If Internet was around in Ray Robinson's time?

He'd be Money may yo'.

 

If you were around when ray Robinson was in his prime, you would have
been in AWE. Period...We are not talking about the Robinson in his past
peak middleweight era...
You are correct about his private persona...Difficult man...
But to see the young welterweight Robinson in action, a revelation !!!

 

I cant see how he could be viewed as anything other than how he is now, an exceptional fighter. True he could be a **** in his private life but that doesnt interest me at all, im only interested in his fights and i think most people are the same.

 

They'd be saying that hes ducking Charlie Burley

 

this.

and everyone would be calling him a hype job.

 

It was whispered back then...Though young then, I would read of Robinson not fighting Burley...Not like today, in a more sensitive age...And no internet then also...

 

Wildly rampant speculation is required to reply to this question, with infinite myriad variables, but I'll take a stab.

The way he was written about during the early 1940s makes it clear he was recognized as a very special talent from the get go. (The initial hype about Breland was comparable.) In an internet scenario, he likely gets Angott for the lightweight title late in his second or early in his third year of competition. He might defend that LW crown against Pep after Willie gets to the top at 126, and before Ray elevates himself toward 147. Robinson and Pep, not Burley, were the recognized phenoms of their day, each soaring way over 100 wins before sustaining their second defeats.

For what seemed a very long time before he actually won the middleweight title, many boxing publications rated Hagler as the best in the division, the only non champion of the era to enjoy that distinction, and this in the only weight class where the titleholder was officially undisputed! By the standards of the late 1970s, Robinson's time in the wilderness as an uncrowned champion would have seemed an eternity, and far too intolerable under cyberspace pressure to be sustained for long.

Burley? He already had ten defeats on his record when Robby finally did become the WW titleholder at 74-1-1 in December 1946, and was really a middleweight, like the rest of Murderers Row. Charley never competed under 147 during Ray's professional career. LaMotta and the light hitting Vic Dellicurti were the only full sized middleweights SRR routinely tussled with during the first five years of his career. Burley was candid enough to admit he would have wanted no part of Robinson had he himself been in the position of a defending champion. Charley, was heavier, older, and a harder hitter than LaMotta. Was it sensible to expect Ray to accept him as an appropriate opponent? Sky high risk, low reward. Beating LaMotta four out of five times by September 1945 did not advance his career with the dispatch that it should have, and he had to wait well over a year before finally getting the title at 147.

As for Murderers Row, I don't think their existence affects Robby so much as it does Zale and the middleweight title during the 1940s. In NYC, Nat Fleischer was the gatekeeper to public recognition at this time, and California's Murderers Row was not to be found in his annual record book and encyclopedia, except as opponents of his deemed headliners. The internet would usurp his near monopoly on who enjoyed high profile visibility. Through the formative years of Robinson's career, Ray fought often at MSG, even having his professional debut there after winning the 1939 Golden Gloves in the same venue. Burley only got to NYC once and then at St. Nicolas Arena. (This would be the match Burt has talked about missing out on watching with his father.) Madison Square Garden was the place to be, and Burley wasn't there.

Of greater interest to me regarding Burley is what might have happened had he been born 20 years earlier. Would Pittsburgh have been big enough to contain both Charley and Harry Greb?:bbb (Another Pittsburgher of his own age and era who somehow never crossed paths with Burley was Billy Conn. Yet we never hear about that, just Robinson and Burley, it seems.)

 

They would ***** about how the era is so weak, when will he stop fighting bums, and he's ducking such and such.

 

they'd bitcha bout the weak era
they'd ***** about him not fighting burley
then when he lost to lamotta he'd be a hype job exposed by a slow footed white man ala when jermain taylor lost to kelly pavlick

 

I dont know, I think everyone would be praising him to be honest.

How could you avoid the fact that he is fighting the greatest fighters out there 7 days apart?

He fought 3 fights in 21 days. The first was his loss to Lamotta, his third, was his rematch win. He would go to Europe and fight five people in one week and knock em all out. His personality was very favorable towards television.

And the key attribute: He was knocking people out left and right in beautiful fashion



Who would criticize him? They would be considered trolls right away.

 

i know one thing for sure is we would have all of his fights somehow

 

Some of his close and controversial wins, might get a lot more attention though, wouldnt they?

 

Im sure there would be the normal guys going on about ducking.Picking instances in single fights that might prove he is chinny/vulnerable to a certain type of fighter etc etc
On a more serious note it would give Ray access to seeing his future opponents in some detail..No suprises for him then and since SRR never lost a rematch in anything like his prime I see even few losses on his record

 

He would have also been accused of ducking Pacquiao for demanding a comprehensive PED check.