7. Charley Burley (84-11-2, 50 KO, 1 NC)

Born: Sept. 6, 1917

Died: Oct. 16, 1992

 

Legendary trainer Eddie Futch has called Charley Burley the greatest all-around fighter he ever saw.  It is quite a compliment considering Futch's vast experience.  But perhaps the saddest part of Burley's career is that he never fought for a world title.

 

Although Burley was rated as a welterweight or middleweight during an eight-year span, he never earned a title fight.  No less a personage than Sugar Ray Robinson turned down an invitation to dance with Burley that included a career’s best payday.  Marcel Cerdan was rumored to have spent an uncomfortable afternoon watching the always vicious Burley sparring, after which he was said to dismiss out of hand the notion of ever meeting him.  When Jake LaMotta was asked about a possible meeting with Charley he is said to have muttered, “What do I need Burley for when I have Zivic?”  Telegrams offering up Burley as an opponent for both Billy Conn and Tony Zale apparently went unanswered. He was a problem nobody needed.

 

Burley established himself as a contender when he decisioned future middleweight champ Billy Soose.  He then split a pair of fights with future 147-pound champ Fritzie Zivic.

 

In 1942, Burley lost two decisions to Ezzard Charles within 35 days.  But between those contests, he knocked out middleweight contender Holman Williams.  But Burley's finest moment in boxing may have been in 1944 when he won a 10-round decision over Archie Moore. 

 

Those that took to the ring with him during his breathtaking prime were left with even more terrifying impressions.  Archie Moore, who met a prime Ezzard Charles, a prime Rocky Marciano, a prime Floyd Patterson and a prime Holman Williams, who watched and even trained men like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, named Burley the best fighter he had ever met, and the best fighter he had ever seen.  “He did things I’ve never seen anybody else do,” Moore explained. “He could feint you like crazy. The man could feint you with his eyebrows!  Fighting him was inhuman. He was like a human machine gun.”  Moore is to be congratulated for showing the guts to take to the ring with Burley, but it should be noted that he doggedly avoided any rematch.

 

Most likely it was the overprotective businessmen whose job was to draw maximum reward for minimal risk from their opponents that kept Armstrong and Robinson from Burley’s munitions, but maybe, just maybe, it was the only fear truly great athletes ever really suffer—the fear of being made look a fool by a fighter too good for his own good.