Sugar Ray Robinson’s toughest fight came when his mother found out that he was a boxer
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Sugar Ray Robinson talks about the time his mother found out he was a boxer
If you ask Sugar Ray Robinson, the toughest fight of his life was not against legendary boxers like Isadoro Jannazzo, Henry Armstrong, or even his many fights against Jake LaMotta. That was a whipping he suffered at the hands of his mother, even before his 200-fight, professional career even started.
Robinson was never actually the boxer’s name, instead, he was born Walker Smith Jr. to Smith Sr. and Leila Hurst. Initially, he wanted to become a doctor, a passion he had to quit at 14 years of age when he dropped out of high school. It was then that Robinson finally decided to make boxing his permanent home.
However, when he tried to enter an amateur competition he soon found out, that he’d have to wait two more years to be eligible for a license. Thinking quickly, Smith Jr. borrowed the license of a friend named Ray Robinson, who had recently quit pursuing boxing. He was so memorable within the ring that the name soon stuck, with him never being able to go back to using his original name.
In his amateur career, Robinson reportedly had a flawless record of 85-0, winning 69 of them via KO. He would capture the Golden Gloves Featherweight championship in 1939 and the Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1940 at ages 17 and 18 respectively.
Related: When legendary boxer Sugar Ray Robinson called boxing a “BARBARIC” sport
Sugar Ray Robinson’s mother finds out about his secret life as a Boxer
While talking to Jack Magan in 1952, onboard the ship, SS Niew Amsterdam on his way to a trip across Europe, Robinson detailed on how his mother was the toughest “opponent” of his life due to his antics and escapades into boxing.
“I’ll tell you Jack, the toughest fight I had out of the ring, was when my mother found out, that I was fighting”, said Robinson as an amused Magan asked him to provide further details. Robinson continued, “Well you know my name originally not being Robinson, my name originally being Walker Smith, I changed my name, rather I borrowed a friend of mine’s birth certificate, who was Ray Robinson, in order to obtain a boxing license”
Sugar Ray Robinson, had initially hoped to give the real Ray Robinson his birth certificate back when he came of age, however, those plans were futile. He said, “I started fighting as an amateur named Ray Robinson, and thanks to God I was very successful and popularized his name and I had to keep it”, joking that he would never go by his real name again.
“For a long time, I sort of baffled my mother, because of the different name, but one day she looked in the paper and saw a picture of me“, said Robinson about the moment his mother finally realized what her son was actually doing. “That was about the worst whipping I ever got”, reminisced Robinson as Magan broke out into laughter.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)