Which fighters would you Godless heathens pick to beat Burley at 147

Robinson
Napoles
Griffith
Gavilan
Armstrong
Ross
Walker
Basilio
Hearns
Rodriguez
Leonard

Burley could beat any of them once, but he wouldn't come out on top in a series. Those are the welterweights I rate as superior to him. Others like Graham, Zivic and McLarnin are 50/50.

 

Ross and Armstrong? Maybe, but I doubt it. These two were the elite of the elite. I maintain that Burley has become overhyped recently - he wasn't a pound-for-pound legend, just a very good fighter in a very good era who didn't get what he deserved. Not a Ross or Armstrong.

You could say Napoles was a bit smaller, but he still dominated a solid welterweight era all the same.

I forgot Luis Rodriguez, I'll add him to the list.

 

Well, I wanted to comment, but I see this thread's only for godless heathens, so I guess I'm on my way.:sad2

 

I disagree.

You want an underrated fighter, look at Luis Rodriguez. Compare his record with Burley's - I think you'll find it quite interesting.

 

I'm not sure if you know much about the '60s welterweights and middleweights, but Rodriguez beat a multitude of contenders and champions from both those classes. When analyzed, his record is better than Burley's - regardless of whether Burley was avoided or not. They were hardly queueing up to touch gloves with Rodriguez either. In my opinion, he looks at least as good as Burley on film, probably better (although I will grant you that the best of Burley is unfilmed).

 

Gomeo Brennan
Benny Paret
Joe Miceli
Virgil Akins
Sugar Hart
Isaac Logart
Yama Bahama
Curtis Cokes
Federico Thompson
Joey Giambra
Emile Griffith
Denny Moyer
Holly Mims
Jesse Smith
LC Morgan
Rubin Carter
George Benton
Bennie Briscoe
Ted Wright
Vicente Rondon
Fraser Scott
Tony Mundine

That's a very rushed list of the contenders/champions Rodriguez beat. You could also add another two or three onto that since I'm only doing it from memory, and don't forget he beat some of them more than once.

Just to give you an idea, because I wasn't sure how well you knew the era.

 

Starling, Curry, want me to go on?

 

Cant see Graham,good but not great ,I don,t think he belongs in this company ,and Mclarnin is generally underated,imo.With very little footage of Burley to go on,we turn to who he beat,rather like Greb,do you think those you mentioned would beat the guys Burley beat?I suppose that is one rationale,Burley kod very big men so if he caught anybody he could probably stop them,wether his somewhat laidback countering style would find favour with judges nowadays is a moot point,I think Robinson beats him but then I pick Ray over any one at the weight,Napoles,Griffith would be close,what was Burleys best weight?,he is a bit like Armstrong and Langford ,hard to pigeonhole.

 

Judah KO 1

 

Whitaker
Hearns
Leonard
Robinson

 

I posted three threads on Rodriguez,one high lighting his resume,and his wins over feared Middles,and got very limited response,the Cuban wasnt a crowd pleaser so maybe that was it,people would sooner yap yap about Tyson allday,so be it.