Linked the entire 3 round fight with Graziano. Most everyone agrees this guy was if not the greatest p4p one of the top three or four. Like most things, it's never one thing that makes a fighter great. You could say a guy has a great chin, a great right hand; or a guy has a killer left hook or hand speed rivaled by few; but when you start piling up attributes like these that's when you get into the territory of true greatness... In this fight with Graziano, Ray is a master at the game of distance. He stays just out of Rocky's reach, circling surprisingly enough to Rocky's right, toward his right hand; but his arc, just at the end of Rcoky's lunge. Also I am once again in awe of Robinson's left hand. Does anybody hook off the jab as well? Double, triple hook off the jab?! Here, he uses his left almost exclusively until he lulls Rocky into expecting yet another left and he gives him one at a little past 8:00, a token, set up hook, positioning Rocky into the ropes. Then comes back with a right, another left to stretch Rocky out, then a payoff KO right hand that's one for the highlight reels. Sweet indeed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2PC5It1HI
Another camera angle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XtjkDJtdrU The way it was with Robinson and Graziano commentating on their fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcHq2b2EWqM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iCB5zTNeA8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtClCZsAiP4
Thoroughly enjoyed those links GreatA, thanks! Yeah, Pete, Ray was all wrong for Rocky. But Ray was all wrong for alotta guys.
You gotta look for a while to find a better example of a boxer frustrating a stalker primarily with movement. Ray senses when Rocky's ripe for finishing, the combination that does it is not all that miraculous, pretty simple really. But the dismantling had already been done, mostly through elusiveness.
Robinson is great as he was so naturally gifted and worked hard. He had everything. Every punch in the book, pefect ring generalship, perfect speed, super quick power, lots of it footwork, perfect only thing he lacked was a great defence but he had excellant reflexes and a great offence that covered for it, He is the most complete fighter ever!
I liked how Ray just lined him up, patiently took him apart and then ended it with a mouthpiece-popping bomb. Great KO.
Thanks for this, Id seen it before but not for a while & from the different camera angle. Anyone that doesnt have Robinson top of their p4p list is in need of a lie down :dead
Speed, Power, Accuracy, Athletecism. No other fighter in the history of the sport illustrated all of the qualities that made Robinson the fighter he was. Only, Ali, Armstrong, maybe a prime Roy Jones Jr and maybe Floyd Mayweather Jr, if he fights long enough can be mentioned in the same sentence as Robinson.
W.C. Heinz once related an interesting story about Robinson. "One afternoon I got to the gym early, and over in a big corner, in the half light, I saw Robinson working on the big bag. I stood there and marveled at his natural grace, the speed and fluidity with which he turned on his variety of combinations. It seemed to me that at the age of thirty he looked better than ever, and then he stopped and turned around. It was Johnny Saxton. . .
Any left hand aficionados like to illuminate on Ray's rapid fire hook uppercut? He sure seemed to use it a lot, and in rapid succession, too.
When discussing Robinson's greatness, his heart is usually overlooked (as Ali's would have been had he never returned from exile). For a skinny guy like that to never be punched into a stoppage defeat despite competing into his middle 40s over a total of 300 amateur and professional contests suggests something beyond pure athleticism.