Why Didnt Robinson fight Cocoa Kid?

[BrocktonBlockbuster49]

Two great welterweights in there primes, how come this fight never came off?

[surf-bat]

Two great welterweights in there primes, how come this fight never came off?

Probably the same reason Jack Johnson never fought Sam Langford again. Too dangerous.

[Boxscribe]

It may also have had something to do with the fact that Cocoa Kid was eight years older than Robinson and was a pro fighter by the time little Walker Smith was nine years old.

In addition, Coca Kid - who started out as a lightweight - was a middleweight by 1940 - the year Robinson started out (at lightweight).

By the time Robinson was fighting middlewights (while still at heavy welter/light middleweight), Cocoa Kid was at the top of the weight nearing 160.

The other, probably bigger, issue is one of money. Who would pay (then) to see Robinson fight Cocoa Kid. The weight, experience and lack of money probably meant that Mr Hardwick was not even given a second thought as an opponent for Robinson.

[tiredoldngrey]

He never fought Tony zale either... Robinson seemed, to me, to be on courseto be a champion. Sometimes it seems to me as if fighters like Holman Williams and Cocoa Kid and so many others knew they would never get a title shot so they fought for a living, if that makes sense. Maybe it was a difference in timing, luck, or management but so many of the great unknown fighters fought one another so often, while so many of the great known fighters had nothing to do with that other group. Whether it was racism, economics (always a first choice in boxing) or whatever we never saw Jack Johnson against Langford for the title and we never saw Robinson/Burley, and the list goes on

[Jaclem]

.....saying robinson never fought tony zale is kind of getting it backwards....tony zale never fought robinson would be the more accurate implication.

[tiredoldngrey]

I asn't tring to imply anything by that, other than that, for one reason or the next, certain fighters of the same er, even those that fought everbody twice seem to miss one another.