On this day in 1950 — August 25 — “Sugar” Ray Robinson exacted swift and total revenge for the only draw of the early part of his career. In Scranton Stadium, Scranton, Pennsylvania, the former undisputed welterweight champion needed just 55 seconds to knock out José Basora and successfully defend the Pennsylvania State middleweight title.
Robinson entered the ring with a record of 111-1-2 and weighed 154¾ pounds. Basora, a rugged 6-foot Puerto Rican middleweight based in New York (born in Lajas), came in heavier at 159¾ pounds with a solid 77-14-6 mark. Five years earlier, on May 14, 1945, at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, Basora had held the then-unbeaten (save for one loss to Jake LaMotta) Robinson to a hard-fought 10-round split-decision draw. Robinson, a heavy favorite that night, had to rally in the final round to salvage the draw after Basora controlled much of the middle of the fight.
By 1950 the landscape had changed. Robinson had already begun campaigning regularly at middleweight while still holding the world welterweight crown. He had captured the vacant Pennsylvania State middleweight title in June by decisioning Robert Villemain and was preparing for an eventual challenge to Jake LaMotta for the full world middleweight championship. Making the 147-pound welterweight limit had become increasingly difficult and draining; shortly after this fight he would effectively abandon the division. Basora, still a dangerous and experienced campaigner who had beaten LaMotta, Holman Williams, Fritzie Zivic and others in his prime, was past his peak but remained a credible opponent.
What followed was one of the most one-sided title defenses of Robinson’s career. The second the bell rang, Robinson exploded. He dropped Basora four times inside the opening minute with a ferocious combination of left hooks and right hands. The final knockdown left Basora unconscious; he was counted out at the 0:55 mark and required several minutes of attention from ringside physicians before he could leave the ring. Contemporary reports noted that Robinson had planned the attack carefully after learning Basora had weighed significantly more earlier in the week, intending to finish the heavier man early before fatigue could set in.
The victory improved Robinson’s record and kept his Pennsylvania title intact. Six months later, on February 14, 1951, he would stop LaMotta in the 13th round of their sixth meeting — the famous “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” — to claim the undisputed world middleweight championship. Basora fought only a handful more times and retired in 1952 with a final ledger of approximately 78-20-6 (sources vary slightly on draws).
The 1950 rematch remains a striking example of Robinson’s ability to adjust and dominate in return encounters, and of the sheer destructive speed and power that made him the prototype of the modern pound-for-pound great.
