Recently whilst scrolling through youtube i found this "relic" of boxing, an 1080p upscaled highlight video of the supposed third bout between Sammy Angott and Sugar Ray Robinson, where we see the GOAT (title bestowed upon by many) in his best weight against one of his best opponents I'd like to know what are the thoughts of this forum about these highlights, is this really Ray in his prime? is this his best filmed performance? or does he look to reckless? or is he too young and green? Thank you in advance if you do respond This content is protected
That fight is generally reported to be his 3rd fight w/ Angott, so yes, he was in his prime & was no longer green by then. If he looks "reckless" in that footage, it's b/c he was fighting a naturally smaller opponent & had no inhibitions about just letting his hands fly. in general, Ray was more aggressive & looked to overpower opponents as a ww. as he moved up in weight & faced larger opposition, he made increasingly more use of his footwork & long range boxing skill. some other footage of Ray in his prime: This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected IMO, this footage provides the best glimpse of his prime form, even though it's barely 2 mins long: This content is protected
This footage,somehow made me think again about the Montreal Duran matchup, it's just the highlights but Angott doesn't seem to be in trouble at all..
I recall reading a quote by Robinson where he says something along the lines of; “I could box as good as anybody, but if I did it would be boring.” I’m curious if anyone can locate that quote, but it does show in his performances. Robinson could get away with being reckless because he had the reflexes to recover his guard or roll and duck from punches in time on top of being a very dangerous counter puncher. After being countered painfully while trying to counter Robinson, you’ll lose some motivation trying to catch him when he’s reckless.
When the much shorter opponent fights at a distance, it's like shooting fish in a barrel for the taller, more rangy guy. SRR does not look reckless, he just looks like a fighter who has little to worry about from his opponent. Angott either doesn't know how to, doesn't want to, or couldn't get to SRR and fight on the inside. Of course this is just a highlight video, Angott might have fought a different fight in the footage that is not seen.
