Basilio on Robinson "When he died.. I said, I don´t give a ****....."

I believe Robinson also demanded more money than originally agreed upon with Basilio and Carmen ended up giving Ray 5% more of his money so the fight could happen.

Normally fighters have a lot of friends in the community along with the odd enemy or two. Robinson seemed to have mostly people who didn't like him as a person with the odd friend or two. There has to be a reason for it.

 

"Dad nails mom with a combination!" - Ray Robinson Jr.

 

Ike told me that Robby was basically a condescending smartass. One time in passing SRR smugly quipped "Hey ugly", to which Ike let him know he could "Kiss ugly's ass". Ike would get really pissed and indignant when relaying that story to me. He respected Ray as a fighter and admitted he didn't want anything to do with him in the ring. But outside of it he had a problem with his attitude.

 

I remember an article by Nat Fleischer in Ring in the late fifties profiling Robinson, and he made the point that in Harlem, where they knew Robinson best, there were lots of folks rooting for Basilio or anybody else to beat him.

 

Doesn't surprise me all that much considering Ray managed to rub the majority of people the wrong way.

 

Well eh, the French liked him for taking care of LaMotta, after Jake beat Cerdan.

Pink Cadillac probably helped too.

So there's that.

 

SRR was the greatest ever and Carmen was a call it as you see it type of guy...Ray had an air about him deserving him so but both were great guys in there own way. Everybody makes mistakes and men slapped woman a lot more those days as a rule, does not make it right in fact I hate it but these days it is the woman who slap the men.

Both men respected each other inside the ring and that is where it counts

 

I can understand that and SRR was that way, he had an air of being special and he was. Robinson was a super star and just look at his record before the Turpin fight 128-1-1 and look at who he fought, Floyd, SRL are no match in resume especially longevity SRR was a much better fighter than they but guys like Ali, SRL and Floyd also have that air ...Basilio was a humble man that gave SRR all he could handle in 2 fights and fought through an injury, he was a great fighter and a humble PA potato farming Italian who was a proud but humble man but fearless and felt no man was above him nor did he look down on anyone but pulled no punches with fighters, the mob or anyone. In the ring he proved to be an equal to SRR but outside the ring SRR was a legend and a great and Humble was not a word he used in describing himself

 

It seems that Robinson had more than just a cocky attitude, like Ali, Leonard, and Floyd have. It speaks a lot that the people from where he grew up rooted against him every time he fought because they didn't like him.

It also speaks a lot that so few people liked Robinson as an actual person. Guys like Ali, Louis (also a wife beater), and Leonard had actual friends to go along with the people who just wanted to be seen with them. Robinson seemed to just have people that wanted to be around him because he was a superstar fighter.

Robinson must've had some good in him, but it was completely overshaddowed by him being a jackass pretty much 24/7 and being a notorious wife beater.

 

They probably swapped wife-beating stories.