Sugar Ray Robinson’s deadly encounter with Jimmy Doyle: The boxing great saw him killing Doyle in a dream
Sugar Ray Robinson had a premonition about his fight with Jimmy Doyle a day before the fight.
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Robinson knocks out Doyle in the 8th round of their fight (Via Boxing Rec)
Sugar Ray Robinson went up against Jimmy Doyle, an ambitious 22-year-old boxer who wished to snatch the belt off of the 79-1 boxer. Only this fight almost did not happen because of a dream Robinson had the day prior.
Robinson had a dream about what exactly would happen to his opponent were he to fight him.
The night before, the fight with (Jimmy Doyle) I dreamed in my sleep that I knocked him out, and he died in the ringSugar Ray Robinson via a talk show
The following day, Robinson expressed his refusal to go forward with the fight to the commissions. When they asked him for a reason, he told them about his dream. The commissions, much more interested in making money, convinced Robinson that these were simply unfounded worries.
“They called a catholic priest and a minister, and they came, and they talked to me and they said go ahead with the fight and just like I dreamed Aldo, I hit him with a left hook and he died in the ring”, said Robinson talking about the unfortunate incident.
After this accident, Robinson would find it difficult to hit as hard as he could as he was very well made aware of the consequences. It only enforced his belief of boxing as a toned-down excuse for Barbarism.
Sugar Ray Robinson might have thrown the punch but the Athletic Commission killed Jimmy Doyle
Unlike what Robinson said, Doyle actually did try to get up despite the knockdown. He only succumbed to his injuries when he failed to regain consciousness in the hospital afterward. However, that’s not the only part of the story he got wrong.
While Robinson will have forever blamed himself for throwing the punch that grounded Doyle, it was not he who killed the young fighter. Doyle had previously taken a lot of damage in his prior fights. So much so, that his native, California Commission would not sanction his fights anymore.
Hence when Robinson fought Doyle in Cleveland, it was the responsibility of the respective commission to make sure of the well-being of both fighters.
Years later it would become known that Doyle had only one goal in life, buying his mother her own house. Robinson was made aware of this fact. He then donated the purses for his next 4 fights to the mother of Jimmy Doyle, finally allowing her son’s dream to come true.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)