5. Sugar Ray Robinson KO 3 Rocky Graziano – 1952
Ray Robinson was still very close to the peak of his powers by this stage of his career. He was the reigning 2-time world middleweight champion with a record that stood at a staggering 131-2-2 coming into this fight.
Rocky Graziano wasn’t a walk in the park for anybody. He was a tough, no-nonsense typical Italian-American tough guy who only knew how to march straight ahead and relentlessly come at the man opposite him.
He was one of the many former world middleweight champions to lock horns with Sugar Ray Robinson and he was also one of the many to be put into a state of unconsciousness by the man who was dubbed ‘As sweet as Sugar’.
A looping right hand from Graziano caught Robinson by surprise early in the third round which caused ‘Sugar Ray’ to drop to one knee.
Robinson rose from the canvas embarrassed and incensed. Less than a minute later, Robinson put Rocky down and out for the count after a solid right hand left him disorientated and had him flailing his legs around, trying to wake them up.
4. Sugar Ray Robinson TKO 10 Randy Turpin – 1951
https://youtu.be/Z3npTVGLrCs?t=5m16s
Sugar Ray Robinson regained the world middleweight championship for the first time against the rugged Briton, Randy Turpin. Turpin had overwhelmed Robinson in their first meeting.
Turpin was physically very strong and held an advantage over Robinson in this department and exploited that to his full advantage.
However, that first fight between Turpin and Robinson happened on away soil with the quote famously said that ‘Robinson had left his legs in Paris”. During the tour, a string of extramarital affairs led to a Robinson turning up not in peak condition.
That was not the case in the rematch however. The great Sugar Ray Robinson systematically chopped down the rugged Briton and brutally annihilated him with a fusillade of blows after trapping him on the ropes in the tenth round.
3. Sugar Ray Robinson KO 2 Bobo Olson – 1955
This was a pivotal moment in Sugar Ray Robinson’s career, he had retired in 1952 following an unsuccessful attempt at Joey Maxim’s world light heavyweight title.
He had chosen to focus his attention on his dream of performing by singing and dancing. However he didn’t find as much acclaim as he did in the squared circle.
By 1954, all of Robinson’s business had collapsed or were hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. So he had to embark on a return to the ring to save himself from his financial quagmire.
According to Ray’s autobiography, ‘Sugar Ray’ many inside Ray’s camp felt Robinson was going to lose and were attempting to jump ship.
Robinson hurt by this, had a fire lit inside of him and he once again upset all the odds to become the first man to win the world middleweight title three times.
Robinson for the first time in his long and decorated career broke down into tears on the way back to the dressing room because so many had lost belief in him but it didn’t matter he still showed he had so much to offer.
2. Sugar Ray Robinson TKO 13 Jake LaMotta – 1951
Jake LaMotta is commonly remembered as one of the toughest specimens to ever lace up a pair of gloves. He definitely possessed one of the most durable chins to ever grace the sport.
LaMotta was also one of the greatest middleweight champions of all time. He was the first man to have ever beaten Robinson, he snapped his 40-0 unbeaten streak but however he lost the four bouts which followed all by decision.
Robinson was maturing and had now stepped up to campaign as a full-fledged middleweight. Robinson had never put LaMotta on the canvas and he wanted to emphatically close out the LaMotta saga with a violent ending.
LaMotta after coming down from the heavyweight limit of over 200 lbs for this following his widespread problems with gorging in his diet and drinking to excess.
He was fatiguing at an alarming rate and by the tenth round, he was running on empty. LaMotta feeling the fight slipping away from him, made a last desperate stand and bulled Robinson into a corner and unfurled all the damage he humanly could.
But it wasn’t enough and Robinson came out of the corner blazing and the fight changed right there.
Lamotta famously recalled his memories from the carnage of the latter rounds, “he threw a left hand, right hand, left hook that was so fast that it felt like one punch.”
Robinson’s former sparring partner, Dino Woodward’s face winced as he was asked to recall his ringside view memories of that fateful 13th round. “Ray was a tortured soul and I could see he was unleashing everything inside on him.”
The referee mercifully waved off the carnage, but a proud LaMotta never went down to the canvas and he never let Robinson forget it!
1. Sugar Ray Robinson KO 5 Gene Fullmer – 1957
https://youtu.be/9xMLt9Vakrg?t=18m17s
This knockout is fondly looked at as ‘the greatest left hook in the history of boxing’. Gene Fullmer was tough as the side of a building, basic and one dimensional in his approach, but he was good at what he did and he was a tough son of a gun who just kept coming no matter what came at him.
Fullmer had already overwhelmed and mauled the physically inferior Sugar Ray Robinson to a decision victory in their first meeting.
The first four rounds were more of the same, Fullmer finding success mauling, brawling and jumping in and imposing himself on Robinson.
Fullmer had never been hurt from a punch in his entire career. Before or following this fight, nobody had ever conceived the impenetrable Fullmer could be hurt.
Following the fourth, it was rumoured that Robinson was contemplating calling it quits before his corner talked him into coming out one more round. That one round was the end of Fullmer.
Robinson had one last trick up his sleeve and he cunningly set up the knockout blow by delivering a series of right hands to the body.
Those shots, caused Fullmer to drop his guard momentarily as he stepped in expecting another body shot but instead had his head deposited somewhere in the orbit following a picture-book left hook.
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