Sugar Ray Robinson Weakness?

I think he was a good in fighter because he could uppercut/bolo punch and used the forgoten techique of putting the legs behind you to get inside leverage

I think defensively he was a tad weak

 

His head/upper-body movement could be pretty static at times. Then again he was able to make good use of it at other times. Depended on what he was concentrating on, I suppose. If he felt he could take a few shots to give a few, it didn't really matter to him, as his offense was never one to be out-done by the opponent.

 

Without nut-hugging, the only weakness i seen of Robinson was that he carried on too long. Other than fighting into his 40s im pushed to think of one

 

Even if you thought Robinson does have a weak inside game, it's not exactly an important one. I mean, how in ****'s name are you supposed to exploit it? Trying to get past mid-range against the man is like trying to walk through a firing squad, and I can't even see the very top level of fighters with the precise skills to pull off that kind of approach (Duran for instance) doing so when Robinson's punching ability is taken into consideration. If anything, it's a poisoned chalice for the opponent, more likely to get you massacred on the way in than anything else.

 

The only criticisms are to be made of his defence in my opinion, in whichever form you observe them as being weak. We're possibly talking about the hardest weakness to exploit though.

 

Then again it's one of the only approaches that have given his opponents any measure of success against him. Be it LaMotta early in his career or Basilio/Fullmer later on. Obviously you'd have to be a tough *******, but I'm inclined to think someone like Duran would stand a much better chance than many would think. If the odds were good enough I might even throw down a bet on him, actually.

 

I think because his power punching at other ranges was always so good, people always seemed to think his inside game wasn't strong, it's not true though, his body shots etc inside were just fine. That was the way to beat him though, to be all out offensive and just try your best, it's likely you get ko'd, but boxing defensively is not going to work against prime Robinson.

 

Word. The swarming inside fighter did the best against him, and even then they got their ass beat on the way there. SRR also wasn't defensively a great fighter, but it didn't matter. he was fast enough to the punch and skilled enough on offense to get by with ease.

 

I don't think Robinson was really weak defensively in any real way, even relative to his other assets; I think it's more that he doesn't emphasise defence because of his style of fighting. As El B pointed out, he (rightly) had enough confidence in his offensive abilities to sacrifice defence where necessary. I think Robinson's ability to slip punches in the exchange or slip a shot and use that as an opportunity to let off his own shots (which was nothing short of exceptional, as good as any fighter ever) says enough about his defensive abilities that mattered. In his prime, he wasn't hit much.

 

Ray Robinson said after he was through boxing in 1965 at age 44 that his greatest weakness was junk food in training and banging bitches on the side......... If that truly is the case, just how much better could SRR have been with a strict diet in training and no dipping of the wick inside any hole's while preparing for a fight.........

MR.BILL

 

Lamotta was eventually broken in, though, mainly because of the heavy material he had to try and wade through.