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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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042489
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04248900.041
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1990-09-17
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MILESTONES, Page 89Pound for Pound, the Best EverSugar Ray Robinson: 1921-1989
Sweet as sugar," his manager once described him. Sweet, sure,
but also swift, strong, smart. Sugar Ray Robinson dazzled the
boxing world. Few fighters could equal his devastating combinations
or match his footwork, the "matador" style that tormented more than
200 opponents. He became welterweight champion in 1946. Five years
later, in the last of six epic brawls with Jake La Motta, he took
the middleweight title. But his real crown transcends all decades
and weight divisions. "Pound for pound, the world's greatest
fighter," boxing historians called him. Few -- especially among his
opponents -- disputed the claim.
Robinson was 67 when he died last week in Los Angeles,
suffering from heart problems, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.
In his 25-year career he won 175 fights, 110 by knockouts, and lost
just 19, five of them in the nine months before he quit the ring
in 1965. He was a hero to generations of young black men, who
adopted his pomaded hairstyle and admired his trademark pink
Cadillac. Muhammad Ali called him "my idol" and borrowed his
dancing style. Sugar Ray Leonard borrowed his name.
He was never kayoed, though in 1952 he collapsed in 130 degrees
heat in Yankee Stadium while trying to wrest the light heavyweight
title from Joey Maxim. Maxim was credited with a knockout. Still
the middleweight champion, Robinson announced his retirement six
months later to try a show-biz career as a tap dancer. He returned
to the ring two years later. In 1955 he canceled Carl ("Bobo")
Olson in the second round and took back the title. He would lose
it and win it back twice more, the last time in a 1958 rematch with
Carmen Basilio.
Born in Detroit as Walker Smith Jr., at twelve he moved with
his mother to Harlem, where during the Depression he honed his
footwork by dancing for coins along Broadway. As a teenage boxer
he borrowed the Amateur Athletic Union card of a fighter named Ray
Robinson and kept the name. Robinson won 85 straight amateur bouts
before turning pro in 1940. His fierce power contributed to the
darkest moment of his career. The day after a welterweight title
bout in 1947, Robinson's opponent, Jimmy Doyle, died from his
injuries. At an inquest, Robinson was asked if he had intended to
get Doyle "in trouble." In an answer that summed up boxing's
workaday brutality, he replied, "It's my business to get him in
trouble."
Robinson could be a shrewd businessman. At his peak he owned
a string of shops, apartment buildings and businesses in Harlem.
But he also lived as extravagantly as his considerable means
allowed, sometimes a bit more so. On tours of Europe he lived it
up with a retinue that included his personal barber and his
longtime trainer, George Gainford. "I went through $4 million," he
once said. "I have no regrets."
It was the need for money that kept him fighting until the
1960s, when his opponents, a decade or more younger, were not
privileged to see the magnificent fighter he had been. After
retirement, when he and his second wife Millie settled in Los
Angeles, Robinson dabbled in acting, appearing in a few TV shows
and movies. But he also founded a center for inner-city youths. To
the end, pound for pound, still the best.