AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 60
Charley Burley (September 6, 1917 – October 16, 1992) was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950. Archie Moore, the light-heavyweight champion who was defeated by Burley in a 1944 middleweight bout, was one of several fighters who called Burley the greatest fighter ever.
Watch The Scoop from Monday to Friday featuring Canadian heavyweight champ Bola Ray, who lends his vast experience in the sport and provides his comments and analysis on boxing, on YouTube and TalkinFight.com/live. #boxinghistory @eddiefudge @BlackLivesMatter #racialequality @racism @blklivesmatter #blacklivesmatter #blackhistory #blackmurderersrow
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Transcribed:
Hey folks tonight we’ll be talking about arguably the greatest boxer of all time, and yet virtually nobody has heard of them.
I’M talking about a fighter that was so dominant and so gifted that literally put the fear of god in great to the point where they refused to fight him when they were at their pinnacle in their career being championed afraid to fight anybody.
Just doesn’t make sense.
Actually doesn’t make you a champion as far as i’m concerned, you know the likes of henry armstrong: zale uh graziano, even the legendary sugary robinson, all quivered in their boots, because this man, a former sparring partner of his aj blacky yeah, it’s a 30s and 40s um Aj blackie nelson offered a comparison.
I see a lot of him in this kid.
Roy jones jr both had unorthodox styles and could hit from any angle both hard to hit he jabbed more than jones.
If jones would concentrate on boxing, as he did, roi 2 would become an all-time great now anybody that knows me knows.
I truly believe that roy jones, at least a young roy, was the most supreme boxer of all time and to hear that and to hear this, there’s nothing shy of crime that there’s so little footage of him gifting history with his craft.
My name is bola raymond, and this is the scoop.
Well, the idolized sugary robinson um.
He first called him the greatest before he called himself the greatest okay, sugary, robinson, feared and ducked the man born september 6, 1917 to a mixed couple race with a black coal miner.
As a father and a white irish immigrant mother from county cork was arguably the greatest boxer who ever laced up gloves and won.
Charlie dwayne, burl or burley being the only boy in a family of seven siblings.
Young charlie was nothing shy of a handful when his father charlie senior, passed away in a coal mining accident in uh 1925.
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The family migrated over to pittsburgh.
Charlotte took a boxing at the age of 12 and really gravitated to it.
Legend has it that he was equally a sensation in amateur boxing, as he was in the sport of baseball, of which he was offered a spot on the homestead grays.
This team was played out in a suburb of pittsburgh.
It was in the all-negro league.
He accumulated accolades for boxing starting from city championship state championship, even national championships as a lightweight than the juniors, even when the golden globes, the lightweight golden globe championship as a junior, only to follow that up with uh winning the golden globes lightweight for the seniors.
It was said that these titles were he one of these trials, was such ease.
It was actually stated that a walk in the park by comparison was complicated.
He was head and shoulders above his uh contemporaries.
He went out to win the national golden globes as seniors in the following year.
In 1936, charlie was invited to the box office for the upcoming 36 1936 berlin uh olympic games, of which he declined due to their association with the nazi regime and therefore the ideologies.
But instead, as i don’t know, if it was a consolation but as much as um, it was more in the face of the nazis.
Um there was a games going on called the worker games in being held in spain at the exact same time and in essence with anybody who didn’t want to support the nazi regime um.
Now, when it came time to well the day before the games were to commence, the spanish civil war broke out and everybody went home.
Charlie never got an opportunity to represent the united states, his home country in international competition as an amateur later on that year, charlie turned professional, no charlie started off his professional career as expected, with amassing 12 wins eight by naco um, before sustaining his first loss.
Uh to one eddie, dolan brushed himself off, went on another streak with four more wins way of knockout and then goes up against the veteran fritzy zivik.
Now, at the time, civic had over 70 professional fights where, as i just said, this was a this – was charlie’s.
17Th fight went in the distance two months later in the rematch.
He got redemption and beat zumik in a 15-round decision.
1938 saw um, charlie win the colored world welt weight championship over fellow uh fraternity, brother of the colored murderers row group um in one coco kid herbert lewis, hardwick.
He won that fight rather convincingly, with by dropping him twice in the fight and even dropping late.
In the last round, [ Music ] did get up and heard the final belt.
Henry armstrong had won the recognized world lightweight title at the same or welterweight title at the same time.
That year now charlie, never defended the colored world waterway title because he felt he felt that it was redundant um because henry armstrong had the other one.
The true one, the more recognized one, the one that would get you not just notoriety, but bank, you know, so he never.
He never defended it in hopes of actually getting a title shot against uh armstrong, which never happened, try to finish off the year with um.
Another win against a future world champion in billy soos over 10 rounds, which assisted him in gaining in in beginning 1939 campaign as the fourth ranked welterweight in the world.
Okay, that’s that was awesome.
January 1939 saw charlie going to battle with our canadian boy sunny jones and um yeah.
He won by seventh round stoppage, but before the final bell, sonny gifted charlie with something he didn’t soon forget a broken hand which puts charlie out of commission for the next five months now coming back in july.
He gets he gets back into the ring.
He has a fight, he loses this fight for reasons unknown.
The guy wasn’t great, but he didn’t look that sharp mind you.
He had quite the layoff.
Only to then um fight, our friend in a rubber match, zivik once again in july 17th, 1939, in which it was a one-sided beating.
I like this one, the commentator wrote that zivik was so far behind that somebody would need a telescope to see him.
I like that, i like that this was a noteworthy fight, because post this fight, charlie, beat zivik so charlie was ranked higher than zivik more worthy of a world title shot than zumik.
But zivik gets the title, shot against henry armstrong and beats him to become the world wealth weight champion now.
Zivik and his manager, lou carney did something that could only be seen as no.
It should be seen as good business.
They seized the opportunity to buy out charlie’s contract from his current manager, which he wasn’t getting along with this secured that civic and charlie would never have another fight against each other, which only was a win for z for civic right.
Charlie went on the following year and had nine fights in that with that management group with only one loss um, and then he packed his family moved to minnesota now, um that next year he 1941 he had eight fights with a winning streak under under his new Management and no losses this team, this management team really tried to get him a legitimate belt.
Now this is where it gets.
This is how sad it was.
Okay, wrap your head around this, while charlie got 1942 off to a flying start beating everyone that was put in front of him, the fighters that include the hog brothers, shorty and big boy, the great holman williams and even heavyweight jt turner.
His promoters sent legitimate offers to current champions that proved fruitless.
Title challenge to freddie red cochrane at welterweight, z, uh, tony zale at middleweight all proved fruitless, um.
He, since these uh, since these titles were frozen for the duration of world war ii, one proposed offer to cochran was that charlie would fight for free and his percentage of the gate would go to the war fund and still no deal.
This is supposed to be a world champion, not a gutless coward.
Until you know, um johnny ray was offered 10 000 plus a percentage of the gate from billy cong.
Again no deal world champion right.
Um sales management had other plans for their man.
So again, no deal.
This man is still on a mission.
He continues to pursue his leg, his legitimacy and fought all comers in middleweight, light, heavyweight and even heavyweight division, while never weighing more than 150 pounds.
He won fights and he wanted legitimacy.
This was utter insanity.
He gave up 70 pounds to fight the big texan j turner, who had been the full 10 rounds against billy kahn, a few months earlier, only to be hammered like chopped meat and stopped in in the sixth round by a fighter 70 pounds lighter charlie, a chance To meet ray robinson in the lobby of a hotel in new york when charlie was in town to fight phil mcquillen april 20, 1942.
That date is a little important to me, seeing how that’s the day my mother was born.
Now, let’s the two meeting on the same bill at the minneapolis armories, charlie, kayode, samuel wilson of detroit in two rounds, while ray beat dick banner in the same round number run.
Excuse me april 30, 1942 watching from ringside, this ray robinson tells his manager.
I’M too pretty to fight charlie barley, which in essence says he was petrified.
This made no sense whatsoever.
Charlie’S manager decided that there would be better opportunities in california, so he moved the team out west now soon after arriving charlie met up against jack chase for the california state championship, strap jack, who had never touched canvas in 55 flights, was sleeping in the ninth and Then, five months later, in a rematch again sleeping in the 12th, keep in mind.
Charlie was still under 150 pounds friday at middleweight.
Shortly after charlie got the opportunity to fight archie moore on one day’s notice and took it this story.
I i just still can’t wrap my head around this charlie, worked at an aircraft uh assembly factory the day of the fight and then went to bounce moore’s head off off the canvas in the evening, not bad for a day’s work.
A couple of charlie’s friends had stated that charlie didn’t like cocky fighters and that he allowed more and other boastful fighters like billy smith, to go the distance.
The old mongoose often cited charlie as the greatest fighter.
He ever fought calling burley as slick as lard and twice as greasy very impressive when you consider the name names of more records.
Come 1946 charlie had fought over 60 fights and, with the exception of hallman williams, a few of the others that were victorious over him outweighed him by a minimum of 10 pounds.
Charlie fought for another 40 years and moved back to pittsburgh on the side.
He was driving a garbage truck for the city and in 1950, when he realized that he was making more money being a garbage truck driver.
Then boxing he hung up the clothes for good.
That is a travesty, an absolute crime against history that right there charlie died october 16th, 1992.
At the age of 75.
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He was elected into the boxing hall of fame in 1983 and was inducted into the international boxing hall of fame in 1992.
may rest in peace.
You deserve it so with that, that’s my show.
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