What made SRR one-of-a-kind?

blistering hand speed for one.

 

Genetics, hard training (I presume), hunger to succeed, a great trainer and gym and gym partners and great technique. Height/rangyness at the weights he fought at helped him plenty too. Dancing also goes hand in hand with boxing, the best dancers will typically have the best footwork

I don't think he's 1 of a kind though, I think Ali, Leonard, Hearns, Jones were his natural successors despite not being stylistically quite the same and are not necessarily worse than him

 

a combination of attributes like powerpuncher said. his hunger to succeed had him questioning George Gainford about boxing's details contstantly. Also the fact that he saw Joe Louis coming up did a lot for his belief in himself. he saw Joe and all of his success and thought that they had similar upbringings, why couldn't he do it if Joe did it.

he was tough, great balance and combination punching, great rythm, great footwork, and always a student.

 

Besides his obvious combinations of unparalled handspeed and power, Ray had the greatest ego to surpass every fighter in his looks, and his desire
to be Uno Umo...At his best he traveled with an entourage befitting a
Kingdom...And he had to live up to that image in the Ring, and outside...Ray was lord of HIS domain !

 

0 weaknesses

 

I guess because he had every tool mentally as well as physically and could do everything to a very high standard. I can't really think of another fighter I can say the same about.
There've been fighters who were a bit more slick, a bit more powerful, a bit faster and so on but as the poster above said Robinson didn't have any weaknesses at all.

 

Robinson.

Balance: Always ready to punch.
Movement: Always in position to punch or defend.
Timing: Threw the right punch at the right time.
Smarts: Knew the fighter he was up against and fought him accordingly.
Power: Either hand.
Speed: No question.
Countering: Knew what was coming and choose the right punch.
Skills: Technicially sound. Jab, combinations, defense when he really needed it.
Guts and Grit: fought it out with A-1 fighters
Longevity: Breaking necks well after 30

 

I think there was an element in which he was ahead of his time. I've seen several commentators note that he was one of the first fighters they ever saw who'd implement detailed long-term fight strategies, planning way ahead, deliberately doing things in the first few rounds (working the body, or systematically taking out an opponent's danger weapon) that he'd figured out would pay off eight or nine rounds later. We take a high degree of strategic thinking for granted today, but it probably wasn't quite as high back then.

Ego probably played a part, too; a number of people have said he was arrogant or verging on it. Sometimes that kind of ego can count against you (such as when someone does something to shatter a fighter's previously impregnable confidence), but if it's coupled with world-class stubborn-ness, it might force you to persevere when the majority of others would have given up.

 

What strikes me with Robinson is that he more than any fighter I've seen resembles a tiger in there.

Contrary to male lions, who are warriors foremost, tigers are killers more than anything else. They are lusting for the taste of blood, but as solitary animals they know that they can't chance an injury, so they wait for their opening and when they get it not a tenth of a second is wasted. They're as ruthless and effective as they are vicious in quickly and brutally submitting and killing their prey. It's violent and furious, but still nothing is left to chance.

That's often the feeling I get when I see Robinson fight, and no other fighter gives me that feeling in the same way.

 

Yes burt and hagler, his calculated pace, coupled with his supreme confidence in his own abillity is what i was thinking.

But the answer you're looking for Mr Garfield, is his DNA. His DNA made him unique like it does you, or I

 

his only weakness that i have seen is his left jab