59 Fun Facts About Sugar Ray Robinson

What was Sugar Ray Robinson's birth name?

Walker Smith Jr. never went back to it once his ring name stuck: 'Sugar Ray Robinson had a nice ring to it,' he said. 'Sugar Walker Smith wouldn't have been the same.'

Robinson's father farmed cotton, peanuts and corn in which Southern state before moving the family to Detroit?

Georgia, though accounts still disagree about where he was born: his own memoir says Detroit, soon after the move north, while others give the Georgia farm town of Ailey.

Why did Sugar Ray Robinson first box under the name Ray Robinson?

He used another boy's AAU membership card: too young to be registered himself, he was sent into the ring on the card of a Ray Robinson who had given up boxing, and the name stuck.

Which trainer, often credited with first calling Robinson 'sweet as sugar', guided him for his whole career?

George Gainford is often given the line, though some accounts credit a sportswriter or a woman at ringside. He stayed with Robinson from the amateur days to the end of his career.

Robinson's wife Edna Mae was the cover star of the first issue of which new magazine in 1951?

Jet put Edna Mae Robinson on the cover of its first issue in November 1951, wearing a $10,000 mink coat that her husband had given her for her birthday.

Which amateur tournament did Robinson win twice?

Golden Gloves: he won its New York featherweight title, then the lightweight title a year later. He is usually credited with an unbeaten amateur record, though some historians say he lost twice.

The New York gym where the teenage Robinson learned to box was in the basement of what kind of building?

A church: the Salem-Crescent club trained in the basement of Salem Methodist Church, and at first he only worked out there, because his mother did not want him fighting.

Which jazz trumpeter called Robinson the most important thing in his life besides music?

Miles Davis wrote it of 1954, when he even took on the champion's 'arrogant attitude'; he said the example of Robinson's discipline had helped him kick heroin.

Which former middleweight champion did Robinson knock out in 1952?

Rocky Graziano went down to a single right hand. It was his last shot at the title, and he retired after losing his next fight.

What happened to Robinson in round eight of his first professional defeat, in 1943?

He was knocked through the ropes by Jake LaMotta, a rival 16 pounds heavier, and lost the decision: his first defeat after 40 straight professional wins.

LaMotta joked he fought Sugar Ray so often he almost got what?

Diabetes: they met six times and Robinson won five. In a grim twist, it was Robinson who had the disease in his last years.

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

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place on February 14, and ringside writers borrowed the name of the 1929 gangland shootings for the beating Robinson handed out before the 13th-round stoppage.

Which film depicts the Robinson-LaMotta rivalry?

Raging Bull is based on Jake LaMotta's own memoir, so Robinson, who won five of their six fights, appears only as the opponent; Robert De Niro played LaMotta.

Which boyhood idol, once holder of three world titles at the same time, did Robinson outpoint in 1943?

Henry Armstrong was past his best by then, and Robinson, who won the ten-round decision, was later accused of holding back rather than hurt his hero.

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

Joe Louis, the heavyweight champion and once Robinson's neighbour in Detroit, was kept out of combat so that he could box for the troops, and Robinson was assigned to his tour.

Why was Robinson denied a welterweight title fight until late 1946?

He refused to cooperate with the Mafia, whose fixers controlled much of the sport, and by the time he finally got his chance he had already won more than 70 professional fights.

Which Cuban contender did Robinson outpoint in his 1949 title defence in Philadelphia?

Kid Gavilán, 'the Cuban Hawk', had already lost a non-title decision to Robinson a year earlier; two years after this second defeat he was welterweight champion himself.

Robinson dreamt he would kill which opponent the night before their tragic 1947 title fight in Cleveland?

Jimmy Doyle never regained consciousness after the eighth-round knockout and died the next day. Robinson had tried to withdraw that morning, until a priest was brought in to reassure him.

After a challenger died of injuries from their 1947 title fight, who received money from Robinson?

The dead man's mother: he had been fighting to buy her a house, Robinson's biographer Wil Haygood says, and Robinson gave her money from his next bouts so that she could have it.

Robinson kept just one dollar of a 1950 title purse and gave the rest to what?

Cancer research: the following May he was in Paris as a cancer fund's envoy, and greeted the French president's wife with two kisses on each cheek.

What did Robinson tell George Costner, another boxer calling himself 'Sugar', before their 1950 fight?

'Your name ain't Sugar, mine is,' he said as they met in mid-ring, adding that they had better touch gloves 'because this is the only round'; Costner lasted 2 minutes 49 seconds.

Although New York was his home, Robinson won the middleweight title four of five times in which other city?

Chicago: he won the title there four times, while New York, his home, saw him win it only once and lose it twice.

Which flashy car became Robinson's trademark in his years as champion?

A flamingo-pink Cadillac convertible: it stood outside his nightclub at home and went with him to Europe in 1951, where it caused a stir on the streets of Paris.

Jake LaMotta, the champion Robinson dethroned in 1951, had won the middleweight title from which Frenchman?

Marcel Cerdan lost the title to LaMotta in 1949 and was killed in an air crash on his way to the rematch.

Why was Robinson's 1951 disqualification in Berlin for a kidney punch so disputed?

The blow was legal in the US but a foul under European rules, and the disqualification against Gerhard Hecht was later changed to a no-contest.

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

Randolph Turpin ended Robinson's run of 91 fights without defeat, but was champion for barely two months: Robinson stopped him in the tenth round of their return in New York.

Robinson's only stoppage defeat came when he collapsed from heat against which bigger champion in 1952?

Joey Maxim held the light-heavyweight title and was much the heavier man. In a New York heatwave Robinson could not come out for the 14th round, and even the referee had to be replaced.

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

Sang and tap-danced in show business: he said the dance training was harder than any boxing camp, but with his income and businesses fading he was back in the ring within three years.

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

Bobo Olson had become champion while Robinson was retired, but he never solved him: Robinson won all four of their fights, three of them by knockout.

What did Robinson tell an inquest that asked if he had meant to get his opponent 'in trouble'?

That was his business: 'Mister, it's my business to get him in trouble,' he told the Cleveland coroner after the 1947 death. His mother believed the tragedy haunted him for the rest of his life.

Which punch, often called 'the perfect punch', won Robinson the middleweight title for the fourth time in 1957?

A left hook: Robinson had noticed that Gene Fullmer left his jaw open when he threw a right to the body, and waited for it. Fullmer had beaten him clearly only four months earlier.

After Robinson's famous 1957 punch, what did Gene Fullmer's corner have to tell him?

That he had been counted out: Fullmer recalled getting up and asking why Robinson was 'doing exercises between rounds', jumping up and down, before his corner explained that it was over.

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

Carmen Basilio had beaten him six months earlier; this time Robinson, aged 36, shut Basilio's left eye and took a split decision to win back the title.

Robinson's 1957 title loss and 1958 revenge each won which award from The Ring?

Fight of the Year both times: each man won one on a split decision, and they never met for a decider.

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

Paul Pender won what was left of Robinson's title: the National Boxing Association had already stripped him for not defending it, and he never held a world title again.

When the referee stopped Robinson's sixth fight with Jake LaMotta, where was LaMotta?

Still on his feet: Robinson won five of their six fights but never once knocked him down, and LaMotta was clutching the top rope when the referee stepped in.

Robinson boxed professionally from 1940 to 1965 and won roughly how many fights by knockout?

About 110: record books give between 106 and 110. Yet in all those years he was stopped only once himself, and then by the heat and not by a punch.

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

$4 million: 'I went through four million dollars, but I have no regrets,' he said later, adding that he had not gambled it away but used it to let people live.

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

The entourage: when he sailed for Europe in 1951 about a dozen friends, relatives and staff went with him, a golf pro, a secretary and a masseur among them.

Which phrase did sportswriters make famous by using it to rank Robinson above heavier champions?

Pound for pound: many champions have been called it since, but the phrase is often said to have been coined for him, as a way to compare boxers whatever their weight.

Which young fighter asked Robinson in 1977 whether he minded him using the name 'Sugar Ray'?

Ray Leonard, then just starting out as a professional, got his blessing: 'No, go ahead,' Robinson told him. Leonard later said there was 'no comparison' between them: Robinson 'was the greatest'.

Robinson's nightclub Sugar Ray's, which drew Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, stood in which New York neighbourhood?

Harlem: he bought a row of buildings on Seventh Avenue for the club and his other businesses, a dry cleaner and a lingerie shop among them, and would jump behind the bar to mix drinks for famous guests.

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

The Cotton Club, where Edna Mae Holly was known for dancing on top of a huge drum. By his own account, Robinson first tried to catch her eye by pushing her into a swimming pool.

Why did the huge trophy from Robinson's 1965 farewell night end up on his apartment floor?

No table could bear it: the trophy was inscribed 'the world's greatest fighter', but his only table was a card table with thin legs. 'I knew it wasn't supposed to end that way for me,' he said.

Robinson founded a youth foundation in 1969 for which city's children?

Los Angeles, where he had settled with his wife, Millie. Unusually for a foundation named after a champion, it did not sponsor a boxing program.

Which attendant joined the well-groomed Robinson on his European boxing tours?

Barber: a family friend recalled that Robinson would not go into the ring until his barber had every strand in place, and had his hair put right again between rounds.

Which posthumous honour did Robinson receive in 2006?

A stamp: the Postal Service printed 100 million, giving it block lettering and a portrait from his peak years so that it looked like a poster for one of his fights.

At the 1986 wedding of his old rival Jake LaMotta, what part did Robinson play?

The best man: LaMotta himself asked the man who had beaten him five times, at what was his sixth wedding and one of Robinson's last public appearances.

What was at stake in the Tax Court case Robinson won against the IRS in 1965?

A purse paid over four years: he had his 1957 title-fight earnings spread to 1960 by contract, and the court agreed he owed tax only as the money arrived, not all at once.

On his wartime Army exhibition tour, Robinson refused to box at one camp until which soldiers were allowed to watch?

Black soldiers: he would not appear until they were let in, and in another incident he and his touring partner clashed with a military policeman over a whites-only area.

Robinson made his professional debut in 1940 in a four-round preliminary at which New York venue?

Madison Square Garden: he stopped Joe Echevarria in the second round there, and 25 years later the Garden staged the farewell night that closed his career.

How did Robinson explain vanishing from his Army barracks in 1944, just before his unit sailed for Europe?

Amnesia after a fall: he said he had tumbled down the barracks stairs and remembered nothing for a week. The Army discharged him honourably that June, but parts of the press never let him forget it.

After Jake LaMotta handed Robinson his first professional defeat in 1943, how soon did Robinson win their rematch?

Three weeks later, and he had squeezed in a win over another opponent in between. The day after beating LaMotta he reported for induction into the Army.

About how many fans filled the Polo Grounds for Robinson's 1951 title rematch?

About 60,000: reports give 61,370. For all his New York fame, it was the only one of his five middleweight title wins that came in front of his home crowd.

How did the scorecards stand when the heat stopped Robinson after 13 rounds of a 1952 title fight?

Ahead on all three cards, he needed only to stay on his feet to win, but he could not come out for round 14, the one time in about 200 fights that he was stopped.

How did Robinson's long reign as world welterweight champion come to an end?

He vacated it to move up: he gave away a welterweight belt that nobody had taken from him in the ring, and in February 1951 became middleweight champion instead.

Which future heavyweight champion asked Robinson to be his manager and was turned down?

Muhammad Ali, then the young Cassius Clay, was rebuffed but bore no grudge: he went on calling Robinson 'the king, the master, my idol'.

Why did Robinson go all out in round ten of his 1951 middleweight title rematch?

A cut might stop the fight: bleeding above the eye in a close fight, he gambled everything on one assault, and the referee stopped it in his favour that round.

Boxing historian Bert Sugar wrote that Robinson could deliver a knockout blow while doing what?

Going backward: Robinson fought no single way, and said a boxer has to pattern his style for each fight on the style of the man in front of him.