BoxRec

Charley Burley, 1930-50s welterweight and middleweight, often labelled the greatest fighter to have never fought for a world title and often said to have been avoided by Sugar Ray Robinson. Famously said by Eddie Futch to be "the finest all-around fighter I ever saw."

98 fights
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83 wins (50 KOs)
12 losses (never stopped)
2 draws
1 NC

Wins over Fritzie Zivic, Cocoa Kid, Holman Williams, Jack Chase, Aaron Wade, Billy Soose, Archie Moore and Bert Lytell.

He beat three future world champions, Fritzie Zivic (welterweight champ), Billy Soose (middleweight champ) and Archie Moore (light-heavyweight champ).

Losses include 2 defeats by Ezzard Charles (in the space of 5 weeks of each other where Burley had a fight in between), a SD loss to Lloyd Marshall and a points loss to Jimmy Bivins (although Burley came close to stopping Bivins in the final round)

'Ring Magazine' had him in their top 10 for 100 months (from September 1938 to August 1947).

So if you had to rank the top 10 middleweights ever, would Burley be in your rankings, if not where would you rank him?


LOSSES AND DRAWS
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03/04/49 Charlie Doc Williams (29-7-2)................. LPTS 10.........Burley was 79-11-2
17/02/47 Bert Lytell (39-11-4)...............................LUD 10..........Burley was 77-10-2 (Burley beat Lytell in their previous fight)
11/07/45 Holman Williams (127-19-9)................... LUD 12..........Burley was 67-9-2
19/04/43 Cocoa Kid (150-38-7).............................DRAW 10........Burley was 57-9-1 (Burley beat Cocoa in their first fight)

For the next 2 years and 4 months Burley is undefeated with 13 wins (7 KOs) with 1 draw and 1 NC between 11/12/42 to 19/04/45

11/12/42 Lloyd Marshall (37-7-2)..........................LSD 12............Burley was 54-8-1
16/10/42 Holman Williams (95-13-6).....................LUD 15............Burley was 53-7-1 (Their next bout ends a NC)
29/06/42 Ezzard Charles (21-2-1).........................LUD 10............Burley was 52-6-1
25/05/42 Ezzard Charles (20-2-1).........................LUD 10............Burley was 31-5-1

For the next 1 year and 8 months Burley goes 20-0 (15 KOs) between 03/09/40 to 25/05/42

03/09/40 Jimmy Bivins (14-0)..............................LUD 10.............Burley was 31-4-1 (Burley battered Bivins in 10th and came close to dropping him in round, said to have started too slow)
29/07/40 Georgie Abrams (32-3-1).......................DRAW 10..........Burley was 30-4
01/12/39 Holman Williams (64-6-4)......................LPTS 15............Burley was 26-3 (Burley beats Williams in next fight)
20/06/39 Jimmy Leto (101-16-7)..........................LSD 10.............Burley was 23-2 (Burley beats Leto in rematch)
21/03/38 Fritzie Zivic (57-18-4)............................LSD 10.............Burley was 16-1 (Reports state Burley should've won. He beat Zivic in their 2 rematches)
09/09/37 Eddie Dolan (36-3-1).............................LUD 8...............Burley was 12-0 (Called a farce, Dolan held through the fight, awful exhibition with Dolan only trading in last minute of fight)


BREAKDOWN OF ALL 98 FIGHTS BY YEAR
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1950 had 3 fights = 3-0 (2 KOs)
1949 had 2 fights = 1-1 (0 KOs)
1948 had 1 fight = 1-0 (1 KO)
1947 had 2 fights = 1-1 (1 KO)
1946 had 5 fights = 5-0 (2 KOs)
1945 had 7 fights = 6-1 (3 KOs)
1944 had 8 fights = 8-0 (6 KOs)
1943 had 6 fights = 4-0-1 (1 KO) and 1 NC
1942 had 17 fights = 13-4 (11 KOs)
1941 had 8 fights = 8-0 (6 KOs)
1940 had 9 fights = 7-1-1 (2 KOs)
1939 had 6 fights = 4-2 (2 KOs)
1938 had 11 fights = 10-1 (5 KOs)
1937 had 10 fights = 9-1 (6 KOs)
1936 had 3 fights = 3-0 (2 KOs)

Roughly I would say between 20-40 all time, the only thing that grates me about him is the overwhelming sentiment that he rates above Holman Williams. I rate Holman higher, but in any regard they should be in the same tier. They're as tight as Manny and Floyd imo.