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Headline Story/March 27, 2006
Sugar Ray Robinson
Stamp To Be A Big Hit
The 1950s
photograph of Sugar Ray Robinson taken at the height of his career is
depicted on this stamp to be issued on April 7 in New York City
Resembling a vintage fight poster from the 1940s and '50s, the Sugar Ray
Robinson stamp design features block lettering and a halftone image of
Robinson created from a photographic portrait made during his peak
fighting years.
In his prime, as a six-time world champion boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson
(1921-1989), was virtually unbeatable in the ring. He reigned as the
undefeated world welterweight champion from Dec. 20, 1946, until Feb. 14,
1951, when he won the world middleweight title for the first of five
times.
His portrait appeared on the cover of the June 25, 1951, issue of TIME
magazine - the caption read "Sugar Ray Robinson: Rhythm in his feet and
pleasure in his work." In 1967 he was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame.
The former editor of The Ring magazine ranked Robinson No. 1 in his 1984
book "The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time." He was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and nine years later a panel of
experts assembled by the Associated Press named Sugar Ray Robinson the No.
1 "fighter of the century."
Sugar Ray Robinson was born Walker Smith, Jr., on May 3, 1921 - either in
Ailey, GA, (according to his birth certificate) - or in Detroit, MI,
(according to his autobiography). In 1932 his mother moved with Walker and
his two sisters from Detroit to New York City. They settled in Harlem,
where Walker's natural talent in the ring was noticed at a local gym. He
fought amateur matches using, as the story goes, a borrowed Amateur
Athletic Union card that had been issued to a youth named Ray Robinson.
Building a reputation for himself under the assumed name (which he would
later take as his own), he fought a total of 85 amateur bouts and won them
all - 69 by knockout, 40 in the first round. The now legendary moniker
"Sugar Ray" was coined by a sportswriter for the youngster who sure was a
"sweet fighter." In 1939 he captured the Golden Gloves featherweight
title. In 1940, after winning the Golden Gloves lightweight championship,
Sugar Ray Robinson became a professional boxer.
Robinson launched his career with a second-round knockout of Joe
Echeverria on Oct. 4, 1940, at Madison Square Garden. He also won his next
39 fights (29 by knockout) before experiencing his first loss - to
middleweight Jake "The Bull" LaMotta in a ten-round bout on Feb. 5, 1943,
in Detroit. Three weeks later he won a ten-round rematch with LaMotta.
On Feb. 14, 1951 - in a bloody fight that afterward was dubbed boxing's
St. Valentine's Day Massacre - Robinson took the world middleweight
championship from Jake LaMotta with a technical knockout in the 13th
round. But his July 10, 1951, defeat in London by British fighter Randy
Turpin (the second loss of his career) cost him the middleweight title. In
their rematch two months later at the Polo Grounds in New York City, he
regained the crown with a tenth-round technical knockout. In 1952 he
retained the title against Carl "Bobo" Olson and Rocky Graziano. Sugar
Ray's third and last fight in 1952 was a challenge for Joey Maxim's light
heavyweight title. In an outdoor bout on June 25 at Yankee Stadium,
Robinson suffered the only technical knockout of his entire career when he
collapsed with heat exhaustion. Although ahead on points, he didn't answer
the bell for the 14th round and Maxim was declared the victor.
Sugar Ray announced his retirement from boxing on Dec. 18, 1952, but he
returned to the ring at the beginning of 1955. With a second-round
knockout of Carl Olson during their Dec. 9, 1955, fight in Chicago,
Robinson once again reigned as world middleweight champion. Over the next
couple of years he would lose the title twice, regaining it each time in
rematches. He knocked out Fullmer in the fifth round of their rematch with
a dramatic left hook that is still referred to as the "perfect" punch. But
on January 22, 1960, he lost the middleweight title to Paul Pender in a
split decision and was unable to regain it in their rematch five months
later. He continued to box until retiring for good at the end of 1965. The
trophy he received in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 10,
1965, was inscribed "The World's Greatest Fighter."
Robinson later moved to Los Angeles where he worked as an actor, obtaining
small roles in a few television shows and movies. He established the Sugar
Ray Robinson Youth Foundation in 1969 to help inner-city youngsters
develop their skills in sports, fine arts, and performing arts. He died
from complications of Alzheimer's disease and diabetes on April 12, 1989. |
