The Rise of Sugar Ray Robinson

The man who would become famous as arguably the greatest boxer in history was born Walker Smith, Jr. on May 3, 1921 in Ailey, Georgia. In his autobiography, Later on, when he was known as Sugar Ray Robinson, Smith would claim that he was born in Detroit, but his official records indicate Ailey. He was the youngest of three children, and his family moved from sharecropping peanuts and cotton in Georgia to Detroit when Smith was still very young. Smith, Sr. was a hard-working man who held down two jobs and often left the house at six and came home around midnight, but he also struggled with the bottle. That ultimately led Smith's mother to seek divorce and take the children with her to New York.

Walker Smith, Jr. dropped out of school in the 9th Grade and took up boxing, and it was in his first effort to box in an amateur competition that gave rise to his lifelong moniker. Smith was only 14, but the minimum age for competing in AAU events was 16, so Smith circumvented the rules by adopting the identity of an older friend named Ray Robinson. From that moment on, Smith was "Ray Robinson" as far as the boxing world was concerned. The appellation "Sugar" came later, when his future manager described him as "sweet as sugar."

As Ray Robinson, Smith enjoyed a stellar amateur career, ultimately compiling a record of 85-0 with 69 KOs, 40 of those in the 1st Round. Along the way he won the featherweight and lightweight New York and National Golden Gloves titles. By October 1940, Robinson was 19 years old and ready to turn pro.

Sweet Rise to Contention
Sugar Ray Robinson was in his first tussle with a contender by July 1941, with less than one year but a full 20 fights under his belt as a professional. He met Sammy Angott, a tough brawler and the current lightweight champion, in Philadelphia. According to news reports, Robinson used "darting jabs, whistling left hooks and booming bolo punches, rights that came up from the floor" to floor Angott in the 3rd and thoroughly dominate the fight, winning a Unanimous Decision over 10 Rounds. It was a resounding statement from the 20 year old fighter.

Robinson's next big test came only two months later, when he met a different fighter in Marty Servo. Servo was a a slick boxer rather than a rugged battler, and at the time he was undefeated. Servo would later go on to win the World Welterweight Title in 1946, but in this encounter Robinson used deft footwork to fend off Servo's aggression and land vicious encounters. Servo won only three rounds on the cards, but in reality the fight was closer than that. Nonetheless, Robinson won a clean points victory.

In a perfect example of how much different boxing was in the 1940s, Sugar Ray Robinson went straight from his challenging encounter with Servo into a fight with "The Croat Comet," Fritzie Zivic. The 28 year old Zivic was a former welterweight champion with a 111-26-5 record, and remains widely regarded as one of the toughest and dirtiest fighters that ever lived. The bout between the popular, highly regarded Zivic and the rising star Robinson drew a crowd of over 20,000 to Madison Square Garden, and they were not disappointed. Robinson swept the first half of the fight, the Zivic stormed back and landed a succession of damaging punches on Sugar Ray. The Sweet One rallied and wobbled Zivic and then controlled the rest of the fight, clinching a points victory.

The bout led to a clamor for a rematch, so Robinson vs. Zivic II was staged in January 1942. It was in this bout that Robinson made the first step to building a reputation as a dangerous rematch fighter. Robinson slaughtered Zivic, who only survived to the 10th Round by sheer grit and durability. Robinson stopped Zivic in the 10th and established himself as a national sports figure.

Domination
In modern times, beating the reigning lightweight champion and two top contenders would earn a man a shot at the title. In the 1940s, with only one welterweight world championship available, Sugar Ray Robinson would need to wait longer. Robinson kept busy by mixing fights with journeymen and real contenders. In May 1942, he fought Marty Servo again. This time it was Servo who improved on his past performance, and in a close fight Robinson was lucky to escape with a Split Decision. Many observers thought Servo won the fight. Robinson then defeated Sammy Angott again July 1942.

By this time, Sugar Ray Robinson had fully developed his iconic style, which was based on a supreme mastery of two fundamental concepts in boxing: how to put all of the human body in motion behind punches and how to use space and angles to maximize both offense and defense. No fighter before or sense has had a better understanding of these two elements of the sweet science as Sugar Ray Robinson, which made him the quintessential boxer-puncher. Robinson remains to this day the only boxer in history capable of knocking out first-rate opponents while moving backwards.

With no title shot on the horizon, Robinson had few big money options at this point. So, he fought middleweight contender Jake LaMotta. "The Raging Bull" was a fierce puncher with a steel chin, and outweighed Robinson by almost 13 lbs. Fighting from the outside, Robinson out-boxed and out-punched LaMotta. Robinson closed out 1942 by first out-pointing and then knocking out Maryland-based contender Izzy Jannazzo in two fights.

In February 1943, Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson met in a rematch at the Olympic Stadium in Detroit, and someone finally got the better of the Sweet One. Robinson started by out-boxing LaMotta from the outside, but the Raging Bull was in the zone and overwhelmed Robinson. That LaMotta outweighed Robinson by almost 16 pounds certainly helped as well. Sugar Ray was literally knocked out of the ring in Round 8, and lost all five of the last rounds of the fight. Robinson came back for a rubber match only three weeks later, and managed to out-box and out-punch LaMotta again, despite being floored by the Bull in the 7th Round.

Robinson was inducted into the US Army in February 1943, but this barely interfered with his boxing career. That same year he agreed to fight aging legend Henry Armstrong, a former featherweight, lightweight and welterweight champion, but for the sole reason of earning a payday for the financially troubled Armstrong. Although only 31, Armstrong was quite shopworn by then, and Robinson carried him through the fight in an effort to avoid hurting him. He also flattened Izzy Jannazzo in a rubber match.

No Title Shot? No Problem
By 1945, Robinson was out of his brief stint in the Army and opened the year by out-pointing contender Tommy Bell. Sugar Ray then fought Jake LaMotta a fourth time and cleanly out-pointed him as well. In May, Robinson hit a speed bump in the form of Jose Basora, a middleweight and defensively awkward counter-puncher. Basora managed to do what few men ever did to the pin-point accurate Robinson, namely make him miss, and as a result earned a Draw. In September, Robinson and LaMotta met for a fifth time, and this time Robinson pulled out a close Split Decision win. Robinson had the style to hold LaMotta at bay, but LaMotta's durability, size, power and determination continued to make each bout competitive and exciting.

By now Robinson was richly deserving of a title shot, but he was ducked by first Freddie Cochran and then old rival Marty Servo. Having cleaned the welterweight division out by this time, Robinson had no choice but to fight frequently and against old opponents to make money. In March 1946 he fought both Izzy Jannazzo and Sammy Angott again, and handily beat them both.

After spending the mid-1940s in neutral, Sugar Ray Robinson finally got his chance. Instead of fighting the worthy Robinson, Marty Servo instead took a lucrative bout with middleweight Rocky Graziano. The bigger man beat Servo so badly that the champion's career was effectively ruined, and he subsequently abdicated the title. A showdown over the vacant title was arranged between Robinson and Tommy Bell for December. Robinson struggled for the first third of the fight, but eventually asserted control. Bell rallied and took the 13th and 14th, but by then both men were exhausted and Bell could neither sustain his momentum or hurt Robinson. The result was hard-won victory that finally made Sugar Ray Robinson the Welterweight World Champion.

Sources: cyberboxingzone.com; boxrec.com; archival fight footage; The Ring magazine; ibhof.com; ESPN.