I asked my brother, who was with me at the time, and he says Ray was 5’8” not 5’7”. So I concede 5’8” could probably be accurate.
Actually Chok, the face off with Benitez allows for a decent comparison. Wilfredo was listed as 5’10”. Benitez is taller but there isn’t a lot between them. So, if Benitez’s listing is correct - which I think it is - then Ray looks about 5’9” to 5’ 9 1/2” for mine. Go to 20 secs for the face off. This content is protected
Boxrec and Wikipedia now have him as 5-9 whereas previously he was 5-10 1/2. Randy Turpin was always listed as 5ft 10 ie an inch or so shorter than Robbie. But some 56 years after his death boxrec have shrunk him by an inch Benitez's upper body actually looks very slight compared to Leonard's.
Yeah, that’s only is if Benitez really was a strong 5’10. my brother, who disagrees with me, is himself 5’9.02” and even he says he was a shade taller than Ray when they met. He’s sent me a photo of them at the same dinner show where I met Ray, and he does look a shade shorter than 5’9.02” that my brother says he is. So perhaps, depending on who you believe for height, I would say 5’8.05- 5’9” is the absolute most Ray could be. In street shoes.
I have stood beside Hearns in the gym, he is between 5-11 and 6-0, probably closer to 5-11. There was a guy on the old CBZ message board who said that he was a boxing/sports writer. He said he was 5-6 and could look Hagler in the eye.
yes that’s what he seemed to me. Big hands on him too. whatever Leonard is, Hagler was a shade less. Great fighter. But he was short. Alan Minter was tall. Not too shy of six foot when I saw him. Yet Boxrec lists Alan at 5’9” which is definitely wrong. Alan had to be 5’10 or almost 5’11
One of my favorite staredowns. Wilfred somehow makes it like he’s 3 inches taller the way he tilts his head back and looks down on Ray.
I've been next to him twice. I would have guessed 5-9. But damn, he looked like two guys fit into one pair of clothes.
That was my experience too. He was heavier then than he is now. Short. But what a big guy. He was shuch a big man with short limbs.
That is a good measure for when they had same day weigh ins for almost all of his career. But in 1983 they ditched it, so WW can easily weigh what MWs used to in the ring. Hence be better built. That & cartilage such as nose is a very good question! It seems Liston should have looked like Dumbo; I gotta investigate what aspect of his genetics may have been involved here. However since nobody else remotely approached that age, it is likely that at a certain point, maybe 150, all soft tissue ceases to grow. And just because nobody else had the mutation to stop cellular death & shortened Telomeres (structures of DNA found at the end of chromosomes)-which may also arrest other growth to conserve energy-we never knew that ears & noses COULD stop growing! Science.