Charley Burley on Sugar Ray Robinson

[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.

[Scrap]

Eddie Futch Told me, why He should lie I dont Know. Yet Harry Otty said He never heard the Story. Robinson wanted Triple the money He was getting at the time to Fight Charlie, thats certain. Also anyone who made it in that era was connected no two ways about it. Robinsons Manager was a numbers Man for the Mob, theres a clue.Ive heard some wonderfull tales, but telling them would get certain people in trouble, some Porkys amongst them but a few truths are in there. Isnt History wonderfull

[Taeth]

People actually didn't like Ray Robinson in his prime for the same reasons people didn't like RJJ or Mayweather, he was cocky, arrogant, and he is perhaps the fighter who carried opponents the most across the finish line, and he was too much better than the opposition. His being old made Turpin, Fulmer as good as they were, not them being as good as they are made out to be. Robinson in his prime actually trying would have destroyed them. Many people don't know that he carried Lamotta most of their fights, and that he wasn't going to in the last fight, and that along with other things was the reason why he wasn't allowed to box in the states and made him go to Europe.

[Jacumba Hooker]

People actually didn't like Ray Robinson in his prime for the same reasons people didn't like RJJ or Mayweather, he was cocky, arrogant, and he is perhaps the fighter who carried opponents the most across the finish line, and he was too much better than the opposition. His being old made Turpin, Fulmer as good as they were, not them being as good as they are made out to be. Robinson in his prime actually trying would have destroyed them. Many people don't know that he carried Lamotta most of their fights, and that he wasn't going to in the last fight, and that along with other things was the reason why he wasn't allowed to box in the states and made him go to Europe.

All hail the almighty SRR.

Pity he didn't decide to display his wares for us mere mortals against the likes of Burley, Lytell and Towne (to name a select few).

[Jacumba Hooker]

Eddie Futch Told me, why He should lie I dont Know.

For years Eddie Futch also told the story about how Burley took the Archie Moore fight on less than a days notice. Not true.

Burley did work in an aircraft factory at the time and it is possible that he did a days work before the night of the fight (unlikely though). So, that part of Futch's story may be correct. The fact was the fight was signed weeks in advance.

If Burley and Robinson met in a gym and Burley knocked Robinson out, why is it that no one talked about it before? If it was true, then Robinson may be disinclined to tell, but there must have been other people there! Burley never once mentioned it - though he appeared to have a good deal more class than SRR. Eddie Futch seems to be the only person that knew of it, yet it took him years to tell the story! I don't buy it.

Cocoa Kid put Robinson down in sparring - once (and documented in contemporary newspaper accounts). If anyone at that time was giving SRR fits in the gym it would have been Artie Towne.

...some Porkys amongst them but a few truths are in there. Isnt History wonderfull

Amen to that Scrap!