The best boxer of all time, according to BBN
The sport of boxing is littered with all-time greats but who is the best ever? Find out here!
Who is the best boxer of all-time? This expansive question is often asked, passionately debated, and will always remain ambivalent, meaning the answer can only ever be opinion-led and open-ended. But that’s what’s fun about it!
When boxing fans argue over this impossible dispute, there’s always a regular line-up of usual suspects that appear. Those will mostly include Archie Moore; Ezzard Charles; Bob Fitzsimmons; Willie Pep; Emile Griffith; Tony Canzoneri; Muhammad Ali; Joe Louis; Sugar Ray Leonard; Roberto Duran; Henry Armstrong; Julio Cesar Chavez, to name just a few.
Of more recent times, you’ll find Manny Pacquaio; Floyd Mayweather; Bernard Hopkins; Roy Jones Jr., Pernell Whitaker; Mike Tyson; Evander Holyfield; Lennox Lewis… again, just to list a small number of the many worthy candidates.
But there’s frequently one name that commonly appears atop of this esteemed archive of boxing greats – Sugar Ray Robinson.
The best boxer of all time was born Walker Smith Jr. on May 3, 1921, in Georgia, America, and competed for over a quarter of a century between 1940-1965, and left a behind a legacy that will likely never be bettered.
His amateur record is somewhat lost to history, with reports that he was beaten a couple of times as a teenager, but was officially registered as 85-0 with 69 knockouts, 40 of which came in the first round!
Aged 14, he was too young to enter his first ever boxing tournament, so he used another boxer’s AAU membership card, who had given up boxing, named Ray Robinson.
Not long later, during an amateur bout in his New York hometown, an awestruck lady in the audience remarked that he was “sweet as sugar”, and so his boxing alias was immortalised ever after.
After winning four Golden Gloves tournaments, ‘Sugar’ made his professional debut on October 4, 1940, aged 19, winning by second round stoppage at Madison Square Garden.
After just over two years, the young prospect had reached 40-0. To celebrate his two-year anniversary as a pro, he defeated the ‘Raging Bull’ Jake LaMotta, who would go on to be one of his greatest rivals, but then he began the year of 1943 with his first ever defeat to that very same Bronx bully, who was over 16lbs heavier for their second fight. However, just three weeks later, he got his revenge when he won the trilogy on points.
After winning ‘Fighter of the Year 1942’, the promising prospect then went on an incredible 91-fight winning streak over the next eight years between 1943 to 1951. His impressive run ran for over 100 months or, to be exact, 3,064 days!
In his second decade in the sport, he moved up to middleweight and knocked out Jose Basora in 50-seconds, a record that would stand for the next 38 years.
When Robinson and LaMotta fought for a sixth time in 1951, the match was dubbed ‘The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre’, resulting in Sugar Ray handing LaMotta his first legitimate knockout defeat.
SRR was only ever stopped once in his 201 bouts, when he fought at the Yankee Stadium in 103-degree heat. The referee had to be replaced mid-fight, then Robinson fell victim in the 13th when he collapsed.
His life was extraordinary inside and outside of the ropes. He toured Europe in his pink Cadillac with his 13-strong entourage, some of which were included “just for laughs”.
He served a 15-month term in the U.S. Army with his childhood hero, Joe Louis. The pair would fight in exhibition bouts in front of the troops, but Robinson would often get into trouble with his superiors when they refused to allow black soldiers to watch.
It wasn’t until December 1946 when he first became a world champion because boxing was largely controlled by the Mafia, and the consummate young professional refused to work with the gangsters, which was a brave decision at the time when the New York five families were at their deadliest.
There’s the well documented story of when Sugar Ray backed out of a fight with Jimmy Doyle because he had dreamt he had killed his next opponent in the ring. However, a priest convinced him to fight and Robinson went out that night and knocked Doyle out in the eighth round, later dying in hospital, just as he had envisioned.
He gave Doyle’s mother his fight purses from his next four fights, and often donated many of his fight purses to charity.
He tried his hand at show business, singing and tap dancing, but was never as successful at anything outside of boxing.
Not only does most of the world believe Ray Robinson was the best boxer ever, but Hall of Fame fighters Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard have all endorsed Robinson as the greatest pound-for-pound boxer in history.
He was rightfully inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, just one year on from his untimely death in 1989, aged 67-years-old.
Sugar Ray Robinson Roll of Honour
Amateur Record: W85-L0 69KOs
Professional Record: W174-L19-D6 2NC 109KOs
Ring Magazine titles: Welterweight (1946-1951) / Middleweight (1951, 1951-1952, 1955-1957, 1958-1960)
Sugar Ray Robinson wins ‘eWBSS Middleweight Legends Tournament’