System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Walter "Sugar Ray" Robinson, World Boxing Champion
May 03, 1920 - April 12, 1989
Sugar Ray Robinson, Welterweight and 5-time Middleweight Champion of the World was born May 3, 1921 in Black Bottom, Detroit. Sugar Ray and his family had a tough time trying to make ends meet. His family was constantly on the run, moving from apartment to apartment. His father who was a serious alcoholic, could not support the family and eventually became physically abusive. Sugar Ray’s mother filled for divorce and moved Sugar Ray and his sisters to New York City. Sugar Ray's first encounter with boxing occurred when a classmate asked him to go to his uncles gym. The classmate introduced Sugar Ray to his Uncle George Gainford. George Gainford spotted the raw talent Sugar Ray possessed, he was so impressed that he took Sugar Ray under his wing and became his professional career trainer.
Sugar Ray quickly earned himself a reputation for being a force not to be reckoned with. He earned the nickname Sugar Ray after a sports journalist described his boxing performance as being "sweet as sugar." Sugar Ray was described by many to have moves as graceful as a dancer, but the force and fury of a wild bull. In his 25 year career Sugar Ray fought some of the toughest contenders of all time. Some of those opponents were: Fritzie Zivic, Randy Turpin, Carl "Bobo" Olson, Gene Fullmer, and Rocky Graziano. Sugar Ray was so successful in his bouts that he won most of these titles either by title defences or reclamations, and almost all of them by knockout.
Sugar Ray retired from boxing in 1965, achieving an outstanding career some can only dream about. He fought in 18 World Boxing Championships and accomplished a career record of 175-19-6 with 109 KO's. He later moved to Los Angeles, California where he established the Ray Robinson Youth Foundation to help under privileged kids. He devoted much of his time and energy into his foundation, which provided resources to children of race and poverty. Sugar Ray Robinson died of Alzheimer's disease on April 12, 1989 at the age of 67.
