Robinson or Ali, who's really the greatest?

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Ray robinson

Overall skills were better

[billeau2]

Ali's Skill is something that an be grasped when one looks at other famous fighters; Some of the great Cuban fighters, who would extol the virtues of Cuban socialism on television regularly... Or places like Pakistan where traditionally wrestlers were venerated as privaleged and able to speak for higher virtues than that of winning a contest in the ring. In our own country where men who came out of racially divided, segregated communities, or big cities with ethnic tensions, during the second world war and all these men...turning on the radio and rooting for Joe Louis, a Black man to beat the German champion.

Ali had the charisma to plug into this, to make being the underdog a morality play and not simply a contest of strength, skill and will. The genius of Ali was... when he played the underdog going against the rascist war complex in this country in Vietnam...it played out in the ring as well.

[sterilizer]

Funny how people that NEVER saw them fighters fight believe the media claim as them the best ever......

"Pretty Boy" Floyd "Money" Mayweather is The Best Ever
The Real "G.O.A.T."

Floyd is the ONLY man that defeated boxing, EVER!

Funny how a person who writes such an incredibly stupid and out of context "comment" has, at the moment I am writing this, 21 points in positive reputation.

I hope those points come form intelligent comments completely different from the utter stupid one quoted above.

BTW the only thing that your man crush has ever defeated, is the FUN of watching boxing. He may be ranked #1 most boring and cowardly ATG, if they ever create a list of such competitors.

Hello, the subject here is who was better, Robinson or Ali, when the discussion is about your so-loved idol, who BTW has nothing of pretty at all (and I am a woman, If we want to call someone pretty, we could use someone like young De La Hoya or maybe young Canelo for example, but OMG Floyd??? Lol, never ever, the guy is ugly as heck!). Sorry I am straying from the OP's question, but the quoted fool made me, lol.

[The Old LefHook]

Robby did not have a three and a half year hole in his prime years. The entire greatness of Ali was never seen in full bloom.

[OctoberRed]

Robby did not have a three and a half year hole in his prime years. The entire greatness of Ali was never seen in full bloom.

^^^^^^^^^^^ This right here.

[joeandthebums]

Robby did not have a three and a half year hole in his prime years. The entire greatness of Ali was never seen in full bloom.

True, it was only 14 months. WW2.

[billeau2]

True, it was only 14 months. WW2.

Great to see you posting my friend!

[The Old LefHook]

True, it was only 14 months. WW2.

At the pace Robby was having fights I have to wonder if that 14 month layoff was not good for his career and physique. Whereas I know for sure that Ali was not the same fighter when he came back after 3 1/2 years out. One might not be able to find any adverse effects of Robby's layoff because perhaps there were none. Then again, you might be able to pinpoint some differences.

[joeandthebums]

Great to see you posting my friend!

Thanks and you.

At the pace Robby was having fights I have to wonder if that 14 month layoff was not good for his career and physique.

Robinson''s career suffered from the war in general as it allowed the WW title to elude him for another 3 years.

He took a personal / professional hit for the Armstrong fight. For carrying Armstrong on what the paying public felt was a con he was kept out of New York / The Garden. It took the draw of a LaMotta fight to get him back in. A 16 month absence from the capital of the boxing world.

I'm away from files at the moment but from memory remember Robinson explaining how army training was not comparable to that of a boxer so quickly lost fighting conditioning.

One might not be able to find any adverse effects of Robby's layoff because perhaps there were none. Then again, you might be able to pinpoint some differences.

Sadly we have no footage but, again from memory of articles the write ups of Robinson usually questioned whether he had peaked / lost something.

The first rave review post-war fight was McDaniels, June-1946.

[billeau2]

Thanks and you.



Robinson''s career suffered from the war in general as it allowed the WW title to elude him for another 3 years.

He took a personal / professional hit for the Armstrong fight. For carrying Armstrong on what the paying public felt was a con he was kept out of New York / The Garden. It took the draw of a LaMotta fight to get him back in. A 16 month absence from the capital of the boxing world.

I'm away from files at the moment but from memory remember Robinson explaining how army training was not comparable to that of a boxer so quickly lost fighting conditioning.



Sadly we have no footage but, again from memory of articles the write ups of Robinson usually questioned whether he had peaked / lost something.

The first rave review post-war fight was McDaniels, June-1946.

Wow! Its humbling to see how much war destroys the normal eb and flow of life. I never thought of war as having a major impact on most fighters with the exception of Ali... But when one thinks about it, and when it is written about of course it had a major effect on Robinson and no doubt others!

I know that the second world war caused Max Schmeling a lot of consternation. Louis fans like my dad had thought that Schmeling was an evil man when in fact he hated that he had become an ideological tool. Him and Louis became great friends and he even helped Louis financially.

As a matter of fact I am forever in the debt of on line boxing sources, because when this conversation came up, people who knew the history of Louis correctly, like our own "Joe and the Bums" explained events historically related to the relationship between these two men.