Why does Ray Robinson get cut so much slack for quitting against Maxim...

i'll be honest, i am not dissing your opinion on this issue. it is just really hard for anyone who has ever laced up a pair of gloves and watched a fight to accept someone saying that ray robinson should have been better prepared because he knew what he was in for. ray was in terrific condition and gave maxim hell despite the disadvantages, his body gave out, primarily because the toils of a long, brutal, constantly active career in which he never ducked anyone, ever.

do we really want to say, well, ray lost, ray robinson should have prepared better? i cannot bring myself to say any such thing. it just seems totally out of sync with what actually happened in his career and in the fight. joey maxim certainly had a lot more respect for ray's effort after the fight...perhaps, that's because he was right there, in the ring with such a well prepared challenger who is, to my mind, pretty clearly the finest fighter ever to step into the prize ring. ray lost fights fair and square, no doubt about that, but he never once gave a performance that earned so little respect and attention as this. but, hey, your entitled to your opinion, so whatever. i just don't agree.

 

i'm all for a joey maxim appreciation thread. maxim was a hell of a good fighter and a tough, hard man who loved the combat of the ring. joey's record is deceptive in terms of the numbers because he finished his career 82-29-4, but the reality is that he was only stopped once early in his career and never again and he could have easily gotten the nod in many of his decision losses to elite, some all-time great, fighters, especially during the long middle portion of his career (1944-1952). maxim's fights against the following guys really could have gone either way: jersey joe walcott (2nd and 3rd fights), ezzard charles (1st fight)...he even fought archie moore pretty tight for 15-rounds...these are elite, hall of fame guys. hell, maxim, who was way over the hill, probably deserved the decision in a fight he lost to bobo olson in 1955. maxim posted impressive victories over floyd patterson, pat mccafferty, bob saterfield, bob sykes, jersey joe walcott (in their second fight) and avenged many of his career defeats.

insterestingly enough, after the robinson fight maxim's activity level dropped sharply right through to the end of his career and he never looked quite the same fighter...even by maxim's own admission that fight took a lot out of him. either way, he was a terrific fighter.

 

you have no idea how rare it is for an actual conversation with some kind of mutual respectfulness to occur on these pages. i really appreciate that, way to be cool despite our differing viewpoints.

 

atschYeah this isn't bias.

 

right on with that.

 

Exactly how ******ed are you, exactly?

 

No. You cannot find any other example of a fighter who couldn't stand up continuing to fight. Robinson could not stay on his feet and his handlers had to lift his ass off the stool by grabbing him under the armpits after the fight.

Not trying to be negative, but goddam. WTF are you smoking?

 

I don't think you have all of the facts involving not only this fight, but the heart of fighters that you mention and compare to Robinson. The outlooks that you posted that I underlined, I have a serious problem with your boxing opinion.

 

This is like saying Jaidon Codrington quit against Allen Green or Simon Brown took a ten count against Vincent Pettway instead of getting up and continuing.

 

Heard his son on an HBO documentry say that people really didn't know how ****ed up Robinson was after that fight. He said that Ray wasn't right even up to 6 months after that fight took place. That heat exhaustion took a lot out of him.