How many of you have really watched Sugar Ray Robinson?

[sonnyboyx2]

I see many posts across the internet on various websites, forums, etc.. And many posters always refer to SRR as the greatest fighter of all-time or list him as their all-time favorite and would favor him to beat any fighter from 147-160 and etc..

In no way am I trying to degrade SSR. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But who has actually witnessed this man in his prime or has access to footage of SSR in his prime? Who has actually sat down and studied film on this man and analyzed all of his techniques and skills?

It seems many posters hop on that wagon and automatically proclaim SSR as the greatest based on hear say and on what old timers and media members say. They hear Bert Sugar and just automatically agree with him. In no way am I questioning SSR's greatness, just looking at his list of accomplishments is impressive. And from the footage I have seen of him, he looked like a talented fighter, a fighter ahead of his time. But I can't sit here and say he's the best fighter of all-time, that's a difficult thing to say of any fighter because of the various eras of boxing anyways.

i have footage of Sugar Ray Robinson when in his prime. There is any amount of footage available of him to watch which shows him, as everything and more the past trainers and historians claimed him to be.

[billeau2]

I see many posts across the internet on various websites, forums, etc.. And many posters always refer to SRR as the greatest fighter of all-time or list him as their all-time favorite and would favor him to beat any fighter from 147-160 and etc..

In no way am I trying to degrade SSR. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But who has actually witnessed this man in his prime or has access to footage of SSR in his prime? Who has actually sat down and studied film on this man and analyzed all of his techniques and skills?

It seems many posters hop on that wagon and automatically proclaim SSR as the greatest based on hear say and on what old timers and media members say. They hear Bert Sugar and just automatically agree with him. In no way am I questioning SSR's greatness, just looking at his list of accomplishments is impressive. And from the footage I have seen of him, he looked like a talented fighter, a fighter ahead of his time. But I can't sit here and say he's the best fighter of all-time, that's a difficult thing to say of any fighter because of the various eras of boxing anyways.

In this day and age any idiot can pull up utube and see footage of ny fighter. But STUDYING that footage.....Well thats another matter completely. One has to look past film quality for one thing.

What I noticed about /robinson was that when he was on the attack he never seemed to pull his arm back. He never telegraphed and it gave his attack added speed and explosiveness. Most fighters tend to set up for the kill. Some fighters like Jones are great at hiding the punch with body movement, but Sugar just let the hands go from where they were.

[MrRolltide91]

Here's SRR at Welterweight. Great to watch.

Final round of him defending his title against Bobby Dykes.

dope video

[Ray Corso]

There are right & wrong ways to approach boxing techniques. Then theres the men who adapt their own stylings to base techniques. Robinson is the unique combination of "power & speed"! He was able to bring his abilities from a young 130lbs to a mature 147 and become a full middle at 160.
He had tremendous defense but abandon it when he knew his opponent was lacking power and he felt he could dominate then stop him.
You don't see fighters today take Robinsons approach because they don't have two handed power or the mental toughness to accept distress.
If you don't know anything about Methods & Techniques then you have no clue what your looking at.
Robinson can KO an opponent moving in or away with either hand theres no one today capable of that let alone all his other skills.

p4p was thought of after watching him box! If he were a heavy he would have beat Joe Louis! Remember he fought for 25 years and far past his prime was never stopped in over 300 fights (amateur & pro) only heat exhaustion stopped him as he was winning the Light heavy title from Maxim a very good fighter.
Robinson at 164 and Maxim close to 185!

Ray

[JimEarl]

I'm old enough to remember the newsreels of his fights and old enough to have seen some of his last middleweight fights but have to admit not seeing any of those until later. I did catch a lot of other fights on the Gillette sponsored shows though.

We didn't get much boxing on TV after Benny Paret's death (Robinson's fights at championship level were before then) until Ali came along.

Even my boyhood hero (in my Avatar) I only read about his fight with Harold Johnson in the boxing mags long before I got to see the fight.

[RespekonMyName]

From what I've heard, there isn't any footage of the prime 147 Robinson. The footage I've seen of him at higher weights doesn't convince me that he's the greatest of all time.

[The Old LefHook]

Considering his amatuer maturing, Robinson probably reached his highest athletic peak a few years before he won the welterweight crown. Early wealth of experience allow the graphs of his physical prime and his boxing prime to intersect closer to their peaks than for most boxers. The farther you go back in film the faster he was and the more furious his attack.

[Thread Stealer]

From what I've heard, there isn't any footage of the prime 147 Robinson. The footage I've seen of him at higher weights doesn't convince me that he's the greatest of all time.

There is some footage of him in his WW prime, but it's pretty grainy quality.

[MisterHardtop]

I'm old enough to remember the newsreels of his fights and old enough to have seen some of his last middleweight fights but have to admit not seeing any of those until later. I did catch a lot of other fights on the Gillette sponsored shows though.

We didn't get much boxing on TV after Benny Paret's death (Robinson's fights at championship level were before then) until Ali came along.

Even my boyhood hero (in my Avatar) I only read about his fight with Harold Johnson in the boxing mags long before I got to see the fight.

Good to have a fellow old timer here!

Growing up in Britain, it was almost impossible to catch a Robinson fight and although I'm old enough, I don't think I ever saw him in his prime, which is a tragedy. But I did see several of his middleweight defences and was lucky enough to watch him fight live in the 60s, by which time he was well past his best.

However, there should be no illusion as to how great Robinson truly was. Watching him fight in the 50s, as a middleweight, we were constantly told that Robinson was past his best and yet, his power, speed, reflexes would have knocked out most prime middleweights in the years and generations that followed. He was just that damn good.