He's not overrated. His ledger places him on the Mount Rushmore of the sport. He beat Angott to become the No. 1 LW, was the uncrowned WW champ for years, won the title, moved up to win the MW crown, even jumped up to challenge LHW champion Maxim and soundly outboxed him before falling to exhaustion. There are good to really good and GREAT fighters littered throughout his resume. Everything on film is only a plus.
jeez o ******* pete! atsch 85-0 as an amateur! 131-1 after the St. Valentine's beatdown! After losing to a LaMatta that outweighed him via decision and kicked his a*** three weeks later and every time after that! Retired, than campaigned as a middle into his late 30's early 40's! The bad a*** fought every 3-4 weeks for 10+ frigging years! Let him have reached prime in the 90's or post-2000 and you would run out of body bags!!! The guy was the best; screw the 'he avoided this guy, he avoided that guy' nonsense. He was a Welter in his prime. You want to talk ATG's in boxing? GO...NO...FURTHER!!!
Amen to your post because I saw the WW edition of SRR ringside several times. The best of the best since Harry Greb...
The talent pool overall in the sport has diminished, particularly in the US. Boxing is less popular in most places, so less youth go into boxing, so less potential champions and contenders participate, so the talent pool is more shallow. Less gyms, less coaches, poorer technique. Modern training methods giving a fighter more stamina isn't worth anything if they can't throw a jab. Besides, boxing has been slow to adapt modern training methods and they don't have to go 15 anymore like old fighters used to. Just look at the US, which is largely responsible for making boxing popular in the Western hemisphere, who failed to bring home a medal in the Olympics for the first time since they declined to participate a century ago. And haven't won a gold since 2004 in Andre Ward. Not saying that elite level fighters have become poor, but time going forward since Robinson alone isn't enough of a variable to assume he's been surpassed.
He was. People go by hearsay information about him most of the time, knowing his record, but not many details about his fights not on film. He doesn't look that dominant on film at middleweight. Plus people know even less about old-timers who were as good as him, to compare. You have to compare him to other competitors consciously, when you are ranking anybody, not something most historians or so-called experts have done.
Overrated? He had great Power,great footwork,great chin,great stamina,great heart,great skill, he could hit you and well done from any angle,the best combo puncher ever, he was accurate,he had great hand speed and he was the ídol of ali and ray leonard oh yes very overrated
Ray Robinson was THE best fighter in the history of the sport to EVER step into the ring! I don't want to discount the resumes of other greats but his record, quite simply, speaks for itself. Enough of the: "Is he really the best?", "What would he have done against...yadda, yadda." And of course my ongoing mantra: ERAS! Oh hell! **** on eras! He fought every other week for well over a decade. THE BEST...
Long time reader of the "Classic" forum and first time poster.:hi: So I'll start off with an easy answer, Not!