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boyblue's review
2.0
Sugar Ray Robinson is such a fascinating character, so charismatic and glowing that anything written about him would be interesting. Unfortunately, this book has tried to get Sugar's naturally fascinating life to do all the work. Someone else commented that this reads like a 300 page Wikipedia entry and I feel that probably isn't far off the mark.
A mjor problem with the book is that though it mentions the difference between Sugar the boxer, Sugar the public icon, and Sugar the man at home it really makes no attempt to reconcile these personas. Apart from the occasional throwaway comment Boyd does no analysis on the real motivations or the reasons Sugar ended up the way he did.
There's a prescient moment when Sugar laments the fall of Joe Louis after the Brown Bomber gets easily beaten in his final fight after coming out of retirement because of his dire financial situation. Sugar states he never wants to end up like that and Boyd says this was oddly prophetic but then it isn't revisited when Sugar goes on to do extend his career way longer than Louis and ultimately ruin his career more than Louis ever did. The tears Sugar cried for Louis aren't there when Sugar himself is at his lowest.
It seems Sugar lived entirely in the moment and while there were many around him who could see this none of them were able to convince him of the benefits of financial prudence or they actively undermined the few successful business endeavours he did create. There's also this feeling that he was playing the role he felt people wanted him to play, the star of Harlem, the one who made it, the pink cadillac, the pomped hair.
In many ways the story of Sugar is a cautionary tale to the sports stars of today. It's still the case that hundreds of professional athletes in America end up destitute and broke because of their inability to manage money and the luxurious lifestyles they get caught in and can't seem to live without, think Iverson playing in China etc. There's also a story in the way people hang on to famous and succesful people and ultimately drag them down.
Another issue with the book is that the actual boxing, the fights and the training, are not well done. Boyd seems to have an inability to get in there and find what makes Sugar the champ, what makes him pound for pound the greatest fighter of all time.
I also found Ray Robinson II's contributions almost meaningless. He was actually there for a lot of this but all of his potential insight is reduced to throwaway comments about his childish thoughts and feelings at the time.
Edna Mae comes out of the book as a completely misunderstood and undervalued component of Sugar's life and success. Unfortunately, the domestic violence throughout the book isn't really addressed. It's reported as factual but there's no attempt to understand why it's happening or what could have been done to prevent it. I think that is the biggest problem with the book. We come to it wanting to read about the great boxing champion and we leave thinking yes he was a great fighter but a terrible man. But we don't get any look at why he was that way.
In The Cost Of These Dreams, Wright Thompson talks about how all the things that made Michael Jordan the greatest basketballer of all time are all the things that hold him back from integrating into society as a normal person. I feel this sort of analysis could have been directed at Sugar Ray Robinson. An absolute master in the ring but completely inept in normal life. I remember him as the greatest pound for pound fighter of all time, an absolute icon both of his time and now, but also as a flawed human being. A personality with just a few cracks that were widened over time by a cruel society that ultimately broke him down and left him for dead.
A mjor problem with the book is that though it mentions the difference between Sugar the boxer, Sugar the public icon, and Sugar the man at home it really makes no attempt to reconcile these personas. Apart from the occasional throwaway comment Boyd does no analysis on the real motivations or the reasons Sugar ended up the way he did.
There's a prescient moment when Sugar laments the fall of Joe Louis after the Brown Bomber gets easily beaten in his final fight after coming out of retirement because of his dire financial situation. Sugar states he never wants to end up like that and Boyd says this was oddly prophetic but then it isn't revisited when Sugar goes on to do extend his career way longer than Louis and ultimately ruin his career more than Louis ever did. The tears Sugar cried for Louis aren't there when Sugar himself is at his lowest.
It seems Sugar lived entirely in the moment and while there were many around him who could see this none of them were able to convince him of the benefits of financial prudence or they actively undermined the few successful business endeavours he did create. There's also this feeling that he was playing the role he felt people wanted him to play, the star of Harlem, the one who made it, the pink cadillac, the pomped hair.
In many ways the story of Sugar is a cautionary tale to the sports stars of today. It's still the case that hundreds of professional athletes in America end up destitute and broke because of their inability to manage money and the luxurious lifestyles they get caught in and can't seem to live without, think Iverson playing in China etc. There's also a story in the way people hang on to famous and succesful people and ultimately drag them down.
Another issue with the book is that the actual boxing, the fights and the training, are not well done. Boyd seems to have an inability to get in there and find what makes Sugar the champ, what makes him pound for pound the greatest fighter of all time.
I also found Ray Robinson II's contributions almost meaningless. He was actually there for a lot of this but all of his potential insight is reduced to throwaway comments about his childish thoughts and feelings at the time.
Edna Mae comes out of the book as a completely misunderstood and undervalued component of Sugar's life and success. Unfortunately, the domestic violence throughout the book isn't really addressed. It's reported as factual but there's no attempt to understand why it's happening or what could have been done to prevent it. I think that is the biggest problem with the book. We come to it wanting to read about the great boxing champion and we leave thinking yes he was a great fighter but a terrible man. But we don't get any look at why he was that way.
In The Cost Of These Dreams, Wright Thompson talks about how all the things that made Michael Jordan the greatest basketballer of all time are all the things that hold him back from integrating into society as a normal person. I feel this sort of analysis could have been directed at Sugar Ray Robinson. An absolute master in the ring but completely inept in normal life. I remember him as the greatest pound for pound fighter of all time, an absolute icon both of his time and now, but also as a flawed human being. A personality with just a few cracks that were widened over time by a cruel society that ultimately broke him down and left him for dead.
smartyboots's review
1.0
If you don't like boxing at all, this sure is the boxing book for you! I actually couldn't finish it - I had to put it down when the author said that Robinson "kayoed" his opponent. That's fine for a regular book, but KO is a term of art in boxing and it has a particular meaning. And spelling. Aside from the evident disinterest in actual boxing, I was left with more question about Sugar Ray than answers. If you're looking for African American history there are better books, and if you're looking for boxing history almost anything else would be better.
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