Did Ray Robinson avoid burley because deep down he knew charley would have his number

[Jim Jeffries]

I wouldn't call LaMotta a lesser fighter.

Burley gets all the credit in the world today, perhaps even more than he should, compared to Lloyd Marshall, Jimmy Bivins, Holman Williams, Bert Lytell etc. who all managed to beat him.

The fact is that at the time the two competed, it was LaMotta who was almost always rated above Burley in the middleweight rankings.

What I meant was, LaMotta was a lesser fighter than SRR. Perhaps that loss influenced his future decisions on facing larger fighters.

[TheGreatA]

What I meant was, LaMotta was a lesser fighter than SRR. Perhaps that loss influenced his future decisions on facing larger fighters.

Sorry I thought you meant LaMotta was a lesser fighter than Burley.

Robinson struggled against bigger men at first, he had not grown into a 160 lber as he did later on. He probably was more likely to handpick heavier opponents because at welterweight he fought pretty much everyone there was to fight. Top welterweights Kid Gavilan, Jackie Wilson, Tommy Bell, Bernard Docusen and George Costner were not exactly low risk, high reward opposition but Robinson fought them anyway.

Williams and Burley used to be welterweights but by the time Robinson had become a top contender in the division both of them ranked and fought almost exclusively at middleweight (and even up to light heavyweight).

Anyone who doubts Robinson's willingness to fight just about anybody as long as they money was right should know that he challenged heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson to a fight when Sugar Ray was nearly 40 years of age. It was D'Amato who turned the fight down, claiming he did not want his fighter to assist Ray Robinson in committing "suicide", which I can agree with...

[Kid McCoy]

Sorry I thought you meant LaMotta was a lesser fighter than Burley.

Robinson struggled against bigger men at first, he had not grown into a 160 lber as he did later on. He probably was more likely to handpick heavier opponents because at welterweight he fought pretty much everyone there was to fight. Top welterweights Kid Gavilan, Jackie Wilson, Tommy Bell, Bernard Docusen and George Costner were not exactly low risk, high reward opposition but Robinson fought them anyway.

Williams and Burley used to be welterweights but by the time Robinson had become a top contender in the division both of them ranked and fought almost exclusively at middleweight (and even up to light heavyweight).

Anyone who doubts Robinson's willingness to fight just about anybody as long as they money was right should know that he challenged heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson to a fight when Sugar Ray was nearly 40 years of age. It was D'Amato who turned the fight down, claiming he did not want his fighter to assist Ray Robinson in committing "suicide", which I can agree with...

Did Robinson really challenge Patterson? The version I heard was Robinson's manager asked, "do you want to fight Floyd Patterson?" and the reply was, "you fight him."