Sugar Ray Robinson's Top Five Matches - Part 2

Sugar Ray Robinson's Top Five Matches - Part 2

Bloody Valentine cemented his dominance of the rivalry with Jake La Motta

Sugar Ray Robinson is the professional boxer with the most victories of any competitor in the sport. Even if this is also due to his huge number of matches, 109 knockout successes is more than a significant achievement. It is no coincidence that a number of legends in the sport, experts and fans, consider him the greatest of all time. However, this would be hard to accept if he did not have a serious rivalry with another competitor during his period of serious dominance. Every great boxer must have a great competitor, an opponent against whom the fights are the most memorable, and in Robinson's case it is Jake La Motta.

We already recalled Sugar's best knockout, with which he managed to win his meeting with Gene Fulmer. We also determined this match to be the best in his entire career. In part two of Ray's best five matches, it's also time for the match that ended his rivalry with La Motta entirely in his favor and in more than emphatic fashion.

Match number six between the two attractive and truly spectacular boxers takes place on the big holiday of Valentine's Day. On February 14, 1951, however, there was no love in the ring. The day is designated as "Bloody St. Valentine" because Robinson is ready to demonstrate his advantage against one of the boxers who managed to defeat him.

The history of the rivalry between the two began in October 1942, after no one wanted to fight Sugar, who had achieved 35 victories in the welterweight division. Ray moves up to the top division and although he has put on nearly 7 kilos, he maintains his speed which saw him win 7 of the ten rounds against La Motta. Four months later, however, the man from Manhattan dealt Ray Robinson his first career defeat after knocking down the great champion for the first time, eventually winning the bout by unanimous decision. Huge interest in the nascent rivalry led to a third game just three weeks later. Sugar is knocked down again, but he is still the dominant one and gets a second success in the fights with Jake. The same thing happened in 1945 in New York, when even Robinson won 9 of the 10 rounds. The fifth meeting is also the most contested and spectacular between them. For 12 rounds, both are bloodied but determined to win. In the end, the victory was awarded to Sugar, although not a few observers believed that La Motta was better.

Although Robinson has 4 wins in the rivalry between them, the fifth match leaves no doubt as to who is the better boxer and everything should be decided in fight number six. They're in for quite a while, though, as Sugar returns to welterweight to see what the best boxers out there have in store for him, and Jake continues to dominate the middleweight division.

On February 14, 1951, it was the turn of the sixth fight between them, in which the world middleweight title was at stake. Over 15,000 packed Chicago Stadium, and millions watched the game on television, invented less than a year ago. For La Motta, this is the last big match and he knows it, while Robinson stayed in the ring for another 14 years to the astonishment of some people.

Jake's strategy is evident from the first round. He is forced to look for a knockout because he can hardly stay at a distance from Sugar, who is also the more durable of the two. Ray, aware of his opponent's weight problems, shows extremely beautiful and at the same time aggressive boxing. A series of hooks land in La Motta's ribs and stomach, and with each passing minute he looks exhausted. In the sixth round, however, he got his chance after rocking Ray with a left hook and a good combination of straight punches. However, the world title contender survives and continues to wear down his opponent. By the eleventh round, La Motta's punches were running out of steam and he was forced to take chances trying to take Sugar down. The champion presses his opponent to the ropes and keeps delivering bomb after bomb, but at the end of the round, Jake is rocked by Robinson's counter.

Part number 12 is already an indicator of the dominance of Sugar, who begins to look for a knockout against La Motta. An achievement that no other boxer can boast of. And it looks like Ray is going to get it, with nearly every shot of his hitting the target. In 95 bouts in the professional ring, Jake has never been knocked down, and that continues even after he's seriously behind in that department. Miraculously, La Motta survives and the doctor in his corner allows him to continue his participation in the match. After taking another extremely heavy blow in the 13th round, it's clear to everyone that Jake just doesn't want to give up and lose this bout by knockout. However, a series of new powerful and point shots from Robinson forced the referee to stop the match because La Motta could no longer keep his hands up.

After this win, it is clear that Sugar is winning the rivalry between them and in a definite way. After a ton of tough and contested matches, he was able to submit Jake La Motta and demonstrate his greatness in a second division other than his best. There's no way this fight isn't the second best of Ray Robinson's entire career.

.

.