When Even the Great One’s Fight Longer than They Should!

By Ken Hissner:  When even the great ones fight longer than they should, you can look at such greats as “Sugar” Ray Robinson, Henry “Homicide” Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, and Willie Pep.

We can start with who many, including this writer, believed the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time, “Sugar” Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith, Jr. He was 35-0 when he lost to Jake LaMotta. He would go on to beat LaMotta in their next four fights. Robinson was 129-1-2 when he lost to Randy Turpin, 40-2-1, in the UK. In the rematch in their next contest, Robinson won his title back, stopping Turpin in the tenth at the New York Polo Grounds.

Robinson was 132-2 when he tried moving up to light heavyweight, taking on champion Joey Maxim, 78-18-4. He was ahead 10-3, 9-3-1, and 7-3-3 in rounds when the heat got too much for him after the 13th round losing to Maxim.

Two fights later, Robinson lost to durable Ralph “Tiger” Jones, 32-12-3. He wasn’t the same fighter who was much better at welterweight than middleweight. He went on to win seven straight when he lost his middleweight title to Gene Fullmer, 37-3 but beat him in their next fight to regain the title. In his next fight, he lost to Carmen Basilio, 51-12-7, and beat him in their next contest, regaining his title.

Two fights later, the obvious was Robinson was past his prime with a 143-6-2 record, losing by split decision to light punching Paul Pender and again two fights later by split decision. He would go on to draw and lose to Fullmer.

At 148-9-3, he lost to Denny Moyer, 30-6, and his brother Phil Moyer, 27-6-1. When he lost to Mexico’s Memo Ayon, 15-4-1, he still kept fighting. Three years later, he ended his career losing to light-hitting but good boxer Joey Archer, 44-1, having been knocked down. Archer would lose his next three fights and retire. With Robinson’s record ending at 174-19-6, he was 31-13-4 prior to the Pender fight.

Another considered one of the greatest was Henry “Homicide” Armstrong, born Henry Jackson. He would go on to win the welterweight title after holding the featherweight title and back to win the lightweight title.

Armstrong got off to a bad start at the beginning losing three of his first four fights but went on to win his first world title when he was 72-11-7. At 87-11-7, he won the welterweight title. He would drop back to try to win the lightweight title from Lou Ambers, 75-5-7, before losing to Lou Ambers, 84-6-7. Then back to welterweight to defend his title at that weight.

When Armstrong lost back-to-back fights to Fritzie Zivic being 109-12-8, it was obvious his best fights were behind him. At 132-7-8, he lost to “Sugar” Ray Robinson. He would end his career losing to Chester Slider, 37-18-12; he ended with a 149-21-10.

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, was at his best, hardly getting hit most of the time when he refused induction into the military. He was 28-0 returning to the ring after losing his license for 38 months. He wasn’t the same getting hit like never before yet able to regain his title at 44-2, losing to Frazier, 26-0, for his first loss beating him in their next two fights. He lost for the second time to Ken Norton, 29-1, having his jaw broken before winning their next two meetings.

Ali would regain the title defeating “Big” George Foreman, 40-0. When he lost to former Olympic Gold Medalist Leon Spinks, 6-0-1, the handwriting was on the wall. Upon winning the rematch, even his cut-man Ferdie Pacheco would bailout, saying it was over.

In Ali lost his next fight out of shape, and I saw him at his Deer Lake, PA, camp and told him he was and questioned fighting Larry Holmes, 35-0, it was the biggest mistake of his career and would lead to the only time he would ever be stopped. Another fight and another loss to Trevor Berbick, 19-2-1, ended his career with a 56-5 record.

Willie Pep, born Guglielmo Papaleo, was 62-0 before losing his first fight to Sammy Angott, 69-17-5. He was 53-0 when he won the NYSAC World featherweight title defeating Chalky Wright, 143-32-17.

At 134-1-1, Pep met his match in a foul-filled fight losing to Sandy Saddler, 86-6-2. A year later, he lost again to Saddler. At 138-13-2 losing to he was stopped by Lulu Perez, 28-2, and accused to have taken a dive. It was all over, but did he call it quits?

At 209-7-1, Pep lost to Tommy Tibbs, 45-43-3, and it was all over. Upon losing to Sonny Leon, 56-9, when he was 220-9-1, he called it quits for six years. He won nine in a row with several six and eight-rounders before his career-ending loss to Calvin Woodland, 8-4.