Shakur Stevenson had mentioned before he thought Floyd Mayweather would have beat Sugar Ray Robinson but this is way off.
That is to put it lightly and mildly to say the very least.
American pound for pound rated champion Shakur Stevenson from Newark in the US of today’s times is one of the best American boxers currently.
But different eras produce different standards of champions.
Stevenson has a long way to go to catch up to someone like former pound for pound number one Floyd Mayweather’s resume (50-0-27 KO) in the sport.
Or someone like all time-great Sugar Ray Robinson (174-19-6-109 KO).
Shakur Stevenson is currently (25-0-11 KO) at the moment in boxing for contest.
Sure, he is a multi-weight world champion but the only big name on his resume is basically Teofimo Lopey so far.
If you go over his record and analyze names and big opponents one by one on it.
Stevenson had some solid wins over William Zepeda, James Herring and Oscar Valdez but these are nothing like the resumes of Mayweather and Ray Robinson.
Robinson would have had too much brains, power, strength, speed, reach and all round fight DNA in the squared circle of boxing for Floyd Mayweather.
Too much sweet science expertise for him, too much a better boxer for him, too much brains for him.
The defense of Mayweather may have held up for the first six rounds or so at most but if you put a prime Robinson (147 pounds) in there with Mayweather at welterweight it is a no contest.
No way Mayweather lives with someone like Ray Robinson.
Not in a month of Sundays he couldn’t.
Robinson could keep him on the end of the jab even if he wanted.
If someone like Oscar De La Hoya had some moderate success with his jab against Mayweather when the two Americans fought, Georgia-born Robinson would be next level.
The hooks and uppercut combinations on the outside (or the inside) in a possible Ray Robinson vs Floyd Mayweather fight would be too much for Mayweather.
He might have blocked or deflected some of them but some would have got through if he was fighting Robinson at his best.
What weight the fight would have happened would have been interesting.
You would expect such a fight to happen around the welterweight division of 147 pounds or so.
That would be the fairest weight for such a bout.
Mayweather was a five-weight world champion and Robinson a two-weight world champion but that is not relevant really when you think about it.
The bout would have been at welterweight, that’s why.
The fact is Robinson was a welterweight and middleweight champion and fought around the world and countires around the world as a pro too.
Taking on all comers and often beating them and sometimes fighting every week or twice a month at times.
That does not happen anymore and is from a different time of prize fighting.
Where boxers boxed every month in world title fights when there was just one belt per division for one champion per division, basically.
That is why the old belt companies are now longer important today as spectators view the main man in each division as the lineal champion anyway.
And they just want to see the best matchups and fights between the best boxers in the world regularly.
Simple.
That is the era that Ray Robinson came from.
That era and ability, skill set and mentality and stronger frame and more powerful punches he had, would have bust up Floyd Mayweather.
Shane Mosley and others hurt Mayweather when they caught him in his career but Ray Robinson would have caught him much more regularly at his peak that Shane Mosley from the US, Luis Castillo from Mexico.
Or from Demarcus ‘Chop Shop’ Corley from the US who caught and hurt Mayweather in their fight as well.
Ray Robinson would have landed with more concussive consequences.
He hit different to them.
He would have bust up and knocked out Floyd Mayweather before that final 12th round.
That is what would have happened.
Alas, if Ray Robinson was around in Mayweather’s day Mayweather would have done everything in his power to avoid fighting him.
Check out our latest boxing news.