This gentleman looked like one of the best of the 30s and 40s. Maybe never got the chance for the championship due to most of the top heavyweights would not fight or did not fight him. Of the guys we're talking about here in the mid/late 40's only Lee Savold, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott fought him looking through his career on BoxRec.
I took a swipe looking at his TBCB3 rating. You'll see I did down rate him some.
Elmer Ray - HW - USA
Career Record: W97(KO 69) / L23(KO 9) / D11
TITLES:
Florida State (Colored) Heavyweight Title
Unknown information has been left blank.
The included record in this bio is what is listed on BoxRec currently. There's some different accounts seen questioning the duration of Ray's career and included record.The Gruelingtruth.net account of Ray discusses record that has been found of his first fight listed by BoxRec with Walter King in 1933.
Listed as number 44 in Ring Magazines list of the 100 Greatest Punchers of all time. Defeated Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Lee Savold, Obie Walker, Leroy Haynes, and Kid Riviera.
Lost a 10 round decision to Frank Lumpkin in January 1940 for the Southern US (Colored) Heavyweight Title.
Lost another 10 round decision to Larry Lovett in Jan 1943 for what was billed as the Colored Heavyweight Title of the South.
In early 1947 after having defeated Jersey Joe Walcott in November 1946, Ray was ranked by NBA as the #1 contender to Joe Louis' heavyweight title. Ring's February 1947 annual ratings had him ranked 2nd behind Tami Mauriello behind Louis. Then in March of that year he lost a 10 round majority decision to Walcott. Ray never got the chance to square off against Louis. Classic Boxing Society on Facebook ran a Jan 2015 post on Ray commenting on how other than Jersey Joe and Ezzard Charles, the top heavies of those mid to late 40s would not fight Ray. Louis, Godoy, Mauriello, Lee Oma, Baksi, Lou Nova, Melio Bettina, Jimmy Bivins all turned down fighting Elmer Ray.
That same Facebook posting also accounts Ray's reputation as an alligator wrestler and was known to casually play with them and let them eat out of his hand!
Another good account of Ray's career on:
www.boxing.com/elmer_rays_50_in_a_row.html