Caught this on ESPN classics last night. Entertaining bout. It's great watching the subtle brilliance of some of the older fighters for someone like me who, admittedly, has not seen as many historical fights as I'd have liked. Has anyone seen any of the Fulmer Robinson bouts? Please discuss!
If I'm rembering right, Fullmer won the first and fourth fights by decision, Robinson won the second with the famous left hook, and the third was a draw. Fullmer was a hard guy, and his style and strength were a lot for an aging Sugar Ray to deal with. While you saw him backing up, jabbing, and then charging forward in spurts against Basilio, he was coming forward almost all the time against Robinson. He was hard to hit cleanly, and he mastered the tactic of coming forward to smother followup punches even when he did get hit. He had the energy to respond with intense flurries when Robinson could hit him, and Ray couldn't match the energy level. I think Fullmer at his best is a tough night for any middleweight.
I saw most of the Basilio-Fullmer-Robinson fights "live" on the Gillette Friday night fights as a kid. Robinson was on the backside of his career, still very good, but not supergreat as he had once been. Fullmer was too stong for Basillio who was really a welterweight with no true Jr. Middleweight class then to fight in. Fullmer and Robinson were very close fights, but Fullmer kinda bulled him around. A quote from Fullmer was "Basillio was really too small for him and when they fought Basillio got the worse for wear". Fullmer & Basilio respected each other. However, they both hated Robinson because of SRR's disdain for them.
Saw all four on TV at the time and have watched films of each since: 1. Fullmer completely dominates Robinson in their first fight. Robinson just couldn't keep Fullmer off. Fullmer pushed him around, knocks him down once-a second knockdown was ruled a slip-and cuts him up. Robinson appears to be merely trying to survive in later rounds. 2. Robinson looks much better, but Fullmer is doing all right until he runs into perhaps the greatest left hook in the history of the sport and takes the ten count in the fifth round. 3. A controversial draw in 1960. Many thought Robinson won and he certainly came up with a much better performance than his previous two fights with Pender. Watching the film, I must say I disagree. Robinson won through 11 rounds, having a great 11th, but Fullmer came on in the last four rounds. He started bouncing around and using his legs and the aging Robinson could not keep up. I scored it 8-6-1 for Fullmer, but others will quickly post to disagree, I am certain. 4. Robinson does well for two rounds. In the third, Fullmer catches Robinson with an overhand right which leaves Robinson helpless against the ropes. Fullmer proceeds to pound away on a practically helpless Robinson for the remainder of the round and for about 30 seconds after the bell, which apparently no one heard. From here on the fight is much like the first, with the stronger and younger Fullmer pushing Robinson into the ropes and piling up points. While I think he was rubbing a bit of salt into Robinson's wounds, Fullmer later wrote in Boxing Illustrated that he had in fact heard the bell in the third round, but as Robinson had screwed him in negotiations, why be a sportsman?
Good summaries "Old Fogey". We should of mentioned Don Dunphy as the announcer and the Gillette Parrot rotating around at the corner of the TV screen showing the number of the upcoming round.
Wasn't the first fight done by Johnny Powers. Now that is a name that no one remembers. Jack Drees did the second for Pabst Blue Ribbon on ABC. The last two were done with Dunphy and the Gillette Parrot. Nothing makes me more nostalgic than hearing that old Gillette song with the film of Pep and Saddler going at it to open the Friday Night fights. The good old days for me.
Excellent summaries of the Fullmer-Robinson series as I have seen them all. I remember watching the last two as a twelve year old kid. There was no cable TV where we lived so the picture wasn't the best as we relied on an antenna to receive the TV signal from a station 150 miles from where we lived. I still live in the same house today and with the advent of satellite dish TV have had the pleasure of seeing those memorable battles once again on ESPN Classic. I have also seen the first Fullmer-Basilio fight. I wish sometime that they would replay their second fight. Have any of you ever seen this one where Carmen lost his temper at the ref for stopping the fight in the 12th round? As a side note I went to the New York State Fair in Syracuse,NY in September 1959 with my Dad. They had a "Cavalcade of Boxing" tent set up on the grounds and we went in to check it out. Both Gene Fullmer and Carmen Basilio were there and we got to meet them both and shake hands. This was a week after their first fight in San Francisco. Gene brought Carmen a couple of new puppies which were hunting dogs as he knew that Carmen loved to hunt. Nat Fleisher,the editor of Ring magazine was there that day as well and did the interviewing.Those two fighters impressed a young kid that day very much and made a life long fight fan of me.
That's a good story DFW....Nice memories. I bet it's a pleasure to meet these two at the HOF gatherings.
I loved fullmer what a great all action fighter,he would be just as great today as he would be in any era