do you give Joey Maxim credit for stopping Ray Robinson

Agreed. I've always thought it was interesting that he never again challenged for the light heavyweight title. It seems as though he would if it was just heat exhaustion.

 

Never said Ray Robinson wasn’t the greatest.

The fact is it was hot. The fact is one guy adapted to it and the other guy didn’t.

The fact is Maxim won and Ray lost.

And the fact is, as @SwarmingSlugger pointed out, Robinson never, ever again tested the deeper waters at light heavy. He never said ‘let’s put it in an air-conditioned building and I’ll show you I can be the best at 175.’

None of that can be disputed.

 

Agreed, it just seems as if it was JUST the heat he would have tried for it again, but he didn't. Duran for example came close to dethroning Hagler but he went back to middleweight and won a piece of it from Barkley. Ray never tried again, even though he fought for another 13 years.

 

Good. I'm glad you also feel that way.
SRR doesn't get enough credit these days.

But here is where we disagree. It's not that Maxim adapted to the heat better, IMO he simply didn't have to. Being the bigger guy, he didn't have to be as active as the smaller guy, SRR, who had to do that in order to win. SRR simply couldn't try to brawl it out with the bigger man, he had to be more active, hit him more, whether to outpoint him or to inflict damage.

I agree he never did that again, but remember that he retired after the Maxim fight.
When he came back, he was no longer quite as good, and taking on the LHW champ would be too much of an ask.