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Alternative Titles:
Walker Smith, Jr.
Sugar Ray Robinson, byname of
Walker Smith, Jr., (born May 3, 1921, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—died April 12, 1989, Culver City, California), American professional boxer, six times a world champion: once as a welterweight (147 pounds), from 1946 to 1951, and five times as a middleweight (160 pounds), between 1951 and 1960. He is considered by many authorities to have been the best fighter in history.
He won 89 amateur fights without defeat, fighting first under his own name and then as Ray Robinson, using the amateur certificate of another boxer of that name in order to qualify for a bout. He won Golden Gloves titles as a featherweight in 1939 and as a lightweight in 1940.