charley burley

I heard him mentioned and wiki'd him.

Charley Burley (September 16, 1917 – October 16, 1992) was a boxer of the 1940s, compiling a record of 83 wins (50 by knockout), 12 losses, and 2 draws with 1 "no contest". However, because he was so formidable, Burley was never granted a title shot by any of the welterweight and middleweight champions of that era and was also avoided by many of the top white contenders (Burley's father was black and his mother white). Among the fighters who "ducked" Burley were Hall of Famers Billy Conn (who fought Joe Louis for the heavyweight title), Frenchman Marcel Cerdan (who was supposed to face Burley in his American debut), Jake LaMotta (who had fought the likes of powerpuncher Bob Satterfield, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Holman Williams, who was Burley's greatest rival), and even Sugar Ray Robinson, considered by many boxing historians as the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time.

Of course, not everyone ducked the slick Pittsburgh warrior. Burley won two out of three matches against future welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic, defeated the great Archie Moore by decision, and easily defeated future NYSAC middleweight king Billy Soose. Burley also faced future heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, but dropped two 10 round decisions to him (the bouts were contested within a five week period, sandwiching a fight against Williams). Another notable Burley fight was the one against heavyweight J.D. Turner, who outweighed him by around 70 lbs. "Turner, face beaten to raw beefsteak in six rounds, failed to answer the bell for the seventh." (The Ring, June 1942). Burley himself was never stopped in 98 bouts.

There exists only one near complete film of Burley in action: his second fight with Oakland Billy Smith in 1946. It shows a conservative counter-puncher taming a much larger opponent with relative ease.

Burley's former sparring partner A.J. "Blackie" Nelson offers this comparison: "I see a lot of Charley in this kid, Roy Jones Junior. Both had unorthodox styles, could hit you from any angle, both hard to hit. Charley jabbed more than Jones, if Jones would concentrate on boxing as Charley did, he would become an all-time great."

Eddie Futch, the great trainer, called Burley "the finest all-around fighter I ever saw."

Burley was named to the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1983 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.

Burley was ranked 39th on Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years.

An exhibit at The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Pittsburgh History Center states that Burley was the model for the character Troy in August Wilson's play Fences.

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Leave all things Burley related (boxing and football) to McGrain. He'll greatly explain. :yep

 

He probably makes my top 20 P4P of all-time.

 

Yep, I'm almost sure he's on mine: mid-low teens off the very top of my head. Great fighter. :good

 

Yeah, McGrain loves Charley Burley. Don't blame him either.

 

I actually met his grandson a few years back in Pittsburgh, Pa., we were both unloading a truck a store together. He told me some great stories during the couple hours we were together, from his fights at the old Forbes field, and the time I had very little knowledge of Charley Burley as fighter, but after that night I looked up his stats and read a little about him, and realized he was a top Middleweight during the 40's.

 

Chuck Burley's legend is over-played... He was a damn good fighter who was poorly handled... Sorry, but I do not buy into this garbage talk that he was so good, he was ducked by virtually everybody.... Great fighters with good management do NOT get ducked or pushed aside; they become champions... Joe Louis, Ray Robinson & Kid Gavilan were great and, they all won world titles, as well.... This bullcrap about Charlie Burley being so good nobody would give him a chance is utter crapola.... His management sucked....

MR.BILL

 

The highlighted bit is in the book i read of Burley. Burley was indeed as great as McGrain makes out imo. For me he is beaten by Robinson, thats a styles thing though, we go into this every so often. I seriously think we all missed out on a master by the lack of footage, one of the biggest shames (not to be confused with tragedies) in the sport's history

 

No, actually it doesn't.

 

Im not jumping on any bandwagon though here, i was just expressing my opinion on Burley as one of the best.

But Robinson is the greatest imo (just my opinion)

 

Dont know McGrain, maybe is as far as i can go.

 

I posted this a long time ago, but thought it was worth doing again on this thread:

When great fighters are discussed, invariably Charley Burley's name is thrown in. Yet few fans have ever seen him. I did.

It was only one fight, and it was on tape – somewhere’s between ‘44 and ‘46, at the tail end of his career, so I don't know if it's the best indicator of how good he was ... but it probably gives some sense of his style.

The fighter Burley fought was "Oakland" Billy Smith (later to become “Boardwalk” Billy Smith, when he courted Atlantic City fans) ... and I believe it was at light heavyweight. (Burley fought Smith twice, and won two decisions.)

The tape was in black-&-white – no sound, just titles to indicate the round numbers. But, for something dubbed many times, it was pretty clear … It didn't have that quick-stutter look that old-time footage has shot at silent-camera speed.

First off, Burley didn't look more than a blown-up welter – not a very physically imposing guy; and certainly in comparison to Smith -- who had Hagler muscles –- was much taller -- with a much longer reach, Burley looked overmatched.

Burley was clearly from an earlier era. His hair was slicked down and parted in the middle, like all the pictures of Greb and Mickey Walker. His stance could have come right off the cover of the Police Gazette. The palms of his fists faced him, not sideways, as we're used to seeing now. It had that John L. Sullivan look.

The only thing he was missing to complete the picture were those skin-tight, knee-length trunks with the tied silk sash hanging down. Burley was almost an anachronism, because Smith looked no different than a modern fighter.

Burley moved well and circled in the pocket, but his stance almost resembled exactly Max Schmeling's against Joe Louis, with his head appearing to be forward but all of his weight and body back on his right foot. He would sucker Smith into believing he was within range, to draw a right hand, then counter over the top.

Burley was a precision puncher but threw few of them; every one counted. In ten rounds, he never threw a combination – only one punch at a time... never fought inside or against the ropes. He darted in, punched and quickly held and smothered Smith.

Burley bided his time till he could fire that sniper-of-a-right, and rarely followed it with a left. His right was straight-as-a-level – seemed to have some pop ... and never missed.

But, what was apparent after a few rounds – and this was against a fighter that looked like he had pretty good skills – Burley was un-hittable. He didn't even make elusive moves … he was just not touched by anything.

The only other fighter I've ever seen who had that same radar was Marcel Cerdan. When Pep and Whitaker did it, you wanted to applaud their skill. With Burley, he just wasn't being hit ... and he didn't avoid the punches. (It was the damnedest thing.)

He did everything he wanted to, and either had lost his zest for battle or was such a consummate pro; he did what he had to do to win and not much more.

Off this fight, I could see how Burley had the tools to win most all of his fights, but he'd certainly not be a crowd-pleaser. He was strictly a tactician, and no fighter or manager would want any part of him.

It would be impossible to look good against Burley ... even if you won; and Burley's style wouldn't bring fans out. So I can understand why it was tough for him to get fights. Promoters wouldn't book him.

After viewing this fight, I think it wasn't so much Burley's color that held him back, but his lack of it in the ring.

Though I'm sure both Robinson and his people were leery of facing Burley, even in the twilight of his career, if I had to hazard a guess as to who would’ve prevailed in their primes, I'd say Robinson, two out of three. In a single fight, it's dicey. Burley was very cagey and might have been a tough nut for Robinson to crack … the first time.

But Robinson was far more diversified offensively; his combinations were very flashy and explosive, and would not only catch the eyes of the judges but excite the fans and affect the scoring.

Burley was sweet but "Sugar" was sweeter.