What's always neglected when gym rats 'n savvy trainers discuss SRR's vaunted left hook. Who'll be the first student of the game ta nail it?
Robinson's left hook wasn't for every boxer, usually he threw it with his elbow very close to his body like Ike Williams. Of course he also could just wing them too and those had ko written all over them.
JG, I thought that was the norm back then, my granddad taught me the same and said it needn't travel more than 6 or 8 inches... see SRR v Fulmer, or JJW v Charles.
Another thing that was uncommon about Robinson was the way he could double and triple that hook without seemingly costing him much power.
That's another big thing for me, ETM. Go in to any boxing gym, and from early on you're always taught to chain punch, alternating between left and right when reeling off combinations. The way Robinson doubled and tripled up that left hook made him stand out from other fighters in his time. Kid Gavilan did the same, though usually when fighting on the inside instead of mid range, which is where Robinson was at his very best. I know people love the Fullmer knockout, and rightly so, but my favourite knockout of Ray was against Graziano. That double left hook and then, as Graziano tries to prepare himself the for the anticipated third, a shuddering right hand. Brilliant stuff.
The other thing--that's never mentioned--about the way Sugar threw his hooker/cut(which is purest 101), he never turned it over. His knuckles were north-south, not east-west. Every trainer worked tirelessly with young boxers, pounding in the importance of turning over jabs 'n hooks.
Very true, John Garfield. If you look at how Robinson threw the left hook to the ribs / liver, you can really see what you're talking about. He had a real mixed bag style which nobody else has quite managed to replicate.
