The eternally celebrated, in fact, for many people, the incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson engaged in some savage ring rivalries. Many fans instantly think of Sugar Ray’s multiple wars with Jake LaMotta, perhaps Robinson’s fiercest rival. Or maybe fans think of Sugar’s savage battles with Carmen Basilio. Or possibly Robinson’s many encounters with Bobo Olson.
But some argue that the four-ring battles the man born Walker Smith Jr had with the fearsome, rock-chinned Gene Fullmer rank as Robinson’s most testing and memorable fights. Battling it out with the world middleweight title on the line (welterweight being Sugar’s prime and optimum weight), Robinson and Fullmer gave the world some amazing, back-and-forth stuff.
Fight-one took place on this day in 1957. Robinson, already 36 years old and sporting an astonishing 140-4-2 record, was enjoying his third reign as middleweight king. Fullmer was a rough, tough warrior a decade younger, with Gene sporting a 37-3 record. Fullmer had never been stopped, whereas Robinson had, this when he had been beaten by the combined force of over 100-degree heat and the size and strength of Joey Maxim in a light-heavyweight title challenge.
Fullmer, as hungry as a starving animal, gave Sugar Ray a hefty beating, with him flooring Robinson in the seventh round. Sugar was also cut above the left eye. Robinson somehow managed to hang in there to the end, but he was soundly beaten on points – the scores being 10-5, 9-6, 8-5 in favor of the new middleweight champion.
Robinson had revenge on his mind when he left the ring in New York.
The return occurred just four months later, and this time, the boxing world witnessed what might be the knockout of the ages.
Pushing 37, Robinson, fighting Fullmer in Chicago, scored a truly special – it has to be studied, to this day, by any boxing aficionados – one-punch KO over the never previously unstopped Gene. Going slightly backward in round five, Sugar Ray flashed in a blitzing left hook that landed flush on Fullmer’s jaw. Down and totally out – Gene later said he had no memory of the punch or the state it left him in – Fullmer would forever be featured in the film as the man on the receiving end of the most incredible KO ever.
It was now 1-1.
Fight three took place in December of 1960, this time in Boston. By now, Sugar Ray was pushing 40, a seriously battle-hardened 144-8-2. Fullmer rebounded from his KO loss to Robinson, beating Sugar’s one-time conqueror Basilio to regain the middleweight crown. Now, coming off a stoppage win over Carmen in a rematch, Fullmer was to be pushed to the limit by Robinson. The fight was a tough, at times hard to watch, let alone score, 15-rounder. Fullmer kept hold of his title by way of a controversial draw.
Had Sugar Ray been handed the decision win most felt he deserved, we would today be talking about a SIX-Time middleweight king, not a five-timer, as Ray, of course, was. Truly incredible stuff.
Fight-four saw Fullmer pound out a clear 15-round decision win over a Sugar Ray who, by all natural logic, should have been long retired at this stage. The final fight in this particular rivalry took place in Las Vegas, and Fullmer rounded out this series the way it began – with him winning via UD.
Fullmer and Robinson shared a ring for just shy of 50 rounds. Gene ultimately won the series by a score of 2-1-1. But today, when we look back at the fights Sugar Ray and Fullmer had, we boxing historians realize that we are the real winners.
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