BoxRec

In 1955 Ralph 'Tiger' Jones became only the third man to beat the great Sugar Ray Robinson.

Does anyone here have information on this fight or have even seen it? Was Ray just having an off night? Or was it just a style thing? Was it a fair decision?

Any information fight fans?

I think Robinson was a bit rusty perhaps but Ray often had trouble with brawlers, especially in the latter part of his career. Jones mixed with lots of the top fighters and was unlucky not to get a title shot... especially after beating Robinson like he did.

I think this fight exists on tape, although I don't remember having seen it.

I think i saw the fight on the classic sports channel before espn took it over and f'd it up. Never taped it though.

I think I may have a copy, or at least a partial copy, of this fight. From what I have raed, and from what a friend who saw it when it happened told me, Jones was a stong tough physical middleweight and maybe not the most cerebral of fighter. That as it turned out, worked in his favor; he didn't fail for SRR's feints and motion and traps. He simply punched through them

..i saw the fight in live home tv and remember it well...and as a matter of fact in going through some of my old boxing notes just the other day i came across my comments on it as i watched....round by round. Tiger jones had made a career of giving good fighters tough fights and winning now and then....not a great puncher but always moved forward, threw a ton of piunches and was very durable. i had seen him several times before this fight....the tv fight producers loved him because his fights were always full of action and also usually went the distance...so the commercials all got in. if there had been punch stats then, his fight with gavilan would have caused it to blow a fuse.

back to the fight in question....the sugar man was coming back from a long layoff....was rusty...and was past his prime even then...and i know he kept wining the title back after that....but jones was just too strong, to relentless and always in good condition and these were just the qualities that made him all wrong for robinson a this time in his career.
for example, one note i made for round six was "robinson cold... a puncher
would flatten hjim" and in another "good combos by srr but have no effect on jones...takes them and answers with his own."


even at that i had it scored closer than the judges did...one judge 98-89, one 99-94 and the referee 100-88 all for jones. i had it jones 97-robinson 94...and there were a few sports writers who had it my way...but all agreed that jones won.

also...on the basis of this fight, i didn't think robinson would ever be champion again.

later on the comeback trail he foght johnny lombardo in cincinnati...a medicore journeyman and though sugar won, he didn't look much better.

Jaclem

Great post, many thanks, I appreciate it.

..the ten point must system was used on that fight.

kojoe....you're most welcome. glad you feel you got something from it.

Jaclem wrote:..the ten point must system was used on that fight.

kojoe....you're most welcome. glad you feel you got something from it.

Did you see any of the Gavilan vs Jones fights live?... I have the first one on tape.

silkov..i remember seeing gavilan/jones on I live tv.....don't recall the others...and didn't even remember they fought again until your question so i'm certain i didn't see them.

tell me, does the fight you have on tape have the number of exhanges i recall or have they increased mostly in my mind after so many years of watching it?

as i said, i saw jones a lot. though he was not a huge puncher i rememebr when he fought bobby dykes and dykes was outpointing him i recall telling the friends i saw it with that jones would get to him eventualy and knock him out....which he did. i have no idea why i was so sure of that at the time..as dykes was good and ..again...jones not a kayo fighter...but there was just something in the early rounds that made me feel jones would do it. i guess sometimes hunches can outweigh stats.

Jaclem wrote:silkov..i remember seeing gavilan/jones on I live tv.....don't recall the others...and didn't even remember they fought again until your question so i'm certain i didn't see them.

tell me, does the fight you have on tape have the number of exhanges i recall or have they increased mostly in my mind after so many years of watching it?

as i said, i saw jones a lot. though he was not a huge puncher i rememebr when he fought bobby dykes and dykes was outpointing him i recall telling the friends i saw it with that jones would get to him eventualy and knock him out....which he did. i have no idea why i was so sure of that at the time..as dykes was good and ..again...jones not a kayo fighter...but there was just something in the early rounds that made me feel jones would do it. i guess sometimes hunches can outweigh stats.

Yes they have a lot of toe to toe exchanges... its a great fight!. Gavilan does the trick of going into the corner and then fighting his way out.
I'd love to have more on both these guys but there fights are hard to come by. Mind you both of them were on TV a heck of a lot so lots of their fights must be out there somewhere. I have Gavilan vs Graham 1, Basilo and Womber.... did you see any of these?.
Gavilan is one of my favourites...

I love watching Graham and Gavilan fight. You tell somebody thatthey each had over 100 wins and less than 30 kos and he'd sneer at you...what fights.

jaclem, is there film of gavilan- robinson?? if so i would love to watch it

..there may be film of robinson/gavilan...but, alas....as far as i know and i have never heard of any of either fight existing.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:is there film of gavilan- robinson??

I am sure there are a few VERY rare highlights around on tape.

http://www.antekprizering.com/robinson417t.jpeg
Jones vs Robinson.

tiredoldngrey wrote:I love watching Graham and Gavilan fight. You tell somebody thatthey each had over 100 wins and less than 30 kos and he'd sneer at you...what fights.

Gavilan had an amazing chin, I think he was only floored about two or three times in his career. The strange thing about Gavilan is that when you watch him fight he looks like he is a good puncher... he doesn't seem like a powderpuff puncher. I'm sure that part of the reason for his low ko rate is the high calibre of his opposition. If you look through his record he fought many fighters who had 'iron chins'.
What do you guys think?...

We know that Tiger Jones was tough and Sugar Ray wasn't in his prime or was "rusty" because of his lay-off. However, he did hit Jones with every thing but the kitchen sink and Jones did not go down or appear hurt. I had the fight much closer than the judges and referee with Jones winning by a round or 3 rounds. Jones may just have been that fighter that would have given Sugar Ray trouble no matter what such as Frazier and Norton with Ali, although Ali may have beaten each more easily in his prime. Robinson probably would have handled Jones 3 years earlier but Turpin beat Robinson the first time. Jones had an iron jaw through his career and was only knocked down more toward the end but not knocked out by some tremendous punchers such as Rory Calhoun and Sugar Ray and he fought many of the top contenders.
It's just hard to comprehend how Bobo Olson could beat Jones so easily with Sugar Ray having such trouble but maybe Olson was just a little to big or heavy for Tiger Jones.

It was on ESPN classic just a couple weeks ago, its on around once every 3 or 4 months.