Who would you pick to outbox Cocoa Kid at 147?

Yeah and if every white person in the 1930s and 1940s was racist as you seem to think none of the afformentioned fighters would have gotten close to a title. And frankly the Civil War would have never been fought. But hey, its a lot easier to paint EVERYONE as a racist to suit YOUR narrative that Burley wasnt overlooked in the title picture because he was boring and screwed himself with poor decision making but instead there was a vast conspiracy at play to prevent him from winning a title while several other black fighters, some of whom are better than him and all of whom are bigger draws got title shots...

 

Hometown boxers usually get the gift decision so I'm not sure why you're so butthurt over the reality that black boxers got robbed against white boxers during this era. That was the reality of the time. Reports back up Lamotta getting gifts over Murder's Row fighters. It was

We know Burley wanted Robinson and all the big fights and Robinson didn't fancy it.

Discounting racism from Burley not getting his title shot imo is racist in itself. He was clearly the best WW and MW contender, and didn't get his shot

As for not drawing crowds, then why did Zivic face him twice? And who in the hell wants to see Burley's leftover getting a title shot over the king of the division?

 

Fighters adapt and improve all the time, we still get a big impression of their ability from film footage. I can see Lennox, Pacquaio nad Hopkins are elite before their primes.

Also Judah was one of the biggest talents in boxing at the time though, the assessment was reasonable but stamina and concentration let him down.

 

You can call me racist all you want. Nobody here could extrapolate that from my comments and it doesnt change my mind. You cant argue facts so you want to call me a racist which you would never do to my face. Everything Ive stated here is a fact that you unfortunately cant combat with anything but pathetic claims of me being a racist. Yeah me, a guy whose spent the last five years writing a book about Harry Wills being denied a title shot. Get a ****ing clue instead of trying to pull that horse**** out of your ass.

Who wanted to see Zivic over Burley get a shot at Armstrong? How about the 13,000 fans who paid $30,000 for the privilege. Compare that to Burley who two weeks later fought Eddie Pierce in a card that draw under $400 and lost money for the promoter. His loss to Jimmy Bivins the month before drew just over $2,000. Yet when Robinson-Burley was discussed for Minneapolis Burley demanded equal pay... And anyone notice how it was Robinson travelling to Pittsburgh and then Minneapolis to establish himself as a draw to fight Burley??? And frankly, why is it that in the radio broadcast for Robinson-Servo where Burley is fighting on the undercard you can hear Burley being booed quite clearly for lack of action. But you go on pretending that dollars had nothing to do with it.

 

During his entire career, Charley Burley was a terrible gate attraction in a professional sport that is a business. One reason is that he had a boring fighting style, resulting in him having far too many boring bouts. Under the circumstances, Burley was very unlikely to get a world title shot or a lucrative bout.

Besides Mike Jacobs, there were other major American boxing promoters or matchmakers who didn't seem eager to have Burley fight on their boxing shows, including Larry Atkins of Cleveland, Nick Londos of Detroit, Jack Hurley of Chicago and Babe McCoy of Los Angeles. In fact, Burley never fought at a substantial number of significant American boxing venues of that time.

Jake LaMotta certainly had quite a few personal flaws. But he had few, if any, boring bouts during his career. That dawned on me while reading many newspaper reports of his bouts. As a result, promoters and matchmakers went out of their way to have LaMotta fight on their boxing shows.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Whatch out Chuck, its racist to speak facts around here.

 

Exactly, Im not saying I agree with it but denying that its a fact, and even moreso then than now, is ridiculous. If a promoter isnt willing to sign a guy because he doesnt believe that guy will draw who am I to argue with him? Its not his responsibility to run a charity for boring fighters and lose his own money. Some promoters literally went broke trying to promote Burley. Ignoring that fact or trying to separate it from any discussion about why Burley didnt get a title shot is nothing more living in an alternate reality. And frankly if a guy like Robinson or Armstrong is the draw and Burley is demanding parity (which he absolutely did in the case of Robinson) why should Robinson even consider such nonsense? Its not like Burley was the ONLY fighter out there that presented a good match. He was ONE fighter. His promoter in Minneapolis had nothing good to say about Burley after Burley left him high and dry and basically said what Ive said above, that Burley wanted to be treated and paid like he had already built up the fanbase of a Robinson without having to do the work. He could go on bitching and moaning the next 40 years about how everyone ducked him but fighters with that story are a dime a dozen and theres usually more to it than that everyone he missed out on fighting was scared of him.

 

Well the big issue was really that promoters ran the sport. They still do by and large but back then the NBA really didnt have as much power as the sanctioning bodies do today. This meant that finances and popularity really drove the sport. Of course they still do but its different and trying to use todays standards of operation to judge how the sport operated back then simply doesnt work. You have to view it within the context of its time. Boxing had fiefdoms back then. Everything centered around the gate because there was no TV. Even name fighters had to go into these fiefdoms and establish themselves with the fans there. Thats why you often see a card featuring two fighters in separate bouts that eventually fought each other at that venue. It was to establish their bonafides. The idea that a Burley or anyone else was just going to suddenly get called up to fight at Briggs Stadium or Madison Square Garden or whatever in a big headliner without having established himself ANYWHERE much less in that locale is simply unrealistic. People can say "well Robinson or Armstrong should have fought him" but thats now how it works. Fighters dont make fights. They arent promoters. Robinson could have wanted to fight Burley all day long and twice on sundays but if he wasnt promoting the fight himself and no other promoter was ponying up the money for it it wasnt going to happen. It sure as hell wasnt going to happen if Burley is demanding equal pay to the star when he had never been able to show he deserve it. Robinson wouldnt cut his purse in half to help Burley, why should he? And the promoter isnt going to double the purse hes paying Robinson as the headliner to suit Burley's demands, why should he? So Burley can leave town in a huff and go around the countryside pretending everyone is scared of him when in reality he was a flake who priced himself out of the fight, at least the Robinson one in particular. And frankly thats a story as old as time.