I just watched it on You-tube. The whole thing. It was a dammed good fight. And even after 8....something I'd not expected. But LaMata won 1 before. In his book he claimed to have won 4 in his opinion. Now that man had a chin.
Haha, nar i was kidding! By the way Bo Bo, yeah i think best chin ever actually, big words i know, but imo.
If i'm picking a single fight as the best in boxing, that's my pick. No backfoot performance like that exsists anywhere else, and talk about gears in punching.
You know what when i first got heavy into boxing and saw this fight, you hear that a lot 'Robinson put on the best performance ever that night', but it's from guys like Bert Sugar and the like and i must admit i took it for granted. It was only when i watched the bout in it's entirety that i learned that it was true, just like your post now. The backfoot display round after round after round, with powerful shots on the button. Something else.
Alot of the Lamotta-Robinson series were close, people need to take into consideration that Lamotta weighed 15lbs more in most of those matches, though.
Put that together with him being the only man to beat him in his true prime, or 'at his best' as one might say. And that he best him four times before moving up and doing it again. It's not just a popularity contest when he gets called the greatest. People use his labelling too lightly at times imo
Anyone trying to break Robinson down based upon this perfromance is going to run into a brick wall. Best performance on film for me (though I know there are loads of other reasonable picks). Yeah. Plus, that bodypunching, not something he was known for. He flashes in wide, hard, winging punches that are just so fast. Robinson's hand-speed has become underated, and his knowledge of what he could get away with whilst in the pocket are unparalleled, I think.
Im not sure what you mean by the last part, the knowledge in the pocket? But i know what you mean by the body-punching, amazing, he always knew a good body attack was valuable. He'd rap away close before they got split by the ref and that stuff took it's toll. And he may have been better than Tyson for switching from body to head mid combo imo.
Some of what Robinson does is wrong - he shouldn't get away with it. He throws punches that are counterable in the extreme when in close, but he has this intrinsic (Seemingly) feel for where he is, where his opponent is, what his opponent will see and how quickly he can react, so he gets away with these things. He makes "Mistakes", but only the right ones. His mistakes are like the mistakes of Roy Jones Junior (gets away with them through athletisicm), these are mistakes that he gets away with because of timing and generalship. He takes what is counterable and makes them un-counterable.
Oh i get you, i thought you might have meant he was getting away with illegal stuff in close or something! My fault! Its a different thing but similar to how Ali got away with all kinds because of his speed, or Pernell Whittaker crossing over his feet but still being un-hittable. Amazing talent in abundance