Which Light Heavyweights Could Ray Robinson Beat

Do you not agree with Moore beating Robinson?

 

Bobo Olson beat Joey Maxim twice, both before and after suffering back to back knockout losses to Robby. Olson dropped Joey twice in their first meeting.

In cooler temperatures, Maxim would certainly have picked up his pace considerably, but Robinson still would have decisioned him cleanly to take his title.

Robinson's intention was probably to retire after Maxim, win or lose. Ray wanted no part of Moore, and he wasn't going to go after former Maxim victim Walcott's heavyweight title. (Even if SRR had harbored that fantasy, Marciano's dethroning of Jersey Joe would have blown that notion to smithereens.)

Any light heavyweight champion Ray could outmaneuver was somebody he could outpoint. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad would have been too lazy to chase him down. When I think of how Vonzell Johnson used movement to elude and outscore Matthew Saad Muhammad, I can see 15 round veteran Robby finishing that job through the championship rounds. Mike Spinks used lateral movement to decision Qawi, and Ray had legs like mercury.

Hearns was no Robinson. Tommy suffered stoppage defeats at WW to SRL and devastating third round losses at MW to Hagler and Barkley. Nobody came close to doing this to Ray when he was competing at a world class level in those divisions.

 

Robinson wasn't that good a boxer. Not enough to win on points against the great light heavyweights, that's for sure. Foster, for example; he had a jab Robinson would be envious of, and that's in a pound-for-pound sense. Whether Robinson bulks up and slows himself down to reach 170lbs+ or stays at a lean 162 or 163, he ain't beating a 6ft 3in Foster who was a very clever fighter in his own right.

 

I really don't think he has.

I've always thought Robinson was a bit overrated as a middleweight; a step below Hagler and Monzon. He was the best welterweight ever; Moore was the second or third best light heavyweight ever.

Both are legends within their respective divisions but the size difference is massive; not height as they were both roughly the same, but build. Moore was just so much stronger and thicker set:

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If you've ever boxed before, you'll know that even though you might be quicker, more skilled and more agile than your attacker, when he's bigger and stronger than you it can be very tiring.

And this ain't a Carmen Basilio or Gene Fullmer Robinson's up against; apart from being bigger, stronger and harder hitting (the hardest hitting fighter Robinson fought was likely Rocky Graziano, who barely landed a punch) than anyone Robinson fought before by far, Moore is arguably the most intelligent as well.

Seven rounds maximum I'd give Robinson, honestly. Moore is just one step much too far.

 

Of course he was a very good boxer, I didn't mean he was 'that' good, I meant he wasn't that good as to outbox someone like Foster.

Foster was much more than just a lethal puncher.

 

Robinson was exceptional at every punch other than the jab due to his low setting, which would also allow a good modern jabber to outmatch him in that department, or someone with a good counter right hand. Hearns fits both nicely. In a fight, I'd expect Robinson to turn this fight into a brawl by the mid way point, with Hearns obliging, as he so liked to do, and Robinson's superior chin winning out. But if this were a boxing match, there's no way Robinson would get the better of Hearns or quite a few pure boxers.

 

double post

 

Foster had 'pound for pound' one of the best jabs of the 60's and into the early 70's. I agree as good as Robinson was as a boxer he wasn't quite good enough to beat Moore, Charles, and Foster. Those three were hardly slow, one dimensional, and clueless. A light-heavyweight who possessed average speed of hand and foot who never had much variation would fit the bill for a Robinson win at light-heavyweight. Not many of the great 175lb fighters fit the bill for him.

 

It all seems to be off the back of the Maxim fight. Robinson didn't even win!

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. It was an 'L' afterall. But Robinson was winning on points. Sometimes it's not about losing, it's about the way you lose.

If Robinson happened to get eaten alive by Maxim inside 5 rounds. Massacred. Then the chances of this thread being made would be more unlikely, for obvious reasons.

Would Robinson have beaten Maxim if it wasn't a warm evening? Probably. But he never won. However, he competed well and was winning the fight until he retired on his stool.

Another night against other great light-heavyweights and Robinson would not have retired on his stool due to heat exhaustion. And it's only natural to think that way. Nobody makes predictions on here like "Duran would got stopped by Hopkins due to the heat"

But all that said, your right. He lost the fight.

 

To the contrary SRR actually invited Moore and his wife around to his house for dinner before offering Archie a fight against himself for Moore's 175 title. Archie didn't like that they couldn't come to terms on his theater television idea's. Robinson wasn't posturing either, it was a serious offer but Moore stood his ground (fair enough too) and rematched Durelle for half the money.

 

That he did, but Hearns' skinny build welcomed the extra weight - Robinsons slender, but perfectly balanced build was made for his natural weight; extra weight would have caused a dip in speed, stamina and explosiveness.

Still, Hearn's was not fighting a Billy Conn or Ezzard Charles. Likewise, those fighters would of assassinated 'the hitman'.