According to Harry Ottey ,in his excellent biography of Charley Burley ,which I took for holiday reading on my kindle.Burley, weighing under 160lbs ko'd the 200lbs plus Ray in a sparring session with a single right hand , this occurred when Ray got too frisky and wanted to put on a show for the spectators.After Burley made him look foolish by effortlessly slipping his big punches ,he grew frustrated and pushed Charley through the ropes. Burley wearing no head gear ,[he seldom did,] climbed back in the ring ,drew another big swing from the Violent one,and countered with a perfectly timed right hand that sparked him for several minutes. I recommend the book, it has a lot of detail and facts about Burley and the Murderers Row.
"Don't mess with me." There's a story that he KO'd Walcott, too, though I suspect that may be bull****. However, I remember coming to the conclusion that it could be possible that maybe Burley was thrown out of sparring with Walcott, that that much may be true. From memory the story about Walcott comes from one of Walcott's kids though.
Walcott was too much for Burley when they did spar, just going from memory it was Burley nearing the end of his career, Walcott pushed him around (and may have broken his nose I remember something about that) and Burley headed home. No shame considering where they each were at that time. Found my screenshot https://i.gyazo.com/0356a5f849847a1e1b7656a3ece9f5de.png
I love this old "sparring" stories. Someone is always schooling someone else or breaking their nose or getting thrown out of camp. I'd bet things were usually a lot less controversial. If you are making a living being a sparring partner I'd doubt that you would make it a practice of showing up the guy you're supposed to train. Biting the hand that feeds you, in other words. But I don't doubt for a minute that there were "wars" in the gym.
According to Ottey, Burley's daughter Angie told him that Burley was employed as a sparring partner for Walcott along with Charley Banks, and Johnny Wilson,this was for Walcott's title fight with Charles in June 1949,both Burley and Banks had been in the ring with Charles so they were logical choices. Burley was released early by the Walcott camp.
Due to WW2, there is a lack of real sports coverage of boxing in the 1940's. The info is scattered about and/or buried. Would be great to see all the info come to light again....the 40's may have been better than given credit for.
