Charley Burley on Sugar Ray Robinson

[Thread Stealer]

"Ray ducked me. George Gainford (Ray's manager) admitted that much. But, I can't say I blame him. There wasn't no money in us fighting each other. All we would have done is knock each other off."

"You know, to me the most remarkable thing about Ray's career is that he didn't even get a shot at the welterweight title til he was 26- or the middleweight title til' he was 30! You think he was the greatest? What do you think he'd a been if he'd gotten his chances when he deserved them? You wanna know the truth? If I coulda' got my shot, I wouldn't have risked it fighting someone like Ray."


It's from the chapter "Robinson Ducks" in this book:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...gL._SS260_.jpg

[southpawed]

So true about Robinson not getting what was due to him till his later years..

It still saddens me that there is no footage of him while he was in his peak. Fuck. It must have been some of the most brutal yet graceful boxing footage of all time.

[killersheep]

"Ray ducked me. George Gainford (Ray's manager) admitted that much. But, I can't say I blame him. There wasn't no money in us fighting each other. All we would have done is knock each other off."

"You know, to me the most remarkable thing about Ray's career is that he didn't even get a shot at the welterweight title til he was 26- or the middleweight title til' he was 30! You think he was the greatest? What do you think he'd a been if he'd gotten his chances when he deserved them? You wanna know the truth? If I coulda' got my shot, I wouldn't have risked it fighting someone like Ray."


It's from the chapter "Robinson Ducks" in this book:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...gL._SS260_.jpg

Charley was an amazing fellow. He really told it like it was.

[Beanflicker]

People give modern day fighters shit when they think they're ducking someone, but "ducking" has been around as long as the sport of boxing has.

[Thread Stealer]

People give modern day fighters shit when they think they're ducking someone, but "ducking" has been around as long as the sport of boxing has.

It's funny when people act like a lot of the stuff that happens nowadays is limited to modern times and it didn't happen in the past. The "good old days" of boxing had a LOT of serious problems with corruption, worthy fighters being avoided, etc...

The whole thing about "ducking" is that it needs to be clearly defined. There's a lot of things going on behind closed doors that he won't know about anyway.

I posted these quotes because I liked the honesty of Burley.

[ICB]

I would love to know if those stories about Burley KO'ing Robinson twice in sparring while being gym sweeper is true.

[Jacumba Hooker]

I would love to know if those stories about Burley KO'ing Robinson twice in sparring while being gym sweeper is true.

No, they are not.