Quote Originally Posted by greynotsoold View Post
Check the records of guys like LaMotta, Zivic, Soose, Overlin, and Teddy Yarosz, just off the top of my head and tell me who they ducked?
That's the problem: most of the guys who got ducked back then were never given enough opportunity to build up a name so we'd know who they are and know they were ducked.

Jake Lamotta talked a lot about it in his book Raging Bull (essential reading for any true boxing nut). He said that there were a ton of colored fighters that no one heard of fighting on small shows that the top guys wouldn't go near but who, in his opinion, would have chased the top guys and champs (including Robinson) out of the ring. They didn't have mob connections so they never went anywhere, and because Jake refused to get in with the mob, he was forced to fight a bunch of these killers on small shows for peanuts. In doing this he earned the title of a "policeman" (a term given to the guys who fought and beat the tough no names that the top guys wanted nothing to do with).