Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jose Basora

Sugar Ray Robinson overwhelmed Jose Basora in less than a minute at Scranton Stadium, Pennsylvania, on 25 August 1950, successfully defending the Pennsylvania-recognised middleweight championship he had won from Robert Villemain less than three months earlier. Robinson entered with the remarkable professional record of 111 wins, one defeat and two draws, while Basora stood at 77-14-6. Robinson weighed 154¾ pounds and Basora 159¾, but the five-pound difference proved immaterial. Before the opening round had properly developed, Basora had been sent to the canvas four times and counted out.

The contest carried more interest than the brevity of the result might suggest because Basora had already demonstrated that he could trouble Robinson. Their first meeting, at Convention Hall in Philadelphia on 14 May 1945, had ended in a ten-round draw. Robinson was then already an established star and had lost only once, to Jake LaMotta, but Basora boxed well enough to remain level with him over the distance. Five years later the circumstances were different. Robinson had become world welterweight champion, had accumulated more than a hundred professional victories, and was increasingly moving into middleweight contests, while Basora had continued to meet many of the best men in the division.

There was no repetition of their earlier struggle in Scranton. Robinson began with unusual urgency and immediately found Basora before the Puerto Rican could establish any rhythm. The surviving record confirms four knockdowns inside the opening minute. Basora repeatedly regained his feet, but Robinson gave him no opportunity to settle or recover. The speed with which the knockdowns followed one another suggests not a gradual wearing down but a succession of clean, decisive attacks against a man who had been caught cold. Robinson remained balanced enough to continue punching accurately after each count, and Basora never recovered sufficiently to turn the contest into the tactical fight he had managed in Philadelphia five years earlier.

Historical sources commonly give the knockout time as 52 seconds, although some later accounts state 55 seconds. Whatever the precise official figure, the essential fact is beyond dispute: Robinson had knocked Basora down four times and finished him before the first minute had elapsed. There were no scorecards and no opportunity for the challenger to test Robinson over distance. Basora, who had gone ten rounds with Robinson in their first meeting and had also fought Jake LaMotta four times, was removed with a suddenness that made the result one of the sharpest contrasts between first fight and rematch in Robinson’s long career.

Basora was a much better fighter than the manner of this defeat might indicate. He had beaten LaMotta on points in May 1942, drawn with him the following month and later lost their subsequent meetings. He had also shared the ring with Ezzard Charles, Holman Williams and several other leading middleweights of the period. His career record eventually finished at 78-20-6, and he was stopped only five times in 105 professional contests. The fact that Robinson disposed of such an experienced and durable opponent in under a minute therefore carried considerable weight, even though the Pennsylvania championship he was defending did not yet make him the universally recognised middleweight champion.

Robinson had won that Pennsylvania title by defeating Villemain over 15 rounds at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia on 5 June 1950. Villemain was dropped for a two-count in the twelfth, and Robinson took the vacant state-recognised championship by decision. At the time, Robinson still held the world welterweight crown, while Jake LaMotta remained the generally accepted world middleweight champion. Robinson would not take that title until 14 February 1951, when he stopped LaMotta in the thirteenth round in Chicago. The Basora defence therefore belongs to the period when Robinson was already proving himself against top middleweights while still officially reigning at welterweight.

Robinson boxed again only ten days after defeating Basora and continued the run that carried him into the following year. By February 1951 he had beaten LaMotta for the recognised middleweight championship, and only in July, against Randolph Turpin in London, did his long winning sequence end on points. Basora, by contrast, fought six more times after Scranton and retired in 1952. Their second meeting lasted less than a minute, but its significance lies in the difference from the first. In 1945 Basora had been good enough to hold Robinson to a draw over ten rounds. In 1950 Robinson did not allow him to complete sixty seconds.

I’ve always thought this result tells you everything about how frightening Sugar Ray Robinson could be when he was switched on. Basora was no mug whatsoever. He’d gone ten rounds with Robinson five years earlier and held him to a draw, and he’d shared the ring several times with Jake LaMotta. Yet in Scranton, Robinson wiped him out inside a minute. Basora was down four times before he was counted out.

That’s the difference with the truly great fighters. Robinson didn’t need three or four rounds to work somebody out. Once he saw the opening, his speed and accuracy could finish things before the other man had settled.

For me, this wasn’t Basora suddenly becoming a poor fighter. It was Robinson showing how far he had moved on since their first meeting. Five years earlier, Basora could live with him. In 1950, he couldn’t survive sixty seconds.