Customer Reviews

Sugar Ray

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book goes straight into the heart and mind of one of boxings greatest fighters. Sugar Ray tells the tale of a true champion, and in doing so it tells the tale of a man who came from an unfavourable begining to reach great prestige and distinction. This book was a knockout!

First read "Sugar Ray" in 1970, as a student in high school and back then i read it two times. I can still recall the illustration by LeRoy Neiman on the original cover. To this present day the most influential reading in my life, along with David Halberstam's "The Reckoniing

it is what it is. you get Sugar Ray's story right from the man himself. its concise and thorough and entertaining and inspirational

A champion among champions. One of the greatest of all time tells you his story - he is a fighter, not a writer. Don't expect pretty prose, expect a deep, moving look into the life of Sugar Ray Robinson.

Sugar Ray Robinson was One Of THe Greatest Fighters Ever.Very Uplifting of How He Overcame SO Much.He was a Great Warrior Inside of The Ring.Muhammad Ali called Him The Greatest.A Must Have.

I gave this book to my dad a boxing fan all his life. He couldn't put the book down. Lots of little known facts and excellantly written. Best christmas present I could give him. If you are looking for a good present for a boxing fan this is the one.

To talk about the grandness of Sugar Ray Robinson may seem a commonplace, but in the annals of the boxing there has not been such kind of boxer who has displayed such style, refinement, effectiveness and elegance. 109 KO along his life and the fact to have recovered four times the World championship have become a true myth in this sport.

This book was great. It is 378 pages, or something like that, with a forword and afterword by Dave. Lots of pictures, one with Sugar Ray at his restraunt in New York. Also has a list of all his fights and what happened, if it was a knock out, win, loose, draw. At one part he is in England, and his car is causing a traffic jam on the street because so many people have heard of him and want to see his car! And the desk clerk says to him, "Mosure Robinson, the police are here to you." He goes up to them, and they tell him that his car is causing a traffic jam and to move it! No one can get through!

Sugar Ray - 3.75 Stars

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love Sugar Ray - he was Ali's hero and in a lot of circles he is considered pound for pound the greatest boxer of all time!

I wanted to love this book and Sugar Ray - but unfortunately I didn't.

I almost feel like I'm committing some sort of sacrilege here - and I'm sad to say - I found Sugar Ray Robinson somewhat unlikable.

The story is a great story - a very poor family's struggle and their support and love for each other - Sugar Ray's discovery of boxing and his rise to fame and fortune and the phenomenal and heart breaking comeback and the sad decline in the end. His story really is very interesting, but the book doesn't capture it. It doesn't capture the Sugar Ray magic and I felt that Sugar Ray wasn't 100% honest - he and the book were truthful, but I felt that there was something missing - that he wasn't completely honest.

This tragic-comic saga about one of boxing's greatest pugilist is a story repeated so often among black American athletes and sports heroes that this should be the model of the genre.

In a literarily unsophisticated treatment, this "told to" book summarizes the highlights of Walker Smith Jr's, AKA (Sugar Ray Robinson) life, both in and out of the ring. The ebbs and flows of this somewhat self-serving story are so predictable that it is the prototype for the "not quite ready for primetime athlete": Talent and fame, coupled with personality weaknesses and poor money management, equals a quick rise to the pinnacle of success and an even swifter fall into disgrace.

Sugar Ray came from the humblest of circumstances: a single parent family from Detroit's "Black Bottom and New York's "Hell's Kitchen," and rose to become a multiple title-holder of some of boxing's most coveted crowns. At his height he commanded nearly a million dollars per fight; was sought after far and wide; owned a string of successful businesses on Harlem's showcase row; and was successfully married. Yet, within a decade, he lost his crowns; ran through more than 4 million dollars; a string of girlfriends and ex wives; all of his businesses went bust and he went bankrupt; got into serious income tax troubles, and alienated his closest associates both in and out of the ring. He ended up in an over priced NY flat without furnishings.

Yet, Sugar Ray was a good and decent man and without a mean bone in his body, treated his employees more than fairly, gave large sums to charity, and was a firm believer in God. The moral of this story: Is that talent, a strong support system, decent instincts and a strong belief in God are not enough to overcome immaturity, egomania, an un-harnessed penchant for womanizing and an economic system that colludes and preys gainst black athletes as if they were raw meat. Great gifts demand even greater responsibilities, business acumen and an even greater sense of maturity.

Three Stars