1. Charley Burley was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950.
21 Facts About Charley Burley
1. 2.
Charley Burley was the penultimate holder of both the World Colored Welterweight Championship and the World Colored Middleweight Championship.
3.
Charley Burley was born Charles Duane Burley in Bessemer, Pennsylvania on September 6,1917 to a mixed-race couple: his father was a black coal miner and his mother a white Irish immigrant from County Cork.
4.
Charley Burley began boxing at the age of 12 at a Boys Club and, as a lightweight, won city, state and national junior boxing titles and a Golden Gloves junior title.
5.
Charley Burley did accept an invitation to attend a scheduled 'Workers Games' to be held in Republican Spain as a protest to the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, but the games were cancelled by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
6.
Charley Burley reportedly was offered a contract by the Homestead Grays, the local Negro leagues franchise.
7.
Charley Burley knocked out George Liggins in the fourth round of a four-round bout.
8.
Less than two years later, on August 22,1938, Charley Burley met the Cocoa Kid at Hickey Park in Millvale, Pennsylvania for the World Colored Welterweight Championship.
9.
Charley Burley won a unanimous decision in the 15-round bout, knocking the Kid to the canvas three times and defeating him decisively, taking his title.
10.
Charley Burley did not defend that title, possibly as part of a strategy to win a shot at Henry Armstrong's World Welterweight title.
11.
Charley Burley won the World Colored Middleweight Title in a ninth round technical knockout against Holman Williams at Victory Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana on 14 August 1942.
12.
Jack Kincaid of the Times-Picayune reported that Charley Burley had won nine rounds of the fight and had been the aggressor throughout.
13.
Charley Burley was never granted a world title shot by any of the world welterweight and world middleweight champions of his era and was avoided by many of the top white contenders.
14.
Charley Burley won two out of three matches against future welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic, defeated the great Archie Moore by decision, and easily defeated future NYSAC middleweight king Billy Soose.
15.
Charley Burley faced future heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, but dropped two 10-round decisions to him.
16.
Charley Burley compiled a record of 83 wins against 12 losses and two draws with 1 "no contest".
17.
Charley Burley battled financial problems at times during his career and was forced to work as an aircraft mechanic and garbage man in order to earn enough money to live off.
18.
Charley Burley's second fight with Oakland Billy Smith in 1946 is the only known boxing film for him that is known to exist.
19.
Charley Burley jabbed more than Jones, if Jones would concentrate on boxing as Charley Burley did, he would become an all-time great.
20.
Charley Burley was named to the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1983 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.
21.
Charley Burley was ranked 39th on Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years.