Top 100 Middleweights

[Ambling Alp II]

Robinson was better than the great Henry Armstrong. End of story.

[elmersalsa]

Robinson was better than the great Henry Armstrong. End of story.

Not in many peoples view.

[Ambling Alp II]

I thought if you said "end of story" after stating your opinion that the discussion was supposed to be over. This is very confusing elmer.

[Kalan]

Quote from the octogenarian Futch. " Ray Robinson did things in a ring I've never seen before or since"

Yeah... Like get his ass cleaned up by Ralph Jones who was a huge underdog... Jones LOST his 5 previous fights in a row before pounding the daylights out of a 33-year-old Robinson... Eddie Futch never saw anything like that again ... because Robinson refused all offers of a rematch with the quick fisted Jones.

The body banging underdog gave the Sugar Man a going over -- chasing SRR from ring post to ring post for 10 rounds and smacking him around

[klompton]

Lol. Robinson had ONE fight in the past 3 years, that fight was two weeks before the Jones fight. I think we can agree thats not indicative of the best Robinson had to offer.

[Kalan]

Now you are blatantly LYING Elmer [elmersala]. Just a couple of weeks ago I posted a highlight clip of Robinson, which clearly showed him fighting on both the inside and out. Perhaps you just need glasses, eh?

I guarantee that wasn't vs Ralph Jones or anyone with a strong inside game and body attack... Anybody can throw body shots at incompetent infighters.

[Kalan]

Only in the eyes of an unbelievably stupid idiot like you fool.

Sugar Ray Leonard was off for 3 straight years and came back and beat Marvin Hagler, having never fought at Middleweight before... He didn't have ANY warm up fights and didn't need excuses... Vitali Klitschko was off for 4 years to rehab his legs and came back at age 37, and fought his FIRST fight back for the Heavyweight Championship of the World -- with NO warm up fights... He didn't need excuses because he was super sharp and beat a guy who was 30-1, and only beaten by Wladimir Klitschko before, but was never stopped, and knocked Wlad down 3 X... Vitali wins super easy by KO.

So Robinson refuses a rematch with Joey Maxim after running out of gas in the heat (BTW, it was just as hot that night for Joey Maxim) and he finally comes back a mere 2 and a half years later and has a warm-up fight... Then for his next fight he picks a guy coming off of 5 straight losses and gets his ass beat bad.

What really happened is Robinson finally fought somebody with some inside fighting skills and got driven from ring post to ring post running like a dog...

[elmersalsa]

Of what I have seen of the great Sugar Ray Robinson, I have never seen him fight inside in none of his clips available on film.

I'm not saying he was not good nor complete. I am saying that he wasn't the most gifted or complete fighter ever that the American public or media portrayed him to be.

I have seen many great boxers. And I have seen many of them that in my view, were more gifted and complete than the original Sugar Ray.

[Kalan]

Robinson was a great fighter -- even an ATG fighter. Just not close to the best ever.

I used to root for him from the time I was 5 when he fought on TV, along with Charles, Moore, Pep, Patterson, Moyer, Marciano, Giardello and many others... Boxing was on TV 3 nights a week when I was in grade school and you could see some pretty decent fights. It was all black and white with no instant replay or any of the great camera angles. There was generally one announcer giving his take and not the 4 different voices looking to fill any dead air space. It's interesting that Boxing has so much more to offer the viewer technologically today---and there're many more title fights and boxers fighting around the world---but the action isn't brought to the public as could easily happen.

Robinson did jab and move a lot, but he was a brawler more than a boxer. He had an Arturo Gatti style and got hit a lot. He had a much stronger chin than Gatti of course. He got decked hard a few times, but would shake it off quickly. He was really tough and didn't cut easily, but did suffer some cuts. They would close them up and keep going. He was very charismatic.

In those days if you were wobbly after a knockdown? "TIME IN!!" ... Knocked out??? “Take a few days rest. We have another fight for you on the 24th."

Boxers could lose in those days and it wasn't catastrophic like it is today. It wasn’t a bigger deal than if the Yankees, Dodgers, or Giants lost. In a month or 2 -- or maybe 2 weeks there'd be a rematch. People were looking forward to Robinson’s rematch with Ralph Jones. SRR was too smart for that.

[Ambling Alp II]

Of what I have seen of the great Sugar Ray Robinson, I have never seen him fight inside in none of his clips available on film.

I'm not saying he was not good nor complete. I am saying that he wasn't the most gifted or complete fighter ever that the American public or media portrayed him to be.

I have seen many great boxers. And I have seen many of them that in my view, were more gifted and complete than the original Sugar Ray.

One thing to take into consideration is that most of the footage of him is when he was well past best. And he was able to fight inside, though obviously that wasn't something he needed to be doing when he was younger and had that speed and reflexes.

[Kalan]

One thing to take into consideration is that most of the footage of him is when he was well past best. And he was able to fight inside, though obviously that wasn't something he needed to be doing when he was younger and had that speed and reflexes.

WAIT a minute... You don't need to fight inside if you have speed and reflexes??? GTFO!!!

Salvador Sanchez had speed and reflexes well beyond anything Robinson ever displayed as a Welterweight... Sanchez fought slick infighter Wilfredo Gomez who was undefeated in 33 fights... He beat the shorter Gomez inside, outside, upside and downside and knocked him out in a few rounds... Speedy reflexes helped Sal everywhere. Robinson got hammered non-stop by Ralph Jones because he COULDN'T fight inside. What you're calling infighting is unskilled brawling.