"I have said I am the greatest HEAVYWEIGHT of all time. But the best, POUND FOR POUND boxer of all time is Sugar Ray Robinson."
Even arrogance has to kneel before greatness.
Lets go over the comparisons.
Sugar Ray Robinson was 85-0 as an amateur (69 by knockout).
Robinson's professional career from 1940-1951 was
128 Wins
1 Loss
84 Knockouts
before the one loss, he had a 95 fight win streak.
Thats not just ten years of boxing, thats ten BUSY years of boxing. If you average it out, thats ELEVEN fights a year.
His career ENDED with over 200 fights and 173 wins.
Muhammad Ali was 61 and 5, with 37 KOs.
Muhammad Ali also has noted he LEARNED his style mimicing Sugar Robinson.
So the arguement could be made, if there was no Robinson, there would have never been an Ali.
The first is always the greatest.
Ali was not the greatest all time, though I have no problem with people putting him at one. With conversations like these I like to use the phrase. "It could be argued." At the end of the day, Robinson, Jack Johnson, Joe louis, and Ali will be interchangeable.
Let me throw a curve ball.
If Cuss Amato never dies, Tyson is the greatest boxer ever. He had all the physical tools, but once he took that loss--Cuss dying--he went down hill. He retired some of the best of his era, and did not punch with full force. His defense was outstanding. The peek a boo bob was dag near impenetrable. So, again, a plausible argument can almost always be made.
Robinson faced more tough competition that Ali.
Robinson fought more and more often than Ali, he also fought longer.
To say Ali was cheated out of his prime is to discount all the great boxers who lost years from their careers because of military service and World War 2.
If you think LaMotta was the only tough fighter in Robinson's career you have not looked into his career.
Listen in 200 fights Robinson only suffered from 1 TKO lose and it was do to exhaustion in a fight where the temerature was 104 at the ring.It was so hot that they had to change refs in the middle of the fight.Next you disrespect Robinson by not mentioning
Gene Fullmer-hit the mat 1 time in his career and it was when he got floored by Robinson with one punch.Fullmer was a Middleweight champion who had a great chin and could run through anyone BUT Robinson
Henry Armstrong- was a Hall of Fame fighter and one of the 1st 3 division champs.He lost to Robinson
Carmin Basilio-another multi Champ who got beat by Robinson
Rocky Graziano-was knocked out in 3 rounds by Robinson.Rocky was the real deal he found out the hard way you cant beat Robinson
Well, how can you rate Ali ahead of Mayweather when he got hit so many times he can't even talk now. Mayweather will have all his marbles in his head when he's Ali's age, cause he did not take any punishment, cause he's a better boxer.
Just got done watching Thrilla in Manila. That was probably the best fight I've seen of Ali. He got ROCKED, never went down, got a second wind and beat Smokin Joes ***!
Robinson never faced as tough a competition that Ali did. LaMotta was a basic style fighter, where as Frazier had if not the most difficult one of the most difficult styles to fight. I'm not knocking LaMotta, but he was just a more improved version of Brandon Rios.
Why does everyone have Sugar Ray rated #1 over Ali? Ali was the greatest of all time. He was cheated out of his prime by the govt, so we never even saw a prime Ali.
