Burley and Griffith

How do you see a fight between these two great welter/middleweight technicians playing out, and who do you feel should rank higher on an all-time list.

Personally, I got Burley in both catagories, but not by much at all.

 

I actually have Griffith at both, though that may change, at least in the P4P rankings. Head to head there's not enough of Burley IMO, but from what I've seen it's not out of question to favor him over Griffith.

 

I made my top 50 list and put Burley at #31 and Griffith at #32, so I have no problem at all with Griffith being higher, but feel Burley's resume just edges Griffith's. From what I have seen of Burley, he can match Emile in most areas, plus he was the harder puncher and had the better chin IMO, there's not much seperating the two in my book, so I went with Burley based on those two adavantages. While I don't see it as action-packed, I feel this fight could be one of the most brilliant displays of boxing, from both fighters, ever seen.

 

BTW, when I said Burley's resume edges Griffith's, that is more about how Burley performed in his top wins. By all acounts he bounced Moore around the ring in a very one-sided fight, so one-sided that Moore would call Burley the finest fighter he ever fought (and saw as well), which is a massive statement considering the level of comp. the Mongoose was in against. Eddie Futch also famously called Burley the finest all-around fighter he ever saw. Griffith's close calls with Rodriguez in all 3 wins plus the pretty clear loss in the other fight, the razorthin decision over Tiger, and his 1-2 record against Benvenuti gives Charlie just the slightest of edges IMO when comparing their outstanding resumes.

 

In terms of quantity, I'd say Griffith has the clear edge. But if you want to base it on how they performed in some of their top wins, you could make the case for Burley. I have Griffith at #22, Burley at #33 for now, but I feel he'll be moving up. My lists fluctuate a lot.

 

As does mine.

Personally, I don't see too much of an edge either way on overall resume:

Griffith: Dick Tiger, Luis Rodriguez, Nino Benvenuti, Benny Paret, Joey Archer, Holly Mims, Bennie Briscoe, Florantine Fernandez.

Burley: Archie Moore, Holman Williams, Jack Chase, Cocoa Kid, Fritzie Zivic, Bert Lytell, Billy Soose.

When just viewing these names, It's possible that I might lean towards Griffith, but I feel Burley's win over Moore is really far more impressive than any of Griffith's wins, and in most of these wins, according to the records, he generally won more emphatically than Griffith did against Rodriguez or Tiger.

Also, considering that very little seperates these two, I see Burley's having never been stopped in nearly 100 fights (even a few at heavy, and a lot at lightheavy) is somewhat of an edge over Griffith considering he was stoped twice in over 100 bouts. Close call in any way you want to compare them though.

 

Burley- Moore, Williams X4, Kid X2, Chase X2, Zivic X2, Carter, Lytell, Smith X2, Soose, Hogue, Wade, etc

Griffith- Rodriguez X3, Tiger X2, Archer X2, Benvenuti, Briscoe, Lopez X2, DeNucci X2, Muniz, Bogs, Harris, Charnley, Dupas, Mims, Fernandez X2, Florentino Fernandez, Fullmer, Moyer X2, Paret X2, Bahama, Logart, etc.

As I said, in terms of quantity, definitely Griffith(he has one of the best resumes ever really), but among top wins they're very close. Burley was more consistent though.

 

True, on the quantity of world class guys Griffith takes it, but on the very top wins it's extremelly close, and I agree Burley was more consistent throughout his career. Just depends on who you personally favor.

Where do you rank each at both welter and middle?

 

I have Grifith above Burley on my welter list, as I feel even though that was Burley's best weight, his best work was done at MW, in terms of legacy and ATG rankings. Burley is just outside my top 10 at welter, h2h though, Burley is one of the finest welters. I think Griffith could possibly outwork Burley, and Emile was very skilled on the attack so its trouble for anyone, but i'll pick Burley to be methodical when he must, and land the big right hands and turn masterfully as much as he needs to when Griffith comes in with them great blistering attacks, close fight either way though.

 

I rate Burley as my #7 Middleweight, and Griffith as #10, although sometimes I put Marcel inside the top 10 and leave Griffith at #11. At Welter, Griffith is my #6 and Burley my #9.

The reason I posted this thread is that I always associate them with each other becuase their so close to each other on these two lists, on my all-time P4P list, and they have a good amount of similarities between their styles.

Do any of you believe the fight changes depending on whether or not it's at 147lbs or 160lbs?