Middleweight Tournament Round 2: Fitzsimmons vs Robinson

A J Leibling--THE SWEET SCIENCE--"Kearns by a Knockout"--ringside coverage of the Maxim-Robinson fight

"The division of boxing into weight classes is based on the premise that if two men are equally talented practitioners of the Sweet Science, then the heavier man has a decided advantage. This is true, of course, only if both men are trained down hard, since a pound of beer is of no use in a boxing match. If the difference amounts to no more than a couple of pounds, it can be offset by a number of factors, including luck, but when it goes up to five or six or seven, it takes a lot of beating. The span between the top limit of one weight class and the next represents the margin that history has shown is almost impossible to overcome. Between middleweight and lightheavyweight, for example, that gap is fifteen pounds."

(My comment--Before the steroid era beginning in the 1980's, in which fighters could change their sizes by the use of supplements--what I would call the natural era, as the size of fighters was set by nature--how many men actually were able to win both the middleweight and the light-heavyweight titles? Only two. Fitzsimmons and Dick Tiger. How many were able to win both the lightheavyweight and heavyweight titles? Only Bob Fitzsimmons. In other words, two-thirds of the century passed after Fitz won the top three titles and no other fighter could win even two of the three.)

"Fighting middleweights, Robinson had always had a superiority over his foes in height and reach, together with equality in weight. Against Maxim he had equality in height and reach but the weight was all against him."

(my comment--Maxim was actually a couple of inches taller)

"The heat was the same for both men. This much is sure, though. Whenever a man weighing a hundred and fifty-seven has to pull and haul against a man weighing a hundred and seventy-three, he has to handle sixteen pounds more than his own weight. The other fellow has to handle sixteen pounds less than his. And when you multiply this by the number of seconds the men struggle during thirty-nine minutes of a bout like this, you get a pretty good idea of why they weigh prizefighters. The multiplication is more than arithmetrical, of course; a man who boxes four rounds is more than four times as tired as if he had boxed one."

"In the eleventh round, Robinson hit Maxim precisely the same kind of looping right to the jaw that had started Turpin on the way out. The blow knocked the light heavy clear across the ring, but he didn't fall, and Robinson's legs, those miracles, apparently couldn't move Ray fast enough to take advantage of the situation. It may have been as good a punch as the one of the year before, but it landed on a man fifteen pounds heavier. Maxim shook his head and went right on fighting."

 

You are one pretentious man, do you think everyone apart from you is a ******??????? I know the difference between 5'something Jofre and a HW regardless of time and when I have seen it????

 

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

1. "You are one pretentious man"

You noticed.

By the way, I am also arrogant.

2. That post was not directed to you or any other poster. I was just sort of wondering why some would ignore the fact that Robinson failed utterly against Maxim who was only one division up, but also assume to that he could easily handle Corbett, who was two divisions up. The underlying point is I wonder if they would think the same way if they saw the two men in the ring together.

 

2. Not saying it was directed at me at all. Just speaking for the general human race who are NOT ******ed that when you know you are watching a certain type of fighter on film you can tell his dimensions roughly.

Hence they would never get those kind of guys mixed up.

 

Pretentiousnes and arrogance are two qualities that I admire in a man.

Congratulations.

 

We have no film to prove that he is though. Only reports, written by himself.

 

\

All ringside reporters will back me up. I am certain of that.

 

Boards like this would be pretty dull if posters were not pretentious and arrogant.

"I can't be certain, and anyway I'm not sure, and how can we know anything anyway"

would not be a very interesting post.

 

You just accurately accused me of being pretentious and now you are speaking for the "general human race."



Just as an aside--I am here to have fun and I hope to continue having fun, and I hope we can have fun sharing posts.

 

:good

 

Well , you got my vote
I dont see SRR beating Corbett and I didnt vote either way in the Fitz SRR debate.I was just a bit peeved Robinson was so easily dismissed against Fitz.
Ray had a great chin but Fitz had the power to crack it, I rate him exceptionally highly as a p4p puncher.
Corbett at 6' 1in and 188lbs with his fine speed for a big man would be a real handful for Ray,and whilst not a puncher by heavyweight standards, he would bang hard enough to worry Ray.
Bottom line is, Ray was not proven against bigger men ,and his prime was as a Welter.

 

Of course. I didn;t mean it as pretentious as it sounded, I just meant I'm sure a general boxing fan will know what size of a man they are seeing on screen, especially if they're posting on the Classic Forum:good