film


You really think lastarza earned that number 1 rating going 2-2 with Dan Bucceroni (unrated when lastarza lost to him) and rocky jones (unrated).

I’m sure you’ve seen film of jones lastarza II. Smells fishy! Jones admitted being on the handcuffs. A bit embarrassing here for lastarza proving he wasn’t beyond this level.

FATS Deangelo and lastarza admitted in magazine article post retirement he avoided men like Charles, Henry, baker, and Moore so he wouldn’t lose out on his title shot

You would think the rocky jones fiascos would have been enough to remove him from title consideration, but the New York RING moved lastarza up a spot for beating jones!

 

Clarence Henry knocks out bob baker in spectacular fashion in Madison square Garden then destroys satterfield in 1. Title shot? Nope instead he’s forced to fight hall of famers Archie Moore and Harold Johnson.

Tough tough schedule there. If only he got to face a shopworn Layne, Cesar Brion and Dan Bucceroni instead

 

Al Weill turned down a fight with Clarence Henry in 1952 for the number 1 rating in the world to the winner. Instead he took on 36 year old Lee Savold.

 

Of the men I brought up

Henry- top 5 rated 1950-1952

Baker- cracked the top 5 1950-1952

Louis- top 5 rated 1950-1951

Charles- top rated 1950-1953

Walcott- top rated 1949-1952

Lastarza had ample opportunities to fight any of these men to improve his rating. All of these men could punch, hard.

Instead New York RING took care of him. Alllowed Roland to improve his rating fighting non punchers like Brion, Reynolds, or declining fighters Layne, or avenge losses to unrated men Bucceroni and Jones and still move up.

 

You know it’s funny,

These top black contenders who never got title shots Harry Wills, George Godfrey, Sam Langford, Elmer Ray, Lem Franklin, Jimmy Bivins, Clarence Henry, Nino Valdes


I ask why didn’t they get title shots?

People respond “timing wasn’t right”

That’s always the response here. Seems these champions never had the right “time” to meet these great contenders yet they had all this “time” To defend their titles against lower rated or inferior white contenders


Seems like such an excuse for the real issue which was blacks were getting denied there rightful opportunities because of the color of their skin


How many great white contenders pre 1960 were robbed of a title shot? Can anyone name any?? Harry Greb???Maybe gunboat smith?

Seems like every single accomplished white contender pre 1960 managed to get a title shot