He is Walker Smith, who boxed under the ring name of Sugar Ray Robinson and lit up the Forties and Fifties with a dazzling array of skill, power, good looks and, when he had to, tremendous courage. Claude Abrams pays homage to him. the greatest fighter of all-time
Floyd Mayweather and the unbeatables
PERHAPS the biggest controversy to emerge from in August of 2017 was that “Money”, while beating a debutant, officially overtook Rocky Marciano’s record for the most victories by a world champion retiring undefeated with a 100 per cent record.
Marciano clocked up 49 victories and the win over McGregor moved Floyd Mayweather to 50. While the farcical nature of Mayweather’s victory is not up for debate, it is difficult to argue that beating McGregor should not be counted as an official result. As Marciano’s wins over Lee Epperson, Jimmy Weeks and Gilbert Cardone – none of whom had won a fight – are included in Marciano’s record, then McGregor also has to be counted on Mayweather’s.
On this day: Archie Moore ignores lawsuit from his wife and dazzles against old rival Joey Maxim
ARCHIE MOORE w pts 15 JOEY MAXIM
January 27, 1954; Orange Bowl, Miami, FL
ARCHIE MOORE had already retained his world light-heavyweight title against Joey Maxim, the man he took it from in 1952. Ahead of their third bout, Moore struggled to make the 175lbs weight limit – largely because of his regular expeditions to heavyweight – and when news broke that Archie’s wife had filed a maintenance lawsuit against her husband on the day of the fight the odds drifted to 6/5 in Maxim’s favour. But Moore, always advancing behind that famous cross-armed defence, bossed the fight against his old rival. Maxim was dropped and almost out in the eighth from a right hand, decked again in the 11
Cortina de Hierro –Castro’s Iron Curtain
In 1946 after the end of the Second World War what Winston Churchill described as an Iron Curtain stretched across Europe separating East and West with all professional sport banned in the East. That brought an end to any fledgling careers and any future hopes of a professional career for boxers on the Eastern side of the Curtain. After just over forty years with the dissolution of the USSR the Curtain is no longer a barrier to professionalism and fighters such as the Klitschko brothers and Vasyl Lomachenko have since graced our sport.
In 1961 after Fidel Castro adopted Communism as Cuba’s creed another Iron Curtain banning professional sport was woven in the West every bit as important for boxing as the one in Europe. Unlike the European Curtain this one is still in place and still denying professional boxing access to the wellspring of talent that has made Cuba the most successful nation in amateur boxing.