Sugar Ray Regains Title – September 12, 1951

Sugar Ray Robinson wins back the Middleweight Crown

He knocks out Randy Turpin in the 10th round, in front of 61,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York.

In 1951, Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer famously described Robinson as “the greatest all-around fighter pound-for-pound in any division.” More than 60 years later, many boxing experts today still agree with Fleischer’s assessment.

Bleacher Report
Sugar Ray Robinson is credited with being the reason for the creation of the mythical pound-for-pound rankings that today occupy so much of the debate and discussion that goes on in the boxing world.

Boxingnews24
Sugar Ray Robinson. Ali’s idol makes number one on my list like every other credible list. Watching him fight was regarded as being ” sweet as sugar” and from the brief footage I’ve seen and from what I’ve read and heard he deserves top spot. In his first twelve years as a professional he only lost one fight and he avenged it many times over.
Read more at http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/04/the-greatest-15-boxers-pound-4-pound-of-all-time/#fTGaY4dSvCrfwouk.99

ESPN
“Pound for pound, the best.” The claim has been used to describe many boxers, but it was invented for Sugar Ray Robinson.

After stopping Jake Lamotta on February 14, 1951 (The St. Valentines Day Massacre) Robinson won an unanimous decision in a non-title against Holly Mims on April 5 of that year. Four days later (Things were different then.) he fought another non-title bout against Don Ellis, and he knocked out Ellis in the first round.

Robinson fought and won two non-title bouts in April of 1951. Then he sailed to Europe and fought six non-title fights (Paris, Zurich, Antwerp, Liege, Berlin and Torino). On July 10 he lost his title to Randy Turpin in London. Turpin a “Negro Englishman,” won a 15-round decision in what was is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in the history of boxing. By all accounts Turpin won the fight decisively.

Robinson had a re-match clause in his contract, so the stage was set for Robison-Turpin II. Here’s what Alistair Cooke wrote about the fight in the Manchester Guardian.

Last night Sugar Ray Robinson, tiring to the point of panic before the concrete insensibility of Turpin’s massive flesh, wrung everything he had from a brave heart, fought from his finger-tips, and at last had Turpin helpless against the ropes, his arms by his thighs, his stubborn body reeling back and forth like a beaten bull when the flags go in.

I have never seen a human being receive so much punishment with such dumb bravery. For almost a whole minute Robinson crashed and shot and pounded at him until his head sagged from one side to the other with the flopping rhythm of a broken pendulum. An old man sitting next to me lit a cigar with deadly precision, keeping his eyes steadily above the flame on the crumbling Turpin. “Thirty seconds more” he sold quietly. ” and we’ll have another Flores on our hands.” (Flores, the young boxer killed ten days ago by a similar bravery before just such an onslaught.)

It did seem then that Turpin should be rescued to fight another day. If there had been another minute, I do believe that he would have gone down and out for a long time to come. But pride never lacks pretext and unfortunately there were only eight seconds of that round to go when the referee bounded in and scissored his arms to stop the fight Turpin fell on him in a face-down dive, and it seemed to one no more than twenty feet away that it was a gesture of ox-like gratitude.