Wow can't believe no one has touched this thread in years. Yes he would've His record was only part of his legacy his amazing skills in the ring still are as followed. However if Burley did get the fight with Robinson he'd have tons more notoriety
Charley Burley on Sugar Ray Robinson "Ray ducked me. George Gainford (Ray's manager) admitted that much. But, I can't say I blame him. There wasn't no money in us fighting each other. All we would have done is knock each other off." "You know, to me the most remarkable thing about Ray's career is that he didn't even get a shot at the welterweight title til he was 26- or the middleweight title til' he was 30! You think he was the greatest? What do you think he'd a been if he'd gotten his chances when he deserved them? You wanna know the truth? If I coulda' got my shot, I wouldn't have risked it fighting someone like Ray." It's from the chapter "Robinson Ducks" in this book: Charley was an amazing fellow. He really told it like it was.
SRR is no.2 in my GOAT list, after Harry Greb. Burley beating SRR doesn't change anything as SRR was past prime anyways.
Robinson lost plenty of times at Middleweight while he was past prime, so the Burley loss wouldn't have hurt him too much.
Burley was a helluva fighter, but I disagree just because The Harlem Dandy might of ducked him doesn't mean Burley would of beaten Robinson. It's like during Aaron Pryors time many felt Leonard, Hearns, Cuevas, Benitez, even Duran was ducking him, which I really, really doubt.
