Flaws of robinson?

Rocky Marciano had 49 fights, not 130 odd. Marciano was also not a boxer-puncher. He also never beat anyone on the level of Gavilan.

 

Whatever. Gavilan was head and shoulders above anyone else on Robinson's resume during the 1940s (and both fights were competitive, not a walk in the park for Robinson). But it's not like he was meeting prime Langford, Gans, Leonard and McFarland in those 100 something fights that winning almost all of them is supposed to mean that much.

 

Oh, go on. Who are you thinking of there?

 

Taller jabber Maxim,taller jabber /puncher Costner. Jabber /puncher with longer reachTurpin.

 

It's not always true, but it certainly isn't uncommon for a taller skilled fighter to give a smaller fighter with less reach some trouble, especially if the smaller fighter, isn't a swamer.

 

Gavilan came in at 5 on our ATG 147 list. There's other good guys in there too.

I remember you used to harp on about RJJ being the best ever for years. Who did he beat on the level of your list?

 

RJJ showed fewer flaws during the 1990s, than Robinson in the 1940s, if you want to return to the subject. Regardless, using general numeric stats to prove any points regarding styles and match-ups is pretty silly. I recall a thread about Canzoneri-Hatton match up, how many people (beside myself) even tried to find bouts of Canzoneri where his opponents had a style similar to Hatton? An obvious thing that has to be done before anything else. Nobody cared, Canzoneri is greater, he has such immense record, he has seen all styles, and must have been eating swarmers for breakfast, they been saying.

From what I've read of Robinson's fights in the 1940s, fighters that pressured him non-stop gave him the most trouble, not the cautious, tall boxers with jab.

 

Some are trying really hard here, fact is he was great!

 

The weakest part of his game was defense although it is better than most talk about. Just because a guy isn't slipping punches like Ali doesn't mean his defense is bad. There are several subtleties that fighters have that they use as defense. They use "traps" so to speak. Offense is the best defense is the best way you can describe it. Robinson would make you pay if you left yourself open against him. THAT is the best way to describe it. As far as offense goes he had a weakness for swarmers like Lamotta but who doesn't? Most guys fold under pressure.