SUGAR RAY ROBINSON AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PROGRAM BOXING HOF

Description

SUGAR RAY ROBINSON HAND SIGNED AUTOGRAPHED PROGRAM.
Sugar Ray Robinson
(born
Walker Smith Jr.
; May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989) was an American
professional boxer
who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame
in 1990. He is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time.
Robinson was a dominant amateur, but his exact amateur record is not known. It is usually listed as 85–0 with 69 knockouts, 40 in the first round. However it has been reported he lost to
Billy Graham
and Patsy Pesca as a teenager under his given name, Walker Smith Jr. He turned professional in 1940 at the age of 19 and by 1951 had a professional record of 128–1–2 with 84 knockouts. From 1943 to 1951 Robinson went on a 91-fight
unbeaten streak
, the third-longest in professional boxing history. Robinson held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951, and won the world middleweight title in the latter year. He retired in 1952, only to come back two-and-a-half years later and regain the middleweight title in 1955. He then became the first boxer in history to win a divisional world championship five times (a feat he accomplished by defeating
Carmen Basilio
in 1958 to regain the middleweight championship). Robinson was named "fighter of the year" twice: first for his performances in 1942, then nine years and over 90 fights later, for his efforts in 1951. Historian
Bert Sugar
ranked Robinson as the greatest fighter of all time and in 2002, Robinson was also ranked number one on
The Ring
magazine's list of "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years". As of October 2020,
BoxRec
ranks Robinson as the fourth greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time. BoxRec also gave 31 of Robinson's victorious fights a 5-Star rating.
Renowned for his classy and flamboyant lifestyle outside the ring, Robinson is credited with being the originator of the modern sports "
entourage
". After his boxing career ended, Robinson attempted a career as an entertainer, but it was not successful. He struggled financially until his death in 1989. In 2006, he was featured on a commemorative stamp by the
United States
798