The Sugar Ray Robinson Story: Boxing's Comeback King by John Jarrett

Author:John Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

THE COMEBACK

IN OCTOBER 1954, Sugar Ray Robinson was back in America and back in boxing according to the headlines in the sports pages.

‘SUGAR RAY MAY TRY COMEBACK.’

‘SUGAR RAY TALKS OF COMEBACK – IF

PURSE OK.’ ‘BOXING MEN BELIEVE RAY

CAN COME BACK.’

‘No champion ever has come out of retirement to win back a title,’ wrote Oscar Fraley in his Sports Parade column. ‘Yet boxing men – trainers, seconds and managers – find Robinson an absorbing topic as they go about their chores in such spots as Stillman’s Gym. And the surprising part of it is that practically all of them believe that Sugar Ray can fight his way right back to the top. “The big item is the legs,” says Dan Florio, a trainer who worked with such men as Jersey Joe Walcott, Bat Battalino and Paddy De Marco. “Robinson never smoked or drank and he has kept his legs in shape by dancing professionally, which really requires good legs. A couple of tune-ups and he’d be ready for Olson.”

‘And it was surprising how few of them had kind words for Olson, who wears the crown which Robinson gave up two years ago. “Look at him against Rocky Castellani, who is a stab-and-run guy and if you hit him, he goes. So Rocky goes 15 rounds with Olson. Robinson beat Olson twice – and give him a couple of fights to get really ready and he’ll do it all again.”’207

‘I have the urge to fight again,’ Robinson told a press conference in his Harlem café on 15 October 1954, ‘but I won’t make any final decisions until I see how I make out in training. But if I can’t regain the condition that I was once so proud of, then I’ll give the idea up.’208

Sugar Ray looked pretty sharp a few weeks later when he boxed a six-round exhibition with Gene Burton of New York at Hamilton, Ontario. Syracuse promoter Norm Rothschild had motored up to see him and told columnist Jack Slattery, ‘The fellow still has his old class and appeared as feather-footed as ever. True, Gene Burton didn’t provide much in the way of opposition, but that was to be expected.’ The Syracuse contingent visited at length with the former champion and he assured Rothschild that he very much wanted to fight in Syracuse. Robinson, a highly intelligent man, made quite a denouncement of television and claimed that it has ruined the fight game. A squib in Dan Parker’s column of Monday would bear out Sugar Ray’s contention. ‘In 1949, there were 800 boxing clubs in the country. Today, there are only 40.’209

‘Close friends have been unable thus far to dissuade Sugar Ray Robinson from attempting to make a ring comeback after two years on the tap-dancing circuit,’ wrote Gayle Talbot from New York. ‘The once-great fighter is in training and declares he is serious about winning back the 160-pound title. The Sugar Boy says he is 32, the book credits him with 34 years and you probably would be safe in splitting the difference.

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