Ray Robinson gives a beating to game journeyman Tony Riccio

He was somethin else.

 

I really enjoyed that. Bobby Dykes looked good, fast hands! He was the last guy my father signed to fight, though the fight was canceled when they discovered that my dad had a dead right kidney. It was estimated it had been dead for about ten years, throughout his fight career, an old football injury.

 

That's the kind of story which is only boxing folklore in today's day and age.

On the video, thanks you a lot GreatA, look how good he was, it's silly. When you say fighting Ray Robinson would be like being trapped in a tornado, well just look at that and it's comical. No didrespect to the opponent though.

 

Yeah T, so much of what those guys did would be folklore today, right? Like how often they fought, as much as a few times a month, how many fights they tallied in a career, fighting with broken bones and so on. Many say that they were just tougher and maybe that's true, but could be it wasn't mindful. That they were just handling the situations they were presented with, which I guess did make them tougher in the end.

 

them old timers were tough as hell

 

Defo Chinx, legends, just legends, can't put it any other way

 

Yeah, I agree. But maybe it's because for so many of them life itself was tough as hell. They came up through the Depression, everybody was broke. Well at least the families that were likely to produce a prizefighter were broke. WWII killed what, a few hundred thousand Americans, and Britain I'm sure lost more military and lost many civilians too, it was a harder life. Maybe guys your generation Greg would be just as tough, if they had to be.

 

Can't say they were better off though, T. A ****in' hard life it was, and I just saw the ramifications, the tail end of it. **** it, those dues are heavy. Guys I'd seen around when i was a kid. Guys like Fritzie and Billy Conn and so many of the also rans who were just as tough but maybe not as blessed or even as lucky would have traded it all for a college education and a life in the suburbs.

 

yeh definitly but its not all how you grew up.

I come from an alright family (money wise) nothing had been too tough you know. But i reckon im as hungry as some guy fighting to get outt of poverty cause i love the sort and im choosing to do it. If you get me.

 

No, you're right. I mean, I got to know a lot of the guys my father grew up with and not all of them were tough guys. We're talking generalizations here. Desire is what it's all about, right? However you come by it!

 

yeh theres not going to be as much great fighters in a rich time but poor time you get them

 

I know, i'm just looking in admiration at them but i totally understand, even though i can't really

 

I wonder, I don't know but maybe you do, how many of these great fighters had other options going for them? I bet it's more than we would think. Great fighters that didn't go into the ring due to extreme poverty...

 

dont get me wrong every great fighter must love boxing but the hard life probably makes boxing more appealing to them from a younger age.

Look at Duran a real poor kid who fought for the money supposedly but couldnt quit as he loved boxing so much

Now a kid has a lot more options.