OK, excuse my ignorance all you old timers...

I'm not an oldtimer, just a young whippersnapper, but my dad saw Charley Burley fight in New York and raved about him. IMO Burley beats all the above,except Ray Robinson at their best's EVEN WEIGHT...

 

Haha outside of greb only 4 of the very very best middleweight champions of all time!? Haha - well I'd guess he certainly had the chance to control and dictate any fight where he was fighting someone in his own size range however great fighters they were in their own right? Hopkins he very well may beat - the other three I can't be sure other than to say in maybe in a trilogy he very well could share the honours - his style was so tricky and difficult to deal with - I only see real problems for Burley when you start putting him in with big light heavies close to his level of ability

 

Monzon - Burley has advantages in skill and speed, Monzon in size and strength and both have very good jabs and ring generalship. Burley looks to be most likely outright better than Griffith who pushed Monzon. Burley I'd expect to do a bit better in a close contest that I wouldn't want to call

Hagler - I think the most similar opponent in terms of skills and style would be Duran. Duran's skillset imo gave Hagler trouble and I think the same happens here

Hopkins - Hopkins bar Jones hasn't faced anyone with the same skillset as Burley. He did have issues with quicker smarter boxers. He is much bigger though (bigger than Monzon and Hagler too) and would probably look to bully Burley inside.

Robinson - who knows? Stylistically I'd probably go with Robinson, speedy boxers tend to have the beating of counter punchers, but an intriguing match up

 

I'd say this issues are little bit exaggerated.

Cal, Dawson, Taylor - in all those fights Hop is clearly older, much slower guy and his stamina dropped dramatically.

Still Cal and Taylor fights were controversial losses.

It is very doubtful he would have struggled against someone like Taylor if he was the same fighter that fought Jones or Johnson.

And Jones fight really can't be held against Hop as far as the whole dealing with the speed subject is concerned.

 

I don't think I'm even sure that Dawson gave B-Hop any problems in that short space of time, not enough for me to factor it into Hopkins' supposed stylistic deficiencies, which IMO is not just speed but the ability to apply it effectively and keep it up.

 

Dawson is skillful and fast, his real problem is mental issues and this time it looked like Dawson came to fight.

It looked like it could be a long night for Hopkins.

That's why many felt Hop tried to fake an injury to escape from what potentially could have been a very hard fight.

 

Given the little bit of Burley footage that exists, which I have watched many times (having owned a copy for about 12 years), and from what I've read that people like Eddie Futch, Ray Robinson and so on said about him, I think he would beat all four of them.
I think that Monzon, a right handed puncher and slow of foot, would be an fairly easy fight for Burley, who regularly fought light heavies and even heavies. However clever and slick Hopkins might be, you need to keep in perspective thaty he is copying moves from guys like Burley, and he perfected them against a much higher level of competition.
Hagler, I think, would be a hard fight, given his southpaw style, his determination, and how well he moved at his peak. With Robinson it would be a pick 'em fight at welterweight, where there is considerable evidence (much from Robinson himself) that he avoided Burley like the plague. Robinson was old at middle weight, though still pretty good.
You had to be Ezzard Charles to decisively beat Burley.

 

i know its old and been posted before but


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81non05aKX4&noredirect=1[/ame]

 

Many have said this of Monzon. None have actually been able to exploit what they saw and supposed to be weaknesses. Much like Louis, I don't see Monzon as "slow of foot" but deliberate and calculating. In the end Monzon was too strong, mentally and physically, and absolutely unflappable. Were there really an example of him being derailed in his very long prime run, I would consider Burley being able to do something here, but no such example exists.

I think he might be able to nullify Hagler's attack. From the little footage available, he looks very good at taking away aggressive attributes. Hagler sometimes relinquished the upper hand against supposedly inferior fighters.

Hopkins, as you allude, is but a pale imitation of Burley, and Burley wins this.

Robinson is perhaps the most intriguing match-up. I would give the edge to Robinson, but I think both fighters admitted it could go either way, and that it would not help the one holding the title (in this case Robinson).