Pound for Pound

"In the gym, Gainford saw that his student had that quality. In Kingston, N.Y., one night in 1936, the boy filled in for another fighter and won his first competitive bout. He had to use another fighter’s Amateur Athletic Union card, because Gainford had still not acquired one for Walker Smith Jr. The other fighter was named Ray Robinson. The name would last a lifetime."

Pete Hamill in The New York Times reviews Wil Haygood's Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson.