Some experts and historians say Sugar Ray Robinson ranks as the single greatest welterweight in all of boxing. Robinson, who had his more famous fights when he was campaigning as a middleweight, where he won the world title a staggering five times, was said to be at his blinding peak when operating at 147 pounds.
Robinson’s Last Fight at Welterweight
What a crying shame it is that most of Robinson’s welterweight fights were never captured on film.
On this day back in 1950, a prime Sugar Ray boxed his very last welterweight fight, as he defended the world title against Charley Fusari in Jersey City. Robinson, then aged 29 and sporting an astonishing 109-1-2 record, was making the fifth defence of the title he had won by besting Tommy Bell in December of 1946. Fusari, who was born in Italy and now lives in New Jersey, was three years younger than the man, and he was 66-5-1.
Fusari had beaten good men, such as Tippy Larkin and Rocky Castellani, and he had been in there with the likes of Rocky Graziano and Tony Janiro. But Fusari, though game, was no match for Sugar Ray.
1950 Sugar Ray Welterweight Victory
Robinson, who failed to make weight for the fight and had to pay a visit to the steam-room to finally make it, wrote in his autobiography that he “carried” Fusari all 15 rounds. The referee and sole scoring official, Paul Cavalier, had it 13-1 for Robinson at the end. Robinson took home a single dollar for his night’s work, the remainder of his purse being donated to the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for cancer research. Sugar Ray was a champion in and out of the ring.
The fight was no classic, and it did seem as though Robinson, who knocked Fusari down along the way to his lopsided decision win, could have closed the show had he tried to do so with earnest.
Robinson would return to action just 16 days later, and he would box at middleweight full-time from now on. Robinson had fought a number of earlier fights at 160 pounds, but now he knew he was no longer able to drag himself back down to 147. As all Sugar’s millions of fans know, the man born Walker Smith Junior would achieve a heck of a lot whilst fighting at middleweight.
Fusari passed away in November of 1985, aged just 61.
