What made SRR one-of-a-kind?

I think its SRR ability to adapt to any situation in the ring.

SRR fights as if he was born in the ring, like his life belonged in there. When something bad happens to you in life, you either sort it out or let it destroy you

SRR had a great ability to sort **** out in the ring, and destroy his opponent before it happened to him

 

I don't think that much to his defense either

 

If you asked me to grade Robinson on all the aspects of a great fighter ie handspeed, punching power, chin, heart, etc etc you know all the areas - say out of 10 or whatever - he probably going to be the only one I would scored straight 10's for in all areas I think

 

defense i think would be lower than 10, his only attribute in the ring that wasnt so amazing.

 

Well his defense is something i'd agree on more so than his jab. Some fighters' only real form of defense was offense, guys like Hearns. So yeah, i'd agree on that. The thing is though, it's such a small weakness we're talking here. When we talk weaknesses of fighters it's usually something that puts them in danger of losing. Sugar Ray Robinson didn't have a great defense, but the probability of that making for a loss for him was very very low.

 

I'd like to throw Ray's personality in for consideration, J. A pride/ego/intelligence that made losing unthinkable, something other people did.

 

Mean as hell...

 

His style... Nobody really did exactly what he did in and out of his peak..

 

A more open defense is always a weakness and maybe what allowed faster slicker types like Galivan/Bell to have their success or the problems with Lamotta. Robinson would have been even more dominant if he worked on being slippery, picked his punches, fought on the back foot. But wouldn't likely have made it to being a super star at all back then, ala Charles Burley

 

I just think it's speculation though PP. If you look at the ratio of fights where it was a weakness leading to a loss:to ones where it didn't, then we're talking silly numbers. That's the thing, i'm not nut-hugging but when it comes to Robinson, people have to clutch onto straws when it comes to his weaknesses, because if you compare him to other fighters who had weknesses, they actually led to losses for most of those fighters, enough times to result in a ratio we can draw conclusions on in terms of a real problematic weakness. Robinson doesn't have a great defense, and it must be the hardest weakness to take advantage of in the history of boxing, maybe a couple of exceptions or so.

He wasn't great defensively, but i just think we're throwing the weakness word around a bit too much tbh.

 

It sounds silly but I will say it anyway. aside from all the picture perfect ringcraft, speed power and durability his vanity and his heart realy made him one of a kind. He always put on a show, in a fight he posed like he was having his photo taken and must have been obsessed with being stylish about evrything he did. he just would not be out done. It made him always want to fire back with two extra shots than he was hit with.

 

* He carried the bags of amateur star Joe Louis. His own amateur career was second to none. Twenty years later, Louis would crown him the greatest he had ever seen.

* Spinning around in his head were tricks he learned from no less than Harry Wills and Kid Norfolk at Grupp's Gym in NYC. You see the influence of both -grace and balance, and ferocity. These were apparent very, very early.

** He came out of the gate wanting to emulate Henry Armstrong. His first professional bout was on the undercard of the Zivic-Armstrong title fight. His idol was bludgeoned and lost his title. That was October. The following October, he avenged Armstrong by defeating the very formidable Fritzie Zivic and forced Zivic to concede his greatness. He began to eclipse his idol shockingly early.

*** And that wasn't all in that startling first twelve months. He defeated undefeated seasoned professionals, whipped tough guys from Philly who had never been stopped before, guys with over a 100 more fights than him, he defeated a former world WW champ, a future world WW champ, a current world LW champ --including 2 Hall of Famers. And that was his first year.

What made him one of kind? He was a transcendent fighter who rose higher than not only his idols, but the shining standards that he himself set.

His weaknesses weren't weaknesses -they were less perfect that the rest of his game.

He was stopped once in a 25 year, 200 fight career -and you know what he said afterwards while in a state of delirium?

"God beat me!"

---and he was right. That's damn near what it took.

 

I'm going into a new verbosity phase, JG...

Mean as hell...and then some.

 

He had everything a fighter needs to be great, very complete, no weaknesses & he did most things better than good.

To have KO power in both hands + the ability to box & move the way he did was rare & he could fight his ass off too when it got rough.

The greatest p4p fighter that ever lived, Ray Robinson.