Sugar Ray Robinson

Widely considered by almost everyone to be the greatest fighter to have ever lived but was his career above Welterweight carefully managed or pure coincidence?

At Welterweight he faced the best men the division had to offer at the time in Gavilan, Armstrong, Zanelli, Bell, Docusen, Doyle, Janazzo, Zivic, Rangel, Rubio, Servo, Angott, Mcdaniels,Costner and Wilson, it's also important to remember that whilst at the top Charley Burley had since moved up to middleweight holding no ranking at 147lbs. He held wins over more than 20 fighters who held a top ten ranking in the division during the 1940's so safe to say he came as close to completely cleaning out a division as you can.

It is two moments after that I feel are too coincidental not to be linked, he tilted at the middleweight and light heavyweight titles against La Motta and Maxim, two very fine fighters in their own right but in a talent rich era possibly the weakest champions in their respective divisions. During the reigns of Cerdan and Zale there seemed to be little interest from Robinson in moving up to face the champion, as a fighter who had gained massive celebrity status already he would have had no problem in making the fights happen. What then transpires is the title making its way into the hands of Jake LaMotta a fighter he had beaten 4 out of five previously ultimately gaining a clear superiority over him, it is at this point he starts making noises about moving up, it may be coincidence of course.

We then also have to consider his tilt against Maxim, a very good fighter but one who had a habit of losing to the best, Robinson came as close as you possibly can in a losing effort before succumbing to the torturous heat. He had outboxed Maxim with ease so a future tilt at the title seemed obvious but after a short retirement he returns with the great Archie Moore as champion, no interest was shown in attempting to succeed where he had previously failed.

Were LaMotta and Maxim pure coincidence or were they carefully managed fights where the chance of success was at it's greatest?

It's these kind of articles I like, because it's a very good one. And yet, I don't really agree with any of it. Always makes for good debate, hats off Ghosty.

I'd say that Robinson 'waiting' until 1951 to challenge for 160 lb honours owes much more to his refusal to cooperate with the mob rather than any careful manoeuvering on his part. Don't forget that La Motta leapfrogged Robinson to a title shot for wholly imoral purposes, having agreed to take a dive against Billy Fox and paying the mob $20,000 for the privilege.

That deal was agreed upon in 1949, so with La Motta guaranteed a shot before him from that point onwards, the earliest Robinson could have challenged for the Middleweight belt was 1948, just two years after lifting the Welterweight crown. Given that he'd had to wait so long to claim any kind of world title (the press were calling him the "uncrowned Lightweight champion of the world" as early as 1942), I don't blame Robinson at all for wanting to get as much mileage out of his Welterweight title as possible.

As for the Maxim issue, well again I'd say that we need to concentrate on the positives; who could really blame someone of Robinson's physical dimensions and build for not wanting any part of an Archie Moore who carried one hell of a punch at Light-Heavyweight and who routinely fought fully-fledged Heavyweights while himself looking healthy at 200 lb or more? I'd say that performing against a man of Maxim's size the way he did was a feat in itself, certainly can't blame him for sticking to the Middleweights upon his return, and after all, the likes of Basilio, Olson and Fullmer were hardly patsies, were they?

Even then, there were at least some negotiations for another 175 lb title tilt against Moore. In 'Pound for Pound', Herb Boyd delves in to Robinson's second wife's memoirs and reveals that Moore was even invited to Robinson's house to negotiate a deal.

Don't think there's any real indication that Robinson's feats above Welterweight were manufactured or helped by careful fight selection or avoidance, personally, but good article all the same.

I agree with everything you say Chris but had these coincidences happened to any other fighter I feel they would have would been lambasted for it. Even if we consider the Welterweight division, it had a sudden upsurge in quality after Robinson moved up with Basilio, Bratton, Saxton, Turner and DeMarco all being at the forefront. The skeptic in me puts two and two together and gets five.

Have to disagree Ghosty....I think he was all wrong for Archie......

But it's interesting stuff..

At the time the fight was a realistic proposition think it's too close to call myself Truss, Robinson had declined while Moore seemingly laughed in the face of father time but strangely think the bigger man in this match up is more vulnerable to being stopped. He had many gifts, one of the finest tacticians of any era but his whiskers did let him down from time to time.