Anyone else watched this documentary? It had dundee, la motta, burt sugar and mel dick talking about him. It also highlighted some of his greatest filmed performances. It was only half an hour long but after watching that it's difficult arguing against him as number 1. I usually have him in my goat group (fitz, greb and robinson are my choice for goat) the reason I never had robinson a standout is because I felt fitz achieved more and greb had a better resume, after watching this great piece though i'm reconsidering. Thoughts about this documentary and or the career of sugar ray?
interesting that you have fitz in that grouping instead of langford or amstrong :think not knocking it, just not typically seen in the top tier not seen the doc but sounds worth a look. i think robinson is one of the handfull of guys that has an argument for the very best.
I read his bio, Sweet Thunder, and judging by that, living in Harlem at that time, especially if you were a boxing (and perhaps jazz) fan, it would have been magic. I don't know enough about Greb or Fitzsimmons to comment, but Robinson had a superb career. LaMotta x5, Basilio, Fullmer, Graziano, Bell, Gavilan, Turpin. On another note - I'd recommend the book highly, brilliant read.
From 1891 until 1904 he was p4p unbeatable. P4p rankings weren't arounded back then but over this 13 year stretch it's hard imagining who'd rank above him. He lost to a 200 pound man, twice but one of those times he would have scored a tko under modern refereeing. For me he achieved more than any other fighter in history. Hank and sam make up my top 5. The documentary is amazing and only thirty minutes long as well.
