There has been a lotta matchups with him and Burley, but CK was a WW and its the other guy of the murderers row that Robinson "should have fought." Plus CK dropped Robinson in sparring. So, at WW in a 3 fight series, how would these fights go? I think its not impossible that CK wins at least of these fights.
I heard Kid knocked him down, I didn't hear anything about him breaking Robbi's ribs. Where do you get that?
Stonehands article mentioned it, I think. Maybe I'm getting mixed up, coulda been Tiger Wade who did that, But CK did knock him down during sparring. Edit: Yeah It was Tiger Wade who "separated Robinson’s sixth and seventh ribs during a session in 1948. Inactive and thirty-six years old, Cocoa Kid dropped a peaking Sugar Ray with an overhand right in the gym during the summer of 1949." My mistake.
Despite the knockdown in sparring, Cocoa Kid would not have beaten him in the late 40s. He was quite debilitated by then and in terms of experience, he was way past the point of diminishing returns. I'm pretty convinced that he hit his peak in 1940 and although he had many good ones after that, including a few surprises late, he had slowed down remarkably after dozens and dozens of the kinds of fights that we watch Ward/Gatti do a few times and make a legend out of him. Early in Robinson's career would be when Cocoa Kid could have and probably would have, gotten to him.
Let's say they both met in their primes at WW. 1940 CK vs. 1948 SRR, would you say Robinson would have completely dominated him? The sparring story is interesting because Cocoa Kid was old, while Robinson had just passed his peak but was still better than everyone else, he beat Kid Gavilan easily in 1949 too.
Gavilan had similar dimensions and a similar style to Cocoa Kid, though Cocoa Kid had a harder punch, particularly that right. Robinson had his hands full with Gavilan, and I think he would with CK too. Cocoa seemed to struggle with a different style than Robinson's. He had a tough time with the crouching crowders who made a brawl out of it. Remember that Holman Williams was a boxer-puncher before his hand problems and Cocoa Kid handled him -at times with ease. That tells me that Robinson may have had more problems with him than people think.
Slakka has said that SRR never actually really struggled with Gavilan, he only made it appear that he did in the first fight, to create interest in a title bout in 1949. But I definetly think Sugar would have problems with Cocoa Kid, he wasn't easily beaten. http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=333854
Is the article still up on tss? Read the first few parts but got sidetracked, was hoping to find out more about Cocoa Kids style, resume, the fixes etc etc
