A deeper dive on Charley Burley's greatness.

@McGrain. This is your favorite fighter if I recall correctly, and you probably know more about him than anyone on this forum. So tell me if this write up pleases you, it'd be appreciated.

Charley Burley always had to take the thornier path during his career. Even his first professional opponents were a rank higher than most fighter's. Out of his first 12 opponents, only 2 had a losing record, and 4 of them were tough and experienced, albeit unremarkable journeymen. All of those 12 had a combined record of 157-113-47, on average those first tune up opponents had 26 fights in total. Even in that regard, Burley had it tougher than other fighters who would be facing debuters well into the double digits of their own record.

Burley's first loss came to the 36-3 Eddie Nolan, who would end up defeating Jimmy Leto and even losing two decisons against the great Holman Williams in the near future. He was gifted a decision against the inexperienced Charley Burley, who should only have lost a few rounds and did the better work throughout the contest.

He would once again face a monster while only having about 20 fights, that beast being the future Welterweight Champion of the word and two time conqeuror of Henry Armstrong, the #9 rated Welterweight, Fritzie Zivic. The opinions of the press were divided on the actual victor, but it's safe to say that it was closely contested, and thus Zivic should get his fair share of credit. Almost 3 months later, Burley would reverse the verdict and get the win over him. After beating the solid Leon Zorrita, who was always one or two victories away from becoming a contender, Burley would defeat the #7 rated Herbert Lewis Hardwirk, more famously known as ''Cocoa Kid''. The bout was for the ''Colored'' Welterweight title. This would also be his first victory over a fellow Murderer's Row member.

Burley would then proceed to soundly defeat the underrated Billy Soose, who in about 3 years' time, would defeat the excellent Ken Overlin to gain the Middleweight Championship. After that, he would lose a split decision against the #10 rated Welterweight, Jimmy Leto. Yet again, in a controversial fashion with some of the viewers thinking that Burley deserved the nod. Burley would once again defeat Zivic by some distance, with one report saying that Zivic was so far behind, that one would need a telescope to see him. He would then avenge his loss against Jimmy Leto. By that point, Burley had as much of a claim to the Welterweight Championship as anybody in the division. But it was sadly not meant to be.

He had to face Holman Williams next. Burley had the early advantage in the bout, even managing to drop Williams 3 times in the 4th, but he was unfortunate enough to dislocate his shoulder midway through the fight. This cemented William's #2 ranking at the time. Burley would proceed to defeat the #9 rated Middleweight Nate Bolden a few months later, prior to drawing with the #8 rated Middleweight, Georgie Abrams. Once again, this would be a blemish on Burley's record most observers thought should have been a win.

He would then lose to the undefeated #6 rated Middleweight, the excellent Jimmy Bivins, who would even manage to become a future Heavyweight contender. This time it was Burley's fault for this loss, who did not open up and commit to his offense as early as he should have. But Burley would continue winning after this, among his victims were Young Gene Buffalo, the #7 rated Middleweight Antonio Fernandez, and former top 3 Middleweight contender Shorty Hogue on 2 separate occasions, who had some fantastic wins over Archie Moore, Eddie Booker and Lloyd Marshall, just prior to his loss to Charley Burley.

Burley would then stop the veteran Jackie Burge in the 5th round, prior to his rematch against his former conqueror, Holman Williams. This time, it would be Burley who would end up victorious. He would then have his famous match up against the Heavyweight Jay D Turner to attract some publicity, he outweighed him by an odd 70 lbs, and had even snatched up a win against the ranked Nevile Beech. But despite that, Burley would outperform him in basically every way and stop him in the 7th round.

But Burley would be unfortunate to face the #2 rated Middleweight and future Heavyweight Champion, Ezzard Charles, just 2 months later as a substitute for Ken Overlin. While not as big as Jay D Turner, he was a much bigger fistic colossus in comparison to the Heavyweight, or in comparison to almost anyone period. Burley would try his best but would get dropped in the last round, and was clearly outclassed. Fortunately for once in his career, he would manage to defeat his greatest rival, Holman Williams nexth month.

But unfortunately for the 10th time in his career, he would face Ezzard Charles again and suffer the same fate as before. Burley would proceed to win the vacant ''Colored'' Middleweight title against Williams, who would be stopped in the 9th, and then lose it against him in the remach. Luck would still not smile at him, with the #1 rated Light Heavyweight, Lloyd Marshall, getting the win over him in a split decision with Burley having a broken hand. Burley then managed to defeat the #7 rated Middleweight Jack Chase, and ''Little Tiger'' Aaron Wade, the latter with an injured right hand. Both of them were also Murderer's row members.

But of course, as if it was a moment of tragic irony in some ancient Greek play, something would once again have to go wrong after a small taste of success. Burley would be robbed out of 2 victories, one against Cocoa Kid, whom he had a draw with, and one against the #2 ranked Middleweight Holman Williams, who was being outclassed before the referee declared the fight a no contest due to inactivity. Burley would then defeat Aaron Wade once more, as well as Jack Chase, whom he stopped in the 9th, prior to facing the #10 rated Middleweight, the legendary future Light Heavyweight champion and P4P ATG, Archie Moore. Moore was clearly not the fighter he would go on to become, but he was far from a green novice, having already defeated Jack Chase and Aaron Wade himself. But Burley was just far too good for him at this point, winning in about as wide a scorecard as you are most likely to see in Boxing. Moore would go on to say that Burley was the best fighter he ever faced. Although, there is a chance he would temporarily forget Charles existed when he was asked this question, his mind picturing Charles as a mere apparation of his nightmares instead of a real person, as a subconscious response to trauma.

Burley would go on to beat the now #9 rated Middleweight Jack Chase again, as well as the #5 rated Middleweight Joe Carter, prior to once again losing to the #1 rated Middleweight, Holman Williams. The #7 rated Aaron Wade would once again fail to defeat his nemesis, and then Burley would manage to defeat the #9 rated Light Heavyweight, Oakland Billy Smith, twice. He would then split a series of 2 with the #8 rated Middleweight and fellow Murderer's row membe, Bert Lytell, with Burley winning the first and losing the second bout against him. This would be the last time Burley would defeat a top 10 ranked opponent. He would go on to fight the #6 rated Charley ''Doc'' Williams, but would fall short of winning. This would mark the end of his great career, which could have been even greater if circumstances were different.

Truly one of the greatest uncrowned champions of the sport, up there with Packey McFarland and just a level below of Sam Langford.