Sugar Ray Robinson

CTL-E-6049 · Person · other · 1921–1989

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07272 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6049.

Walker Smith Jr., born 3 May 1921 and raised in Harlem, New York, was the American professional boxer known as Sugar Ray Robinson, the fighter for whom the pound-for-pound ranking was effectively created. He turned professional in 1940, won the world welterweight title in 1946 and held it until 1951, then took the world middleweight title from Jake LaMotta in their sixth meeting. Across a twenty-five-year career he won the middleweight championship five times, a divisional record first, fighting 200 professional bouts and finishing with 173 wins, 108 by knockout, against 19 losses and 6 draws. His speed, combination punching and footwork set the technical standard later champions studied, and his Harlem celebrity, businesses and entourage made him a template for the modern sports star. Robinson retired in 1965, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and died in California on 12 April 1989, aged sixty-seven.

The record

• Also known as: Walker Smith Jr., Sugar

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 5 — 747 Program, Wave 11; 40-record packet). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Sugar Ray Robinson entity in the live graph at 3,763 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-6049 assigned at assembly. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 1219 (Boxers list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — African American boxer; welterweight and five-time middleweight world champion, raised in Harlem. Vital status: DECEASED — died 12 April 1989, aged 67 (Wikipedia; BlackPast). Birthplace is reported inconsistently across sources (his birth certificate lists Ailey, Georgia; his autobiography says Detroit, Michigan); this record asserts only his 3 May 1921 birth date and his Harlem upbringing, on which the sources agree. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Professional record 173 wins (108 KOs), 19 losses, 6 draws, 2 no contests in 200 bouts (Wikipedia fight record line; the African American Registry's Britannica-derived line counts 201 bouts and 109 knockouts — the discrepancy is carried openly here rather than blended); 91-fight unbeaten streak, 1943–1951 (Wikipedia). MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Wikimedia Commons photograph of Sugar Ray Robinson in the ring in the 1950s; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-temp-1219-sugar-ray-robinson.svg); video HELD (Shorts Link Map checked by name and variants — no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights basis). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging.)

Relationships

• Harlem — from
  Robinson moved with his mother to Harlem, New York (Locality CTL-E-4039) at age twelve and began boxing there under George Gainford, the upbringing on which his career and public identity were built.
• Muhammad Ali — related to
  Muhammad Ali (CTL-E-5679) called Sugar Ray Robinson the greatest fighter of all time; Robinson was the defining champion of the generation Ali grew up studying.

Referenced by

• Sugar Ray Leonard — related to → this record

Sources

• BlackPast.org, '"Sugar" Ray Robinson (1921-1989)' — born Walker Smith Jr. on 3 May 1921; moved to New York City with his mother at age 12 and took the Ray Robinson name from a borrowed AAU card; won the World Welterweight Title on 20 Dec 1946 and the World Middleweight Title on 14 Feb 1951 — https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/robinson-sugar-ray-1921-1989/ (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, 'Sugar Ray Robinson' — born Walker Smith Jr., 3 May 1921 – 12 April 1989; competed 1940–1965; inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990; held the world welterweight title 1946–1951 and became the first boxer to win a divisional world championship five times (1958) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Ray_Robinson (build store)
• African American Registry, 'Sugar Ray Robinson, Boxer born' — Black professional boxer born 3 May 1921; 40 consecutive professional wins before his first loss; won the welterweight championship in 1946 and the middleweight championship in 1951; in 201 professional bouts he scored 109 knockouts (Britannica-derived line) — https://aaregistry.org/story/boxer-sugar-ray-robinson-one-of-the-best/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6049 · Combined Graph record U-07272 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 3 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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