After hearing so much about Charley Burley I started wondering who in the modern era compares to him?

Emanuel Augustus maybe?

Huh? How so, there is only one video of him out there, but from everything I've heard he was a slick boxer.

I don't think Emanuel Augustus deserves to be mentioned with arguably one of the best fighters ever.

As for who he compares to... well its hard to say because I've never seen him fight.

roy jones jr.

Are you talking about good/great fighters who never got a title shot? Because there isn't there only like 10 minutes of footage on him? Anyways, today there i 4 titles for every weight class and all the politics and scared champions in the world can't really keep a gret fighter down like they did Burley and Sam Langford before him. Just not the same era there is no way someone today could not even get a title shot but be considered among the greats in 50 years.

I'd first think of Mike McCallum, in that he would stand right in front of his opponent and yet still be very difficult to hit. Charley Burley, at least when seen from the only footage of him was the same way. He didn't have to dance circles in order to stay out of harms way.

I guess you could also argue that James Toney is similar. At least when regarding their stance, and those little dips and bends that often an opponent overreach and miss by a mile.

I'm not talking about style, I guess I didn't define what I meant at all in my first post. I'm saying who is talented yet had a mismanaged career or never caught the breaks ergo my answer of Augustus.

Theres just the one Fight of Burley, Ive got the Full version.

Interestingly Billy Smith was 16lbs heavyer, and just got a draw with Archie Moore. They had Boxed before and Charly had Him over twice, they say in this Fight He carried Smith.

His name is on a lot of all time lists. I was browsing through his boxrec and found he faced Holman Williams 7 times.

I thought Archie Moore started off at Middleweight. How many knew that Archie Moore actually started at Welter?

Clottey and maybe Dirrell.

Some guy in the ring wrote dude died "broke, sad, and lonely". Or something like that. His wife catches wind (cause very few boxing fans or people period read the thing anymore) and writes in making them admit all that was a lie. Pretty funny. It's in this months bagg or whatever section. Yea i bought it.

This is a tough one. I dont really know of many fighters that had a similar amount of talent, yet never got a crack at a title. In this regard Burley stands alone. There are still some great fighters of the modern era that certainly didnt get the chances their talent deserved, and were subsequently avoided or ducked for the most part.

For me the most obvious is probably Aaron Pryor. Howard Davis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Hearns, Mancini and Watt certainly had Pryor at the top of their 'who needs him club'. Pryor for me had all the talent in the world, but was never given the defining fights his skills and legacy justified. Apart from Cervantes and Arguello, nobody really wanted anything to do with the 'Hawk'.

I'm a big fan of Pryor and Arguello, it's just a shame that the world never really got so see just how good Aaron Pryor was.

Call me crazy (wait for people to call me crazy)

But I really don't get the big fuzz about Burley.
I personally see him as a folk tale.

I mean I've always argued about these old time fighters (even older then Burley) like Walker, Gibbons, O'Brien etc. etc. etc. Langford.

All we're going by is what some people wrote, many moons ago.
If today writers exagerrate story's can you imagine this before?

I can't say they werent great fighters because maybe they we're but me personally I choose not to rate them along side modern fighters.
It is impossible. Even more so here with a fighter whom most of here have not seen a single full fight of his.

I mean really here's 2 general questions.
How many of you here think SRR ducked him?
How many of you think Burley knocked out SRR during a sparring session while Burley was mopping floors at a gym?

I do

Mick, even if it's fake, the myth of the average Joe schooling the World Champion or a top star (especially when that dude is a shmuck) is just a part of the culture of sports.

Examples:
Spadafora sparring PBF
Numerous fighters sparring Tyson in the 80's
Gene Lebell choking out Steven Seagal
Chuck Zito KO-ing Jean Claude Van Damme


Also the "unknown" is very interesting to sports fanatics, How would Bruce Lee have done in MMA? What did Harry Greb's style look like? Was John L. Sullivan really a bad ass? The less you know about something the more questions you want to ask about them.