Sugar Ray Robinson In Full Color

Maxim-Robinson is what it is. If we (correctly) give Ali kudos for Zaire, we can't deduct it from Maxim or give Ray some kind of moral victory. You've got to deal with the conditions, find a way to pace/conserve yourself while still winning rounds.


Fascinating (and scarce) footage of the welterweight Robinson;

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Going into the last minute of the clip (vs. Freddie Flores, who outweighed him by close to a stone in what was the last of seven bouts Robinson fought in the first quarter of 1946), you'll notice the right hook to the kidneys with all the weight on his lead foot. Signature punch that would near cripple LaMotta (probably my all-time fighting hero) five years later while headshots bounced off him.


Anybody who thinks 40's guys wouldn't hang today is out of their gourd, by the way. Even Flores, a guy who had come up short in twice as many bouts as he'd won, is strikingly capable there (albeit out of his league).

 

Excellent post. I made the same point about the Maxim fight on a different thread yesterday. Brilliant observation on the body shot. Ray hitting you where and when you didn't expect it.

 

More footage of a prime Ray is available. The Sammy Angott fights are as prime as Robinson got and Angott is an ATG. Here's the third fight.

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I've got an 8 DVD box set of Robinson. A mate bought it at a car boot sale for a Quid and gave it to me. Poetry in motion. Anyone who beat Ray before 1958 is very special.

 

Couple weeks or so before he fought Flores. Wish footage of 147lb Robinson was more plentiful, not least so's I could see Joltin' Jake with the magic wand of a left hand put the L on him.

That statement includes somebody dear to my heart;
[url]https://img.techpowerup.org/200405/bullothebronx.png[/url]

 

It does indeed Nav. Jake wasn't just some Fighter, he was some human being.

 

Nice Thread!

 

sugar ray ran into an italian that was his size, that's what happened

 

Ray fought 4 world class Italians in his prime (iirc), he absolutely destroyed 2 of them, 1 multiple times. He lost to LaMotta and Maxim, but he was beating Maxim and rematched LaMotta 5 times. Against Italians in his prime he has a record of like 7-2.

Also, Graziano, LaMotta and Maxim were all bigger.

 

Man, look at Robbie get busy! No complaining to the ref. He just adjusted his punches and started punishing Angott who was basically running away and smothering with dirty punches.

Without that dirty fighting Robinson would have surely gotten rid of him.

 

Thanks Mark.