Originally Posted by
smashup
Whoever bought you that copy must love you very much. They are extremely rare. Only 300 copies were printed. That cover tells me that’s the 2002 edition.
Don’t be setting a cup a tea on it.
Just an incredible fighter and by all accounts an incredible human being. I've read the book and have posted that very video on this very site on more then one occasion. Its one of those things I never get tired of watching or using as reference material.
After he was denied title shots by Zale and Cohrane who used the at times convenient frozen title rule during WW2. Burley even offered to fight Cochrane for free with any earnings made to be donated to the War fund and they still said no. When the welter and middle challenges failed, they offered Billy Conns manager Johnny Ray 10 grand and a gate % and they said no deal.
While getting impatient he took his then barely over welter body up to meet Ezzard Charles twice in 5 weeks and fought Holman Williams again about a week prior to his second fight with Charles.He took on Jay Turner who outweighed him by 70 pounds and had just went the distance with Conn. Charley stopped him in 6 rounds
A lot of people think that Robinson comment is urban legend but its a fact. The two met in a lobby in New York when Burley was in town to fight Phil McQuillan April 20th. and Robinson was billed at the Minneapolis Armoury along with Burley 10 days later. Burley stopped Wilson in 2 and Robinson stopped Banner in 2 but it was during the McQuillan fight that Robinson said "I'm too pretty to fight Charley Burley".
He was actually scheduled twice to face Robinson, once for May of 1946 but Ray demanded a pay increase of 25,000 dollars knowing full well that would kill the fight. Charley was more then confident that he'd beat Ray and actually understood why Ray would not fight him. Following a shallow points loss to Lloyd Marshall he moved to California with his new manager Tommy Loughlin and met up with greats like Chase, Booker, Wade and Moore etc and became the first man to stop Jack Chase in 55 fights
His fight with Moore was extremely short notice. In fact Charley was working at a factory for the war effort because he failed the physical to join the army because of a broken/burst ear drum. He got the call on shift at work. He finished his shift, jumped on a bus to Hollywood and went and beat up Archie dropping him thrice on way clear and concise ud,
One of my favourite fighters of all time. If you enjoy the book @
smashup and I'm sure you will you should also purchase the new Springs Toledo book entitled Gods of War. Its from his collection of essays and the Burley read is incredible. I did a thread on that a couple of years back so its probably long gone but Spring's take is a must read.
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