Why were Murderers Row ducked so much?

[IamInuit]

I don't really understand it, they got ducked a lot but the people who ducked them went on to fight the Jake LaMottas and Archie Moores and Rocky Marcianos of the time, who are in my book just as, if not more tough.

It seems in my ignorance towards the Murderers Row as a whole, focusing only on the fighters individually I have missed the politics of it, as I assume race had a part to play, considering Charley Burley only ever held the World Coloured Middleweight Championship, a title thats name seems embarrassing today, and shows how ludicrous the whole race thing was.

They were ducked and there is no question about it. Just a s Langford and others were before them. Dempsey trembled at the thought. When Robinson was asked why he would not fight Burley his answer was, "I'm to pretty to fight this man"

Moore was part of the Murderers row btw. Archie fought 160 times before he got his shot against Maxim and had to settle for an 800 dollar purse to Maxims 100 grand.

Here is a quote from Kearns who st the time was Maxims manager: “We ducked Moore just like everybody else was doing,” “He was too smart, too skillful, too experienced, and carried too many blockbusters in his arsenal to take him on before we were forced into it.”

After the fight he became Moores manager lol.

The only guy Robinson ever fought out of the group was Aaron Wade and that was after he had retired for 2 years and had lost to a journeymen.

[scribbs]

If you fancy doing some research then check out this info in these articles -

It wasn’t so much Charley Burley’s color… by Joe Rein (sweetscience)

Also checkout charleyburley.com &

this piece on fightbeat site - The Apprentice:Archie Moore vs. Charley Burley

Springs Toledo also from sweetscience (Google him) has written some in depth pieces on some of these fighters. Here's a list of articles to read:

The Beast of Stillman's Gym - 8 parts
Shadow Boxing at the Golden Gate - 2 parts
Chasing Jack Chase - 5 parts
15 Seconds
Just Watch Mah Smoke
A Crown For Cocoa Kid