Tweet
Maxim was also subject to the heat but he wasn't the one having to wrestle with a man 18 pounds heavier during clinches.
-
-
Maxim's dull strategy was correct, Robinson's exciting one was not. Was Robinson as flawed in the Ring Generalship category as Hagler was?Comment
-
How is that Crawford/Spence fight coming, boys? Oh, I see, not yet, I see.
So just know, lads, at this moment no serious negotiations are even there to report. Yet, every second, their primes tick away, lost to posterity forever. If you are thrown anything that can still be promoted as a fight, it will be but the spent meat of exhausted careers cashing out, by buggery! At that point in time they will no longer both be undefeated. You will be left to wonder and to imagine and debate in mythical matchups how they would have stacked up in their primes. What you will be thrown will not contain the lost information of who wins a prime on prime match, though you might feel it gets you a little closer to the correct guess.
You have a right to be peeved. You had ought to be peeved! In fact, sirs, I understand your fury. Why, you must be mad and disgusted enough to hit those bedeviling scum right where it hurts--in the pecuniary gland. They do not feel your words when you speak them angrily to each other. They only feel and fear the pecuniary punch.
You, sirs, are so angry and have so much collective punch you could get almost anything you want. I would like to see you use that punch, I really would. Because if you did, I would probably get to see better fights myself. I am not trying to make you a better person or negate your sins. There is a task here. When you use your punch properly, great fights will suddenly appear as if from nowhere. You will get to see them, too, so there is something in it for you as well.
How to reach hundreds instead of tens of people, and then thousands? I don't have the right kind of tool box (brain) for the reaching out media stuff. Some of you could help. Some of you are bound to be geniuses. Instead of dumb geniuses, some of you could be smart geniuses who know how to do things, like manipulate media, and get thousands to boycott. How do we get 'em here, might be a first question. Now I need some other talents. Calling all talents. Lend your enterprise to this endeavor and be proud of yourselves for standing up to your masters, by buggery.
Well, I know you boys are fight fans. I hope you get to see Spence and Crawford settle the issue before someone else steps in and does it for them. Tick, tick, tick...Comment
-
I don't see where that applies. Spence and Crawford are both highly heralded exciting fighters, and there is a huge call for that fight.
On the other hand, there was not much call for a Burley Robinson fight, though there is some historical mention of it. I don't think those drums beat long or loud, but anyone can correct me. The proposed match would have contained only one exciting fighter. Burley was notoriously unexciting. So much so that he and Holman Williams were once sent to the showers in the middle of the bout by a disgusted referee for lack of action.
The great interest in Burley vs Robinson is mostly historical revisionism. I think there was no huge outcry for that bout to happen, or it would have.
That said, Robinson seems to have believed that lucrative matchmaking for black champs in his day primarily consisted of fighting white boys.
Who did Robinson use for sparring partners? Did he use any one of murderer's row? Maybe he already knew what it was like to be in the ring with them, and did not hide out in shame, eh? Maybe he found local work for them, eh?
I know nothing of Robinson's sparring partners. But if there are actual boxing scholars about, they might know this detail. I am just speculating, trying to spur a scholar to do the research, or jog his memory. If I were a scholar, that is one thing I would try to find out.Comment
-
Here is what I could gather and surmise from a few searches.
Robinson did not spar heavily or extensively, but might have been brutal on sparring partners. This makes sense in an era with more frequent bouts, many of them non-title, stay-in-shape contests.
At least two fighters from Murderer's Row that Ray did employ as sparring partners were Tiger Wade and Cocoa Kid, the former injuring Ray's Rib and the latter knocking him down in sparring.
* * * * *
The only guy from MR with a decent claim of being ducked by Ray is Burley. The rest of Murderer's Row were all fighting as middleweights and beyond while Ray was still officially at welterweight, though he sometimes forayed upward, often weighing in at around the junior middleweight limit when he did so. By the time he was officially at middleweight they were all long in the tooth other than Burley, and never had been draws anyway. Holman Williams was in the notorious contest with Burley that had to be stopped for lack of action. The referee decided the fight had stopped anyway.
Zale might be accused of ducking Murderer's Row when it was at its most dangerous.Comment
-
What you mean is he was assaulted on the street. He didn't throw any punches. It was not a fight.Comment
-
Don't worry, boys, you will get to see Crawford in action in December against a scrub. You don't care if you get to see him fight Spence, do you? Any opponent will do to wet your beaks, right? I think you are starting to see that I am right.Comment
-
A typical sparring session for a day was 5 rounds, opponents varied from 2 to 5.
Robinson unless struggling with the weight never usually sparred once there were 3 days until fight.
He was highly thought of with regards to going into "camps" already close to top condition and his timing on point.
Noted sparring partners of Robinson tended to be experienced undercard fighters.
Wade and Cocoa Kid are unique in that they were big-name fighters used by Robinson and both were effectively retired when made headlines because of incidents.Comment
Comment