By Adam Laiolo: Greatness isn’t always about how talented you are. Sometimes greatness is achieved just by doing the right things at the right time, and a lack of ability can be substituted for others traits such as determination and heart. Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be you, no matter how you strive and aspire to be the best. A name heard in big circles, a career known to smaller ones, Charley Burley may be the fighter we’ve all missed when we compile our own Top 10 etc.
With knowledge of him pretty slim and footage of him even rarer it’s hard to judge this fighter. But for those who haven’t heard of, or want to know more about, Charley Burley. It’s a name every boxing fan should know. Charley was born into a working-class family in 1917 in Bessemer, Pennsylvania, with the world at war around him.
His parents were of different races, his mother was from Ireland in the British Isles and his father a coal miner from Virginia, a sin not far from murder in such times. So Charley, at the tender age of 12, was of mixed race. Something seen as an abhorrent of two races and persecution happened at every turn.
It was around this time Charley took up boxing at Kay Boys Club run by two local trainers Leonard Payne and Howard Turner. After learning his skills, and place in current society, he decided to push on with boxing for a living. With the only alternative being physical laboring work and/or slavery, a job taking punches probably didn’t seem all that bad.
In 1936, as a teenager, he competed in the City, State and National Junior competitions which he steamrollered, including the infamous Golden Gloves Junior and Senior Levels. At the age of 19, Charley was invited to fight for a place in the Olympics, taking place in Berlin Germany. He declined almost immediately, with the racial and religious persecution happening at that time in Germany to be out of control.
A special ‘Workers Games’ were to be held that year in Spain as an alternative to the Olympics, but as history tells us Franco kicked off and started the Spanish Civil War which consequently cancelled the games preventing Charley Burley the chance to ever represent his country. It was at this point, Charley turned professional. Starting out as a welterweight, having fought at lightweight mainly in his amateur career, he racked up a record of 12-0 (8KO’s) before losing his 13th fight to Eddie Dolan in 1937.
Fighting out of a small shack of a club, Pittsburg Fight Club, Charley became one of the most impressive young talents and by 1938 he had a record of 16-1 (10KO’s) before losing to then journeyman Fritzie Zivic. It was this man Zivic, who would prove to be Burleys nemesis over the coming years after a thrilling trilogy.
After more testing fights, he won the Colored Welterweight Championship Of The World by knocking out Cocoa Kid. After a lucrative rematch with Zivic in which he won, Charley was destined to make an assault on the world stage, which was still frowned upon for a black fighter, let alone a mixed race fighter, to dream of being on top of the world.
Some back-stabbing then took place, from some sources say Burley always had a frosty relationship with his manager Goldstein, some say Burley thought he’d make more money but ultimately, it was Zivic’s manager who swooped in and took Burley on a contract to fight under him. This then paved the way for Zivic himself to take on Henry Armstrong for the Welterweight title, leaving Charley out of the picture.
And that was as close as Charley Burley ever got to a title shot. It was now at this defining point, Burley went it alone. Building a reputation by fighting as often and as harder fights as he could get. No-one wanted a piece of Charley Burley not the white fighters, nor the black ones. The 1940’s was a time littered with boxing greats, but Charley was held in higher respect than all of them. Idols and All Time Greats like Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson, neither wanted a part of Burley.
Of course some fighters did step up to the plate, most notably Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles, defeating the former and twice losing to the latter. A style said to be so unorthodox, yet so beautifully perfect that sent shivers down the welterweight and middleweight ranks. Avoided by the likes of Marcel Cerdan and Billy Conn, he could only carry on fighting what was in front of him.
Maybe a record like his shouldn’t be judged on who he beat and when. Maybe we should judge this guy on who wouldn’t fight him. Maybe Ray Robinson would’ve beaten him, same with Lamotta. But then again, maybe not. We will never know the outcome, nowadays fighters can duck others in their division quite comfortably. But not for fear of losing, for the sheer lack of motivation to fight someone ranked below you.
Once outweighed by 70lbs in a fight with JD Turner, a description of his challengers face went someone like this – ”Turner, face beaten to raw beefsteak in six rounds, failed to answer the bell for the seventh’. Never once in his career was he stopped in 98 pro fights, he finished his career with a record standing at 83-12-2 (50 KO’s). ‘Too Good For His Own Good’ is the famous phrase associated with him and whilst no one would ever think being too good is anything bad, it is when you’ve got to convince someone to stand in front of him and fight.