60 Fun Facts About Sugar Ray Robinson

What was Sugar Ray Robinson's birth name?

He borrowed the name from another boy's amateur ID card and it stuck.

In which state was Robinson born in 1921?

He was born in Ailey; his father moved the family to Detroit for construction work.

Why did the teenager start boxing under the borrowed name Ray Robinson?

He was 14 and could not legally get an AAU card until 16, so he borrowed one from a youth who had quit.

How did his famous nickname come about?

The remark came from a lady in the audience at a fight in Watertown, New York.

Which future heavyweight champion lived on the same Detroit block as the young Robinson?

Robinson was 11 and Louis 17; they later toured together in the Army's Special Services.

What is Robinson's usually cited amateur record?

It included 69 knockouts, 40 in the first round, though two teenage losses under his real name have been reported.

Robinson won New York Golden Gloves titles in 1939 and 1940 at which two weights?

He beat Louis Valentine on points and then Andy Nonella by knockout.

Robinson made his professional debut in October 1940 against whom?

He won by a second-round stoppage and fought five more times that year.

How many bouts did Robinson go unbeaten between 1943 and 1951?

It is the sixth-longest in professional boxing history.

Who handed Robinson his first professional defeat, in a 1943 rematch in Detroit, after knocking him out of the ring?

LaMotta, 16 pounds heavier, knocked him out of the ring in the eighth round.

How many times did Robinson and LaMotta fight in all?

Robinson won five; LaMotta joked, 'I fought Sugar Ray so often, I almost got diabetes.'

What is the nickname of the 1951 Robinson-LaMotta fight in which Robinson won the middleweight title?

He stopped LaMotta in the 13th round, the first legitimate knockout loss of LaMotta's 95-fight career.

Which Martin Scorsese film depicts the Robinson-LaMotta rivalry?

Robert De Niro played LaMotta.

Which childhood idol did Robinson beat in 1943, later admitting he 'carried' the ageing champion?

He only took the fight because Armstrong needed money.

With whom did Robinson tour Army camps performing exhibition bouts during World War II?

He refused to box when told Black soldiers could not watch.

Why was Robinson denied a welterweight title shot for years despite being 73-1-1 by 1946?

He finally beat Tommy Bell for the vacant title in December 1946.

Whom did Robinson beat in December 1946 to win the vacant world welterweight title?

Bell knocked him down in a fight called 'a war', but Robinson took the 15-round decision.

Robinson dreamt he would kill his opponent before which tragic 1947 title defence in Cleveland?

A priest and a minister persuaded him to fight; Doyle died that night after an eighth-round knockout.

What did Robinson do with the purses from his next four fights after his opponent died following their 1947 bout?

He learned Doyle had intended to buy his mother a house with the fight money.

Robinson donated all but $1 of his purse from which 1950 title defence to cancer research?

He won a lopsided 15-round decision.

What did Robinson tell rival George Costner, who had also adopted his nickname, before knocking him out in under three minutes in 1950?

He added, 'We better touch gloves, because this is the only round.'

Robinson's 50-second knockout of José Basora in 1950 set a middleweight record that stood for how long?

He had earlier fought Basora to a draw in 1945.

Robinson toured Europe in 1951 with 13 companions and what famous car?

It caused quite a stir in Paris, where he was a hero for beating LaMotta.

Why was Robinson a hero in France after his 1951 middleweight title win?

Cerdan died in a plane crash on his way to a rematch with LaMotta.

Robinson was disqualified in Berlin in 1951 for a kidney shot against Gerhard Hecht. Why was that controversial?

The fight was later declared a no-contest.

Which British boxer took the middleweight title from Robinson in London in 1951?

Robinson regained it three months later in front of 60,000 at the Polo Grounds.

Robinson's only knockout defeat came when he collapsed from heat against which light-heavyweight champion in 1952?

Ring temperature at Yankee Stadium was 103 °F; even the referee had to be replaced.

What did Robinson do during his retirement from 1952 to 1954?

He said the dance training was harder than anything he did as a boxer.

Whom did Robinson knock out in two rounds in 1955 to win the middleweight title for a third time?

It was his third victory over Olson.

Robinson called it his career's biggest disappointment when the 1955 fighter of the year award went to whom?

'I haven't forgotten it to this day, and I never will,' he wrote.

Robinson regained the middleweight title for a fourth time in 1957 with what boxing critics call 'the perfect punch'. What was it?

It knocked out Gene Fullmer in the fifth round, the first stoppage of his 44-fight career.

Asked how far his knockout blow against Fullmer had travelled, Robinson replied: 'I can't say. But...'

Fullmer had gone into the rematch a 3-1 favourite.

Robinson became the first boxer to win a divisional world title five times by beating whom in 1958?

He had to go without food for nearly 20 hours to make weight, and closed Basilio's eye by the seventh round.

Both Robinson-Basilio fights won which award from The Ring, for 1957 and 1958?

The 1957 loss drew 38,000 to Yankee Stadium.

Which Boston fighter took Robinson's title by split decision in 1960 and beat him again in the rematch?

Robinson had entered as a 5-1 favourite; a sixth title reign proved beyond him.

Robinson's 1965 no-contest in Norfolk, Virginia came about because his opponent was what?

Neil Morrison signed up as club fighter Bill Henderson and lay down in the second round.

Whom did Robinson lose to in his final fight in November 1965?

The Pittsburgh crowd gave him standing ovations even as he was outboxed.

What was Robinson's final professional record?

He fought 201 professional bouts and ranks among the all-time knockout leaders.

Roughly how much had Robinson earned, and spent, by the time he was broke in 1965?

A trophy given to him at Madison Square Garden was too heavy for any furniture in his small apartment.

Robinson is credited with originating which now-standard feature of celebrity sport?

His included a barber, masseur, voice coach, dwarf mascot and manager George Gainford.

The phrase 'pound for pound' was coined by sportswriters to describe whom?

It let writers compare boxers regardless of weight class.

Which later fighters took the same nickname in homage to Robinson?

Leonard said: 'Believe me, there's no comparison. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest.'

What was the name of Robinson's glamorous Harlem restaurant frequented by Sinatra and Nat King Cole?

He was one of the first African Americans to become a star outside sports.

Robinson's second wife, Edna Mae Holly, was a dancer at which famous venue?

He first tried to get her attention by pushing her into a swimming pool.

In 1999 the Associated Press named Robinson 'fighter of the century' and also the best of the century at which two weights?

The Ring had ranked him the best pound-for-pound fighter in history in 1997.

Robinson founded a youth foundation in 1969 for which city's inner-city area?

Unusually, the foundation does not sponsor a boxing program.

Robinson died of heart disease in 1989 at what age?

He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and diabetes; the cause of death was heart disease.

In which year did the US Postal Service put Robinson on a commemorative stamp?

He had been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

In which small Georgia town was Walker Smith Jr., the future Sugar Ray Robinson, born?

His father farmed cotton, peanuts and corn before moving the family to Detroit.

What was Robinson's professional record by 1951, after eleven years as a pro?

That single loss was to Jake LaMotta in their 1943 rematch in Detroit.

Which Bronx high school did Robinson drop out of in ninth grade, abandoning plans to be a doctor?

He turned to boxing instead and borrowed another youth's AAU card to get into the ring.

Robinson's 1941 win over Fritzie Zivic drew a crowd of 20,551 at which arena?

In the January 1942 rematch Robinson stopped Zivic in the tenth, only the second time Zivic had been counted out in 150-plus fights.

At which hospital did Robinson wake up on April 5, 1944, claiming amnesia after vanishing from his barracks?

A doctor judged his account sincere, and he received an honourable discharge that June.

How long did Robinson need to knock out George Costner, who had also been calling himself 'Sugar'?

Before the bell Robinson told him 'Your name ain't Sugar, mine is.'

In front of how many fans at the Polo Grounds did Robinson regain his title from Randolph Turpin in 1951?

Harlem residents danced in the streets after the tenth-round stoppage.

Which referee, overcome by 103-degree heat, had to be replaced during Robinson's 1952 fight with Joey Maxim?

Robinson himself collapsed at the end of round 13 and could not answer the bell.

What was Robinson's record when he first retired in June 1952 after the Maxim fight?

He came back in 1955 and won the middleweight title three more times.

Gene Fullmer's 1957 knockout by Robinson was the first in how many of Fullmer's career fights?

Robinson had spotted that Fullmer was vulnerable to the left hook.

Which 1968 Frank Sinatra cop film featured Robinson in a small role?

He also appeared in the cult film Candy that year and in an episode of Mission: Impossible.

Where is Sugar Ray Robinson buried?

He died in 1989 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.