Why is Burley ranked so high?

There are similar stories, far less well sourced (basically heresay) about Jersey Joe Walcott, but you can't talk about them or SuzeQ immediatly reappears on the forum. What appears to be true is that he was hired to help out in camp for a Walcott fight, supposedly one of the Charles battles, and that he was fired after a very short period in camp. It comes down from a female relative that Burley decked Walcott in training. My own opinion is that she got Ray and Walcott confused and that it didn't happen, but that story is out there. The Ray one is different, it's all but confirmed.

Well, Burley may have lost 10/10 to Marshall, the decision was wide enough, but as I said, he did fight that fight with a broek hand, and as I also said, Monzon, Hopkins, Hagler, Greb, they are all losing that fight.

Charles beats him out of sight every time, that much is clear.

3-3-0-1 with Williams doesn't tell the whole story. It seems ridiculous because a seven fight series is enough to square any rivalry, but there are two fights that require a second look. The NC was going in Burley's favour before it was rather bizarrely thrown out by the referee. Both men were missing a lot, but then both men were defensive geniuses. One of the Williams victory was roundly dominated by Charley. He knocked Williams down 3 times in fact, when he threw his shoulder out in the ninth round. Boxing on one handed, he won only one more round and Williams eeked out the decision.

My suspicion is that Burley was marginally better than Williams.

Bivins is interesting. He's one of the only guys that fought Burley who claimed not to like him, he also claimed he didn't understand what the fuss was about. Bivins didn't think nearly so highly of Burley as Moore, Williams, Lytell etc. seemed to.

 

I think Burley sets Ray all kinds of problems. Moore called him the best feinter there ever was, said that he could "feint you with his eyebrows" and that was certainly part of Robinson's problem against Kid G. He was afraid to punch for spells. Given that Burley appears to be faster, hits far harder and may have been more difficult to hit himself, I'm no so sure.

But my suspicion is that if they had fought once, Robinson would have won. The fights would have been boring, they would have been boring because of Burley and the crowd wouldn't have liked it. Given that Sugar was the cash cow and Burley was nobody (never made more than 5k in his entire career) it's hard to imagine a contriversial decision going to Charley. I think it would have been an arguable decision (either way) and that Robinson would have got the nod, SD or razor thin UD.

A rematch is a different prospect.

 

Yes, he knocked Ray unconscious. I also think that his stoppage of JD Turner is a little overlooked.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=17162&more=1

 

Ray is the one at the physical disadvantage; Burley has a longer reach than pretty much anyone Ray tustled with. Robinson would be the guy presented with the "in out" difficulty.

No problem, you're welcome chum.