Athletes - Sugar Ray Robinson

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	Athletes - Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith Jr., (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989) is recognized as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He is frequently listed at number one on the list of top boxers by boxing aficianados.

Robinson was born in Ailey, Georgia and grew up in Detroit and in Harlem.

A holder of many boxing records, Robinson was the first boxer in history to win a divisional world championship five times, a feat he accomplished by defeating Carmen Basilio in 1958 to regain the world middleweight title he had lost to Basilio the previous year. Robinson also held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951.

Many boxing fans and critics regard Robinson as pound for pound the best boxer of all time. Muhammad Ali, who repeatedly called himself "The Greatest," has said without hesitation that while he considers himself the greatest Heavyweight, he considers Robinson the greatest fighter of all time.

Robinson made his debut in 1940, knocking out Joe Echevarria in 2 rounds. He built a record of 40 wins and 0 losses before facing Jake LaMotta in a 10 round bout. The bout was the second of six fights between these opponents, and LaMotta dropped Robinson, eventually beating him by decision. Robinson had won their first bout and would go on to win the next four. Between his debut fight and the second LaMotta bout, Robinson had also beaten former world champions Sammy Angott, Fritzie Zivic and Marty Servo. The only blemish on his record was a ten round draw with Jose Basora in 1945. On December 20, 1946, he and Tommy Bell were matched in New York City for the vacant world's welterweight title. Robinson became a world champion by beating Bell by a 15 round decision.

In 1947, Robinson defended his title for the first time by knocking out Jimmy Doyle in the eighth round. Before the fight, Robinson dreamed that he killed Doyle in the ring. As a result, Robinson decide to pull out of the fight. A priest talked to Robinson and convinced him to go ahead with the fight. Unfortunately, just as Robinson had dreamed, Doyle died from the injuries he sustained in the fight.

In 1948, he fought five times, but only one was a title defense. One of the fighters he defeated in non-title bout was future world champion, Cuba's Kid Gavilan. In 1949, he boxed 16 times, again only defending the title once. The one defense was a rematch with Gavilan, who was once again beaten on points. The only boxer to come out of the ring without a defeat after fighting Robinson that year was Henry Brimm, who boxed him to a 10 round draw in Buffalo.

In 1950, Robinson fought 19 times. He defended the welterweight title against Charley Fusari his title, and beat Robert Villemain to win the Pennsylvania world middleweight title. In defense of his middleweight title, he defeated Jose Basora and Carl Olson, a world Middleweight champion whom Robinson would meet and beat four times during his career. The Basora rematch set a record that would stand for a very long time: It was the fastest knockout ever in a world title fight, lasting only 50 seconds. That record stood for 38 years.

On February 14, 1951, Robinson and LaMotta met for the sixth time, in a fight that would become known as boxing's version of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Robinson won the undisputed world middleweight title with a 13th round technical knockout win. After that, he embarked on his European tour, which would take him to Paris, Zürich, Antwerp, Liège, Berlin, Turin and London among other places. During his fight in Berlin, versus Gerhard Hecht, he was declared a loser after hitting his opponent on the kidneys, but this was later changed and the fight declared a no-contest. And in London, he lost the world Middleweight title to Randy Turpin.

Three months later, he beat Turpin in a New York rematch to recover the title on a tenth round knockout. That would be the last fight for him that year.

Then in 1952, he met Olson again, knocking him out once again, and then he retained his title with a third round knockout of Rocky Graziano, the former world champ. In his last fight that year, he challenged world light heavyweight champion Joey Maxim for the title at Yankee Stadium. Robinson built a large points lead, but the temperature inside the ring was 140 degrees, and that was taking a toll on Robinson, who was expending more energy than Maxim by moving around the ring and throwing more punches. After the tenth round, the referee had to be replaced because of the heat. At the end of round 13, Robinson collapsed from the heat and failed to answer the bell for the next round, suffering the only knockout defeat of his career. After the fight, he was diagnosed with heat exhaustion at a local hospital.

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Athletes - Sugar Ray Robinson

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