Boogie-Woogie Bomber

The sporting press has found a "little Joe Louis," lightweight Ray Robinson. Young Robinson, a Harlem "hep-cat" just a half-inch under six feet tall, is neither little nor does he bear much resemblance to the world's heavyweight champion. But the way the skinny 139-pounder brushed off onetime Welterweight Champion Fritzie Zivic--steel-tough, ring-wise and seven pounds heavier--in a ten-round match at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden last week showed that another Negro was punching his way into ring history. In 115 fights, amateur and professional, Robinson has never been licked.

Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith, first saw a pair of boxing gloves at the Brewster St. Recreation Center in his native Detroit, where, up to the time he was eight when his family moved to Harlem, he used to hang around watching Amateur Joe Louis and local big shots. He never laced on a glove until he was 13--and then only because he was urged to by Trainer George Gainford, who ran a gym in Harlem.

Bursting with rhythm, Ray really wanted to be a tap dancer like Bill Robinson. He used to sneak into Harlem's hot spots to watch his favorites tap, picked up show money by doing the Lindy Hop (between cheese-it-the-cops) on Broadway street corners at theater time. Bill Robinson is still Ray's idol.

It so happens that Robinson is also the name that he took when he entered New York's Golden Gloves tournament two years ago.

A year ago, Robinson fought his first professional fight--on the preliminary card at Madison Square Garden the night Fritzie Zivic won the welterweight title from Negro Henry Armstrong. Hammering Henry was Ray's ring hero. When he saw Zivic pound his hero's face into a tomato-red pulp, the kid sobbed: "Some day I'm gonna grow big enough to get even with him for what he did to Hank."

Last week Robinson kept his promise. On his toes like a ballet dancer, he out-stepped and outsmarted foxy Fritzie, tantalized him with lightning-quick punches from unexpected angles, landed one in the fifth round that nearly chalked up his 21st knockout in 26 pro fights. The new Negro wonder can hit equally hard with either hand, can throw a punch faster than Joe Louis.

Robinson, known as Sugar among his coffee-colored pals, is a jive artist, cocky, quick-witted, high-strung and footloose. A typical product of Harlem's sidewalks, he loves boogie-woogie, would rather dance than eat. "I can't get that boy to eat enough to keep a flea alive," moans Trainer Gainford. "He lives off hot dogs, ice cream, cake and dancing."

If Sugar can be fattened up to around 145 lb., he should soon be ready to challenge Champion Red Cochrane (now in the Navy) for the world's welterweight title. Robinson's next engagement: a return match with Marty Servo, Nov. 10 in Philadelphia. Servo is one of the three fighters who have lasted ten rounds against the Boogie-Woogie Bomber.

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