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Sorry Mr. Mayweather, Sugar Ray Robinson Was The Best Ever
Floyd Mayweather appeared forlorn on Saturday night. He had over 32 million reasons not to be. But Mayweather looked tired after his latest victory, his second decision win over a welterweight whose best showings in the division are against Adrien Broner, a fighter with no good welterweight wins of his own, and two gatekeeper-types named Jesus Soto Karass and Josesito Lopez. Mayweather’s eyes seemed to glaze off into the distance as reporters peppered him with questions about Manny Pacquiao and the fight that never was. Sweat rolled down his face like tears, and his busted lip seemed to nag at him as if it were a voice from the past he didn’t want to hear, a never quite forgotten love who tortures his soul or a long lost friend buried beneath the ash of youthful mistakes.
All the while, Mayweather wore a black hat with the initials “TBE” emblazoned on it in gold. It stands for “the best ever” and the boxing gods, the likes of which Springs Toledo labels “The Gods of War” in his soulful collection of essays carrying the same title, shudder in disapproval.
They have the right.
There are only a handful of fighters who historians have dared to label as the best ever. Why just that handful? For the historian, perhaps it is the threat of waking up in an age to come and having to explain why they included someone else with the likes of Ray Robinson, Harry Greb and Henry Armstrong. After all, in heaven, God would be on their side.
While Toledo tabs Greb at No. 1, the famed essayist finds himself in the minority on that point. The majority of folks who study the sweet science appreciate the monster that Greb was but subscribe to the idea that “Sugar” Ray Robinson was the finest pugilist who ever lived, and enough film of Robinson exists to help them prove it.
Robinson was born Walker Smith, Jr. At the age of 14, he borrowed the name of another fighter in order to keep his mother from finding out he was as boxer and to circumvent the amateur system that said he needed to be 16 years old in order to compete. The name stuck with him, and “Sugar” was added later when his manager, George Gainford, described his immaculate fighting style as “sweet as sugar.” That stuck, too.
Robinson enjoyed a brilliant amateur career. He went undefeated in 85 amateur bouts and turned professional at age 19. He started his career at lightweight and was welterweight champion six years later. Robinson won his first 40 professional fights before jumping up to middleweight to face Jake LaMotta in 1943. Just three years into his professional career, an out-weighed Robinson couldn’t outbox a bull-rushing LaMotta over ten hard-fought rounds.
After suffering his first loss, Robinson reeled off 91 consecutive victories, including five over LaMotta. In 1946, he defeated Tommy Bell for the world welterweight championship. He held the title for four years before vacating it to move up to middleweight. During his stay at 147, he defeated notables Bell, Jimmy Doyle and Kid Gavilan.
In 1951, Robinson knocked out LaMotta in 13 rounds to become the world middleweight champion. In his tenth bout of the same year, he lost the crown to Randy Turpin on points but knocked out Turpin in the rematch just two months later. After a Round 3 knockout over Rocky Graziano in 1952, Robinson moved up to light heavyweight to challenge Joey Maxim for the 175-pound championship. After dominating Maxim for much of the fight, Robinson retired on his stool in Round 13, a victim of the 104-degree temperature only.
Robinson won the middleweight title a total of five times during his illustrious career. He fought tooth-and-nail with Hall of Famers like Carmen Basilio and Gene Fullmer late in his career when Robinson was still sweet but not quite the same Sugar Ray. He retired after a decision loss to Joey Archer in 1965. Over the span of his 25-year career, Robinson defeated 10 Hall of Famers, including LaMotta, Gavilan, Graziano, Fullmer, Henry Armstrong and Fritzie Zivic. He was named Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year in 1942 and 1951.
It’s never easy to compare fighters from different eras, but there are several different ways to approach it. First, there is simply something that could be termed the “versus” approach. In this scenario, the idea is to pit the fighters against each other in one’s mind at each man’s peak. This method is largely subjective, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume each man did meet each other at his best.
How would a prime version of Robinson, a man who was 128-1-2 with 84 knockouts at his peak, do against a prime version of Mayweather? Again, while entirely subjective, it’s hard to imagine Robinson having much trouble with Mayweather at all. He was a busier fighter with tremendous power in both hands who knew how to hurt his opponent and took care of business once he did. Unlike Mayweather’s typical opponents, Robinson wouldn’t have the shorter reach and would also posses comparable foot- and hand-speed. While Mayweather is the best technician of his era, he would be at least matched in this department by Robinson.
Another approach to comparing fighters from different eras is to transport each man into the other man’s time. How would Robinson do against the men Mayweather faced during his career? How would Mayweather do under similar circumstances?
A review of Mayweather’s record does not reveal any fighter Robinson would be an underdog against. Mayweather’s best wins are over Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez. While each of those men are stalwarts of their era, it’s important to note that both Mosley and Marquez would be rated higher historically at lightweight than during their late-career welterweight runs. Other notable wins include Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. Robinson would be a huge favorite against any of them, as well as those Mayweather didn’t face, including Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito.
The opposite cannot be said for Mayweather. He would be in deep waters against LaMotta, Gavilan, Graziano, Basilio, Fullmer and Armstrong. Mayweather has never faced men the size of LaMotta, Graziano, Fullmer or Basilio. Mayweather has fought just three times over the welterweight limit, wins over De La Hoya, Cotto and Canelo Alvarez. Only the latter could be considered a natural at anything above welterweight. At best, Mayweather might be even money against Gavilan and maybe a slight favorite over the older version of Armstrong that Robinson defeated. The notable name of the era Robinson missed, Charley Burley, would be favored over Mayweather.
Finally, one can simply review each man’s resume. Who fought the better fighters during his career? How many times did he fight them? Was there anybody he could’ve face but didn’t? Is his legacy all that it could be?
Robinson faced some of the greatest welterweights and middleweights who ever lived. Moreover, he pushed himself to his absolute limit by moving all the way up to light heavyweight and battling well past his prime years against Hall of Fame middleweights. At his peak, Robinson was considered unbeatable. To his credit, he damn near proved that it was true. Meanwhile, the easiest way to look at Mayweather’s career is to look at recent history. A review of current pound-for-pound rankings, which the undefeated Mayweather sits atop of at present, reveals three to four other fighters of the era who campaign between 140 and 154 pounds. Mayweather has faced and defeated one of them, Marquez, who lost a decision to Mayweather back in 2009 in his first bout at welterweight after jumping all the way up from lightweight. Besides him, and one could argue Marquez’s welterweight peak came much later, Mayweather has chosen less formidable opponents to earn his millions of dollars, such as Maidana and Robert Guerrero, over the likes of the higher rated Pacquiao, Tim Bradley and Danny Garcia.
“No beefs, George,” Robinson told his manager when he retired in 1965. “Sometimes we got the best of it in the past.”
At the time, Robinson was speaking on his better days being him. But in the case of who deserves to be called the best ever, Mayweather or Robinson, it’s safe to say that it’s also true. The best was in the past, and his name was Ray Robinson.
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Fighting on His Home Turf, Galal Yafai Pulverizes Sunny Edwards
The Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, was the site of tonight’s Matchroom Promotions card featuring flyweights Galal Yafai and Sunny Edwards in the main event. Yafai went to post a short underdog in what on paper was a 50/50 fight, but it was a rout from the start.
Yafai got right into Edwards’ grill in the opening round and never let up. Although there were no knockdowns, it was complete domination by the Birmingham southpaw until the referee stepped in and waived it off at the 1:10 mark of round six.
“Bloodline” was the tagline of the match-up. Sunny’s brother Charlie Edwards, now competing as a bantamweight, is a former flyweight world title-holder. Galal, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is the third member of his family to make his mark as a prizefighter. Brother Kal, also a former Olympian, once held a world title at 115 and brother Gamal was a Commonwealth champion as a bantamweight.
Edwards and Galal Yafai were well-acquainted. They had fought as amateurs and had shared the ring on many occasions as sparring partners. Although Galal was 31 years old, he had only eight pro fights under his belt and was meeting a veteran of six world title fights whose only loss in 22 starts came the hands of the brilliant Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
But that loss to Rodriguez in Arizona (Edwards’ corner pulled him out after nine frames) was of the kind that shortens careers. Although Sunny won a tune-up fight since that setback, tonight he had the appearance of a boxer who had grown old overnight. In fact, after the second round, he was heard saying to his corner “I really don’t want to be here.”
Edwards wanted out, but he dutifully answered the bell for the next four rounds. After the bout, he indicated that he had planned to retire after this fight, win, or lose, or draw.
The contest was billed as a WBC “eliminator” which positions Galal Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) for a match with Japanese veteran Kenshiro Teraji, the long-reigning light flyweight title-holder who moved up in weight last month and captured the WBC flyweight title at the expense of Cristofer Rosales.
Other Bouts of Note
Welterweight Conah Walker, from the Birmingham bedroom community of Wolverhampton, won a clear-cut 10-round decision over Lewis Ritson, winning by scores of 98-93 and 97-93 twice.
A former British lightweight champion, Ritson (23-5) lost for the fourth time in his last six starts, but was game to the core. At various times he appeared on the verge of being stopped, but he may have won the final round when he got the best of several exchanges. Walker, a heavy favorite, improved to 14-3-1 (6).
In a 12-round middleweight match, Kieron Conway won his fourth straight, advancing to 22-3-1 (6) with a split decision over a local product, Ryan Kelly (19-5-1). Kelly got the nod on one of the cards (115-114), but was out-voted by his colleagues who had it 116-112 and 115-113 for Conway.
While the decision was fair, this was a lackluster performance by Conway who had fought much stiffer competition and entered the ring a 6/1 favorite.
Twenty-two-year-old junior welterweight Cameron Vuong, a stablemate of Jack Catterall, stepped up in class and improved to 7-0 (3) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Gavin Gwynne. The judges had it 97-94, 96-94, and 96-95.
Vuong, who is half Vietnamese, out-boxed Gwynne from the outside but was far from impressive. A 34-year-old Welshman and veteran of eight domestic title fights, Gwynne (17-4-1) was the aggressor throughout and there were scattered boos when the decision was announced.
In a scheduled 8-rounder that wasn’t part of the main card, Liverpool’s Callum Smith (30-2, 22 KOs) wacked out Colombian trial horse Carlos Galvan in the fifth round. Smith, whose only defeats came at the hands of future Hall of Famers Canelo Alvarez (L 12) and Artur Beterbiev (L TKO 7), knocked Galvan down in the fourth and then twice more in the fifth with body punches before the match was halted. Galvan declined to 20-15-2.
Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal
Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal
With most of America in a turkey coma, all boxing eyes should be pointed toward England this weekend.
Former world titlist Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KOs) challenges the fast-rising Galal Yafai (8-0, 6 KOs) for a regional flyweight on Saturday, Nov. 30, at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
Without the fast-talking and dare-to-be-great Edwards, the flyweight division and super flyweight divisions would be in a blanket of invisibility. He’s the kind of personality the lower weight classes need.
The London kid loves to talk and loves to fight even more.
Edwards was calling out Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez when the San Antonio fighter was blasting out feared Thai slugger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and dismantling Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras. And he did this in front of a worldwide audience.
Of course, he fell short of defeating the young superstar but he kick-started the weight division with new life. And here he is again enticing more eyes on the flyweights as he challenges another potential star.
“I was happy and proud of Galal when he won the Olympic gold medal,” said Edwards who has sparred Yafai many times. “When me and Galal get in a small space, it’s fireworks.”
Yafai, a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, only has eight pro fights but at age 31 doesn’t have time to walk through the stages of careful preparation. But with blazing speed to go along with big power in his southpaw punches, it’s time for the Birmingham native to claim his spot on the world stage.
Is he ready?
“It’s a massive fight, it speaks for itself. Sunny is a great fighter, a former world champion, a good name and we’ve got history as well,” Yafai said at the press conference.” I’ve got to be a bit smarter, but I know Sunny inside-out.”
Both have blazing speed. Yafai has the power, but Edwards has the experience of pro-style competition.
Promoter Eddie Hearn calls this one of the top fights in British boxing.
“Sunny doesn’t care, he wants to be in great fights, he believes in himself and he is rolling the dice again on Saturday night, as is Galal. An Olympic gold medalist from Birmingham with just a handful of fights really, and already stepping up to take on one of the top, top flyweights in the world,” said Hearns.
Ryan Garcia in Beverly Hills
The budding Southern California superstar Ryan Garcia met the boxing media in Beverly Hills to announce an exhibition match against Japan’s kickboxing star Rukiya Anpo on December 30 in Tokyo. FANMIO pay-per-view will show the match if it takes place.
Garcia is still under contract with Golden Boy Promotions and according to the promotion company an agreement has not been established. But with Garcia under suspension for PED use following his last fight against Devin Haney back in April, an opportunity for the popular fighter to make a living will probably be allowed.
As long as everyone gets their cut.
Now 26, Garcia seeks to get back in the prize ring and do what he does best and that’s fire left hooks in machine gun fashion.
“He tried to knock out Manny Pacquiao and it pissed me off,” said Garcia on his reasons for accepting an exhibition match with the bigger in size Anpo. “That rubbed me the wrong way and now I’m here to show him someone in his prime with speed and power.”
Anpo wants a knockout and nothing else.
“I regret that I couldn’t finish Manny Pacquiao,” said Anpo who met Pacquiao in an exhibition this past summer in Tokyo. “That’s what we train to do in every fight. I have even more motivation this time and I will knock him out and finish Ryan Garcia as a professional.”
Following the press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 26, an e-mail by Golden Boy was sent to the media and stated: “Golden Boy Promotions has exclusive rights to Ryan Garcia’s fights. The organizers of this event (Garcia vs. Anpo) have acknowledged as such and have agreed in writing that our sign-off is needed for this event to occur. As no such sign-off has been given, as of today there is no event with Ryan Garcia.”
Simply said, they get their cut or no fight.
The potential money-making fight has a strong possibility to occur.
Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom
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The Noted Trainer Kevin Henry, Lucky to Be Alive, Reflects on Devin Haney and More
This past summer, on July 21, Las Vegas boxing trainer Kevin Henry almost died. He was on the Las Vegas Strip, walking north from Caesars Palace, when he was the victim of an auto-pedestrian accident, hit by a careless uber driver exiting the Treasure Island casino after dropping off a passenger.
Henry suffered two broken bones in his neck, shoulder and hip displacements, lost two teeth, and had facial injuries that required plastic surgery. He spent three months in the hospital, the first 20 days in ICU and the final month at an in-patient rehabilitation facility.
The good news is that the pain has subsided and Kevin Henry is back in the gym mentoring boxers and enjoying the camaraderie of his peers.
Kevin, 55, grew up around the sport. His father, the late Norman Henry, was a fixture on the Philadelphia boxing scene going back to the late 1940s when he was Bob Montgomery’s Man Friday. The elder Henry co-managed Jeff Chandler and others and had a long association with Don King where he defined his role as that of a troubleshooter. Kevin was born in Philadelphia, spent several years in the LA area during the days when his father was a matchmaker for Harold Smith’s MAPS (an acronym for Muhammad Ali Professional Sports), and has been a full-time resident of Las Vegas since 1992.
“When I was 16, maybe 17, I was the youngest licensed second in New Jersey” says Henry. “In Philadelphia, I got to hang with great old-school trainers like George Benton. In LA, my home away from home was the Hoover Street Gym. Jackie McCoy, Eddie Futch, and Jesse Reid trained fighters there. A young trainer couldn’t ask for a better schoolhouse.
“The old-school trainers liked me because I was organized. If a kid said to me, oops, I forgot my gym bag or I can’t spar because I forgot my mouthpiece – and this happened a lot – I’d say, no you didn’t, I have it right here. And the kids knew if they went out and did something they shouldn’t have, that I wasn’t going to tattle-tale.”
When Henry moved to Las Vegas, the local heavyweight scene was percolating. Michael Dokes was here as were Oliver McCall and Michael Hunter Sr. The latter two fought each other as they were climbing the ladder and eventually became fast friends.
The ill-fated Hunter would become a member of the family. He married Kevin Henry’s sister. Michael Hunter Jr, a leading heavyweight contender whose victims include the white-hot Martin Bakole and Michael’s younger brother Keith Hunter, a 15-2 junior welterweight, are Kevin’s nephews.
Discounting Devin Haney’s father Bill, no boxing coach has spent more time in the company of Devin Haney. Henry was in Devin’s corner for the vast majority of his amateur bouts, including five of Devin’s six meetings with his great amateur rival Ryan Garcia, and their tie continued after Devin transitioned into a pro.
“He was like a little brother to me,” says Henry. “I remember the first day I saw him. It was at the old Round One gym which isn’t here anymore. A Rolls Royce pulled up out front. Derrick Harmon, who fought Roy Jones, was there with me. We figured that the person in the car was probably some famous professional athlete who had come to work up a sweat. But it was Bill Haney with his nine-year-old son. Neither Bill nor his kid knew anything about boxing; Bill wanted someone to teach Devin how to box. The boy was a blank canvas.
“Bill left and when he came back, he said, ‘how did he do?’ He was so proud when we told him his kid was a natural. Derrick and I couldn’t believe that the boy had never been in the gym before. We were amazed.”
The precocious Haney, who turned pro in Mexico at age 16, proved to be as good as advertised. He won the WBC world lightweight title in his twenty-fourth pro fight, pitching a shutout over previously undefeated Alfredo Santiago, went on to unify the title with wins over George Kambosos and Vasyl Lomachenko, and pitched another shutout in his first venture at 140, whitewashing Regis Prograis to capture another world title belt.
Kevin Henry was there for some of these fights and was lost in the shuffle at others. It remains a sore spot.
No active boxer has been looked-over by as many prominent trainers as Devin Haney. Bill Haney, who would be a finalist for both the 2023 BWAA Trainer of the Year and Manager of the Year, winning the latter, operated on the assumption that all had something useful to contribute and that from their inputs he could build something that was greater than the sum of its parts. He was bucking several bromides including the chestnut that too many chefs spoil the broth and that brings us to the night of April 20, 2024, when Bill Haney’s son caught up with his old amateur rival Ryan Garcia at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In a memorable fight, Garcia buzzed Haney in the opening minute of the match with his patented left hook and would then go on to dominate the second half of the fight, putting Haney on the canvas three times – in rounds 7, 10, and 11 – en route to a scorching upset.
As we know, Garcia, who came in three pounds overweight, would have the “W” stripped from him when his urine samples revealed the presence of a performance-enhancing drug, ostarine. The New York State Athletic Commission changed the result to a no-contest and that is how it appears at boxrec, the sport’s official record-keeper.
Devin Haney remains undefeated (31-0, 1 NC) but Ryan Garcia knocked the mystique out of him.
In part because of his tender age – he turned 26 earlier this month – Haney was considered a threat to break Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record. No one talks about that anymore and if it should happen, it would command an asterisk.
Kevin Henry was there at the Haney-Garcia fight but, in a sense, he wasn’t there.
“They never put my name on the comp list ” he says, “so there was no ticket or pass waiting for me when I got to the arena. I was actually on the subway heading back to my hotel when Devin called me. He said, ‘where you at ‘bro.’ When I explained the situation to him, he said ‘turn around and come back and go to security.’
“Devin arranged to have a ticket waiting for me. My seat was directly behind his corner. The undercard was already in progress when I got back.
“This will sound arrogant, but I am certain the outcome would have been different if Devin had a different corner. The most experienced guy in his corner that night was Bob Ware, and Bob isn’t a trainer; he’s a cutman. When Devin faced adversity for the first time in his life, there was no experienced head there to get him turned around.
“In preparation for Garcia, we spent 3-4 weeks at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym. I actually suggested to Bill that he use Freddie in the corner. Freddie sees things that other trainers don’t see, even me, and Freddie would have known what adjustments to make. But Bill said no. He didn’t want to cede his authority.”
Kevin Henry’s admiration for Devin Haney, as a boxer and a person, hasn’t waned. “Ryan Garcia came in overweight at the weigh-in and you can just imagine how much weight he put on after he rehydrated. When they stood at center ring to get the referee’s instructions, Garcia looked like a middleweight to me. Devin dug deep and fought a great fight against a guy who was bigger and on steroids. One of the judges even had it a draw.” (True. Veteran arbiter Max DeLuca scored it 112-112. The other judges had Garcia winning by 4 and 6 points.)
As to what to expect from Devin when he returns, Henry says, “I worry about the mental part; some boxers don’t take losing well.” There are no such concerns about Kevin Henry who lost none of his mental acuity in that terrible accident and is back in his comfort zone.
Haney-Garcia photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions
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