Sugar Ray Robinson Sugar Ray Robinson is known as one the best boxers to ever live. He surpassed many things to get the nickname “sugar” and to be called one of the greatest. Espn rated him the 24th best American athlete of the century. He was a champion of more than one weight class; sugar was a natural fighter at heart and a public figure for African American people around the
United States of America. Even the great Muhammad Ali called him “the King, the master, my idol” (Espn.com). Many people knew Sugar Ray Robinson from boxing, but no one really knew about his rough circumstances growing up. He was born in Detroit Michigan, May 3, 1921. His real name is Walker Smith Jr. As the Great Depression came along, Walker Smith’s family was affected, and was forced to move to Harlem, New York because of the bad circumstances. There were two areas of Harlem, the good area with decent paid people and good conditions, and the bad Harlem where you were in danger just by walking outside. Unfortunately, the Smith’s moved to the bad area of Harlem, where people were shot and fights in Harlem occurred every day. Being the teenage boy Walker was, he wanted money in his pockets. So, Walker earned some money dancing for strangers in Time Square. Slowly as he grew up, he was exposed to bad influences; he joined a violent street gang.
Therefore he had to know how to fight outside of the ring as a youth. Since he didn’t have the funds to pay for boxing lessons, he would borrow his friends boxing card and sneak in the building to practice boxing. He was already a natural fighter at heart; practicing boxing just made him better. Constantly, he would go practice boxing in the ring. There people seen how good he was. His moves were sweet like sugar, and that is how he got the boxing name
“Sugar” Ray Robinson (biography.com). At the age of nineteen, he turned professional and started to compete against others in the Ring. He won the New York Golden Gloves at that time. He also won a featherweight and light weight boxing championship. As an amateur he went 85-0 and 69 of his wins were by knockout. His main motivation was his boxing coach Joe Louis. In nineteen forty Sugar Ray entered the big boxing league, which he would soon become very successful
. In 1946 he won the welter weight championship in a fifteen-round decision over Tommy Bell, but lost it in 1951.Later that year he moved up a class and gained the middle weight boxing title and held it for five years until he lost to Gene Fullmer and was the only person in history to hold the middle weight title five times. Winning 175 fights out of 202, 109 knockouts, and lost nineteen times by decisions. Many African Americans saw him as a leader. He grew up poor and represented blacks from all over. He boxed during the era of segregation, so many Africans Americans showed him support. He was one of the first African-American athletes to become a major star outside of sports.
Among all American athletes he was rated the 24th best athlete of the century. By 1965, Robinson was broke and forced to fight five times in 36 days for as little as one thousand- one hundred dollars a night. Soon after losing a ten-round decision to Joey Archer, the
44-year-old Robinson announced his retirement for good. After making an estimated four million dollars in the ring, Robinson spent himself into destitution by the mid-sixties. Then he went into show business doing acting and singing and moved to southern California. He would always be remembered for the music he made in the ring and his sweet moves. "He boxed as though he were playing the violin,"(Espn.com). Sugar ray had many opponents who hated him and his boxing skills. The boxer Basilio said “Robinson would not admit to how hard he punched”, “Robinson wouldn't tell the truth to God" (Espn.com). In 1986, he made his last public appearance at Jake LaMotta’s wedding. LaMotta once said "I fought Sugar Ray so often, I almost got diabetes," (Espn.com). He died poor on April 12, 1989 at the age of 67, in
Culver City, California from Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Sugar Ray Robinson was known as one the best boxers to ever live. He surpassed many things to be called one of the greatest. He was a champion of more than one weight class and also a peoples champ for African Americans. Sugar Ray once said “To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will” (Brainyquote.com). With that mentality Sugar went on to accomplish great things. People will always remember him for the history he made in boxin