Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker View Post
It's the whole risk vs reward thing. Why fight a guy when it presents a big risk (due to skill) and little reward (due to lack of name value/recognition).

Of the people they claim ducked Burley (Lamotta, Ray Robinson, Conn, ect), you can't tell me they were afraid of this guy. Billy Conn fought Joe Louis twice, you can't tell me he was afraid physically of Charley Burley. But I guess they all could make more money fighting other guys, most of whom weren't nearly the fighter Burley was.

That's one of the reasons why I hate this respect the old timer's get because they fought a lot more, as if boxing was "pure" back then and nobody ducked anyone. Guys got ducked all the time, guys never got shots because they weren't tied in with the mob, guys agreed to throw fights to get shots, and if you look at the records the records are saturated with bums anyway
It seems like it stained boxing a bit. Nowadays we know so much about it they we KNOW when someone ducks someone and it can hurt their overall legacy.

Didn't seem to affect the old timers much though.