His late move to welterweight deepened the hope. He was widely considered the best fighter in the division long before he held the title. Work was seriously interrupted. Politics held others back. Some figures behind the curtain decided when opportunities came and when they didn’t. Robinson endured that waiting period without giving up his independence, which was rare in an era where independence was often punished.
The middleweight champion was in a tougher organization. Tony Zale, Rocky Graziano, and Marcel Cerdan changed the title in a brutal series, and behind them stood the International Boxing Club of New York, an organization that operated with calm authority and understood influence. Frankie Carbo, known as “Mr. Grey,” represented that administration. There were champions in his system, whether they knew it or not.
Jake LaMotta understood the process as well as anyone. He grew up in his circle and has already made some adjustments to have his own space. His loss to Billy Fox in 1947, widely believed to have been staged, was the price of admission. He paid, and eventually became the middleweight champion.
LaMotta’s rivalry with Robinson has spanned five fights. Robinson won most of them, but LaMotta’s physical strength caused a fight. Robinson’s only professional defeat came against him. LaMotta forced Robinson into weak trades that diminished his understanding late in the fight. Their rivalry had differences that statistics alone cannot explain.
Before their sixth meeting in Chicago in 1951, Robinson later said Carbo approached him. The instruction was simple. Win the title, then lose it again. Robinson refused. He made no drama of denial. He just walked away.
The fight itself carried the feeling of something ending rather than beginning. LaMotta pressed forward, banking to the body as usual. Robinson responded with distance and repetition, his injection controlling the map of the ring. As the rounds piled up, LaMotta’s loyalty became a liability. His persistence allowed the sentence to continue.
In the championship round, LaMotta became a participant in his own failure. Robinson didn’t rush the decision. He applied pressure patiently, only speeding up when the resistance began to disappear. In the thirteenth round, the referee intervened. LaMotta stood still, but standing no longer meant competing.
The win changed Robinson’s position immediately. He vacated the welterweight championship, which opened the division to action. He won the middleweight championship, which reorganized another division around him. Suddenly light weight became the place to be. Robinson made a move by arriving.
His greatness was not acknowledged at that time. He confirmed it himself. Robinson didn’t expand on the fight’s mentality. He changed.