It was not unusual for him to fight twice within the span of a week, and in 1941 alone he fought an amazing 20 times, including two fights in August just two days apart. Robinson fought at a pace that would be unheard of today.
American boxer who killed his wife series#
The LaMotta-Robinson series has gone down in history as one of the sport ’s great rivalries. The second fight between the two was the only one of six LaMotta would ever win, but his status as the first fighter ever to beat Robinson was a major facet of his reputation for years to come. Three weeks after losing to LaMotta, Robinson beat him in another rematch in Detroit. He lost a 10-round decision to Jake LaMotta, a fighter he had beaten the previous fall in another 10-round decision in New York.
American boxer who killed his wife professional#
Robinson ’s first professional winning streak came to a close, and one of his most lasting rivalries was born, on Februin Detroit. Twenty-nine of those early victims failed to go the distance with Robinson, including world-ranked welterweights such as Pete Lello, Fritzie Zivic, Norman Rubio, Tony Motisi and Izzy Jannazzo. The 19-year old stopped a fighter named Joe Echevarr ía in the second round, and his winning streak extended through the first 40 fights and 28 months of his professional career. On October 4, 1940, Robinson turned professional with a bout at Madison Square Garden. Some historians claim he was never beaten as an amateur, although others say he lost twice. Robinson won the New York Golden Gloves championship at featherweight (126 pounds) in 1939 and lightweight (135 pounds) in 1940. Holly, from 1943-60 third wife Millie Johnson, from 1965-89. At a Glance …īorn Walker Smith, Jr., May 3, 1921, in Detroit, Ml son of Walker Smith, Sr. The fighter was briefly known as Ray (Sugar) Robinson, until it was decided Sugar Ray sounded better. The rest of his name was coined in Watertown, New York, when a reporter observed to Gainford that Robinson was “as sweet as sugar, ” the trainer concurred. Smith fought under that name that night, and he would never be known as anything else for the rest of his career. Gainford happened to have in his pocket the fight card of one Ray Robinson. Since New York state law forbade anyone under the age of 16 to box, however, Smith needed fake credentials. Gainford was short one boxer for a show, and decided to use Smith. ” “As Sweet As Sugar ”Ī turning point in the legend of Sugar Ray Robinson came one night in Kingston, New York, when Smith was 15. I took him into my home, taught him a few tricks and let him stay around when I took my team round the clubs. So I chased him away from the gym, back to delivering groceries and dancing for dimes.
“I told Smitty he was too young to fight, ” he recalled in Harry Carpenter ’s book, Masters of Boxing “Besides, he said his ma would kill him if he got mixed up with the fight game. His manager, George Gainford, ran the gym Smith trained at as an amateur, and remembered the first time Smith came to his gym. Young Walker had tried boxing at the Brewster gym back in Detroit, and he pursued the sport in earnest once in New York. Leila took Ray and his sisters to New York, where she looked for work. In 1932 his father, Walker Sr., and his mother Leila were divorced, and the elder Walker left the family. He grew up poor in the Black Bottom section of that city. Robinson dominated first the welterweight and then the middleweight divisions at a time when boxing ’s popularity was at its peak, and his skills were so widely admired that famed boxing writer Bert Sugar once wrote that being knocked out by Robinson “was more of an honor than a disgrace. It is a testament to Sugar Ray Robinson ’s greatness as a boxer that when people discuss who was the greatest boxer of all-time, pound-for-pound, not only is no one else usually picked, but rarely is anyone else even considered.
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