James J. Corbett vs. Sugar Ray Robinson

Robinson would demolish him.

 

Yes I think he would.

Corbett has come up for a lot of stick lately and some of it is justified.

However the fact remains that he was a heavyweight by the standards of Robinsons era, and he feasted on smaller opponents.

 

Unless they were Bob Fitzsimmons.

 

Corbett doesn't impress me too much skills wise. Maybe the 'good' footage was lost.

 

Or never existed?

 

Corbett was tall, very fast and superbly conditioned but in the limited film he really looks like what he was which is a transitional figure for a sport .. some of his stiff arm punches are absurd but then the blazing combo that put Fitz down looked serious .. I have no clue ..

 

Robinson was a great fighter, but he accomplished nothing above middleweight for me to favor him over Corbett, who like Maxim would stop him. Robinson wasn't liking Maxim leaning on him or the body shots and it would only be worse against Corbett.

 

The heat was a huge factor in Robinson having to retire against Maxim.

Sure, Joey said he fought in the heat too - but Ray was the smaller, more active fighter, having to do all the moving.

Cutting to the chase, replace the immoderate heat with a reasonable ambient temperature and Ray would’ve beaten Maxim.

I’ll say this, I think given the chance to win the HW title with a Corbett as the Champ to be knocked over, Ray might’ve backed himself as a good chance over 15 rounds.

 

99 percent of the moments he exhibited impressive skills don’t exist.

(As in, they never happened)

 

The difference is that Maxim had 80 professional modern era fights when he defeated Robinson to go with his size and excellent chin while Corbett essentially fought a different sport from skills to punch output to pace ( distance ) ... I am not one of these people that feel the men back then were less because they came from much tougher lives and lifestyles but it was a different sport and that has to be factored . Physically there can be little doubt that Corbett was much naturally bigger, stronger, hit harder and was very fast himself but to compete by 1950's rules it is simply not the same ..

 

Good question ... If Corbett could run and hold for ten rounds or so without being disqualified as he may have in the 1890's maybe him for the distance ... maybe not but possible ... at least a different shot than more modern ..