Yeah i read about that, some people say Robinson never really ducked a lot of fighters, because he was consistent with his logic for fights that did and didn't happen- he wanted a lot of money to fight.
This thread needs McGrain, have you ever noticed Scots just love Charles Burley? They seem to think he's 1 of their own because of the Scotish surname :yep
Yep, we nearly got Archie Moore-Robinson when Archie was champ. Robinson wanted 60-70% while Moore wouldn't settle for less than 50%. Moore asked his wife to get his coat and walked away from negotiations Robinson seems to be very innovative as a negotiator for his time and usually got what he wanted
This is it. Its all about timing...a lot of these guys had 5 or 6 years on Ray and were either finishing up their careers or Ray wasnt near their weight limit at the time they were closer to their peak. Ray did avoid Burley...He did back out of a fight with Cocoa Kid but the details behind that are pretty well known, Kid was brought in as a ringer at late notice and you just dont fight a fighter of that quality on that kind of notice, it just doesnt make sense. He still fought a **** load of great fighters and has one of the best resumes in the sport hands down.
Well he did face Lamotta before and after Lamotta lost to Lloyd Marshall. He tends to get a pass on this because he was a WW himself at that time but if he was going to campaign at MW, why not face Marshall/Burley/Williams etc. I suppose money comes into that and whether they could give the same type of payday a Lamotta would
Must be noted that Marshall pretty much left the weight after he beat Lamotta though. From the memory I think he only fought 2-3 more middleweights before moving up to 175 for good and on occasion around that time taking on heavyweights. I dont think Robinson should have been expected to fight all the middleweight contenders around just because he fought Lamotta though he was still a dedicated welter. As you said the Lamotta fight was very likely worth the trouble financially, whilst the others were not. If he had not fought them when he was the middleweight champ thats different.
Yes Marshall didn't fight below 160 again although I wonder if his fights against MW contenders at 164 were for MW rankings as some overweight fights were in those days Fights don't happen for many reasons, there has to be good reason to fight dangerous opponents for most
He could have fought Cocoa Kid, there was some kind of negotiations im sure, as for Burley, Ray was offered a LOT of money, a manager/promoter whose name escapes me right now tried to set it up tried multiple times each time adding more money, Ray would nnot have it. this is Ray ducking him for sure, he was getting enough money for the fight.
Burley was never a direct obstacle to Robinson's lifting the title, or the #1 contender for that title...so getting technical about it I guess you could argue he didn't even duck Charley. Cocoa Kid is interesting though. Robinson turned up to a charity do with a ringer in the corner - the ringer was Cocoa Kid. Robinson refused to fight him, which is perfectly excusable (a little like Mayweather turning up to spar someone in a charity match and getting Cotto), but I always wondered why Robinson didn't fancy going back and taking care of that little mess. Of course, CK was something of a person non grata and ditching him wasn't difficult.
