Where is Sugar Ray Robinson from?

[knurak]

I noticed BoxRec has his birth place listed as Ailey, Georgia. Yet, when I Googled 'Sugar Ray Robinson', it shows he was born in Detroit. Wikipedia says Ailey, GA is what was listed on his birth certificate but that he claimed to have been born in Detroit in his autobiography. Does anyone know more about the situation?

I'm also interested in where he would be billed from by the announcers leading up to his bouts. From what I saw in the Valentine's Day Massacre, LaMotta was given an introduction that included his birthplace, whereas that line was omitted during Ray's.

[orbtastic]

I'd imagine it's a little like Joe Louis, where his family migrated to the factories of Detroit from the fields of the South.

[crib73]

Born in Georgia & migrated to Detroit. You need to take wiki with a pinch of salt as anyone can alter info & for some its a game they enjoy playing. This doc states Georgia along with most other credible sources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtgUSEbT2I

Also fighters have often been announced from the city they are based & not necessarily where they are from. Sometimes I've heard a fighter announced fighting out of one location via another location (eg. fighting out of Philadelphia via Chicago)

[Rover]

Born in Georgia & migrated to Detroit. You need to take wiki with a pinch of salt as anyone can alter info & for some its a game they enjoy playing. This doc states Georgia along with most other credible sources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtgUSEbT2I

Thanks crib73.
Yeah, it's frustrating how people will do that for Wikipedia when, if someone does a Google search, Wikipedia usually is the first thing that pops up.

[knurak]

Born in Georgia & migrated to Detroit. You need to take wiki with a pinch of salt as anyone can alter info & for some its a game they enjoy playing. This doc states Georgia along with most other credible sources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtgUSEbT2I

Also fighters have often been announced from the city they are based & not necessarily where they are from. Sometimes I've heard a fighter announced fighting out of one location via another location (eg. fighting out of Philadelphia via Chicago)

Thanks for the info. I know fighters are not necessarily billed as where they're from. I was asking that out of curiosity as I usually assume wherever they choose to be billed from is where they consider to be their hometown.

Also, I appreciate the helpful response but I do understand the way Wikipedia works. I wouldn't have mentioned it if there were not cited sources. In this case, the link is dead, but I used an archive to confirm the information given actually derives from the USPS website.

http://web.archive.org/web/200610272227 ... 06_011.htm

[crib73]

Born in Georgia & migrated to Detroit. You need to take wiki with a pinch of salt as anyone can alter info & for some its a game they enjoy playing. This doc states Georgia along with most other credible sources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtgUSEbT2I

Also fighters have often been announced from the city they are based & not necessarily where they are from. Sometimes I've heard a fighter announced fighting out of one location via another location (eg. fighting out of Philadelphia via Chicago)

Thanks for the info. I know fighters are not necessarily billed as where they're from. I was asking that out of curiosity as I usually assume wherever they choose to be billed from is where they consider to be their hometown.

Also, I appreciate the helpful response but I do understand the way Wikipedia works. I wouldn't have mentioned it if there were not cited sources. In this case, the link is dead, but I used an archive to confirm the information given actually derives from the USPS website.

http://web.archive.org/web/200610272227 ... 06_011.htm

No probs, just answered you're question.

Just to compound the issue, the book Pound for Pound by Herb Boyd & Ray Jnr advises the date correct but was born in Detroit's Black Bottom although his birth cert. states Georgia. It goes on to say that the cert was filled in by a barely literate person (possibly Ray's father). There is some mystique about this - don't know if this is the book you described but I read it ages ago & remembered the data about the birth cert. but forgot about it stating the Detroit part.

[knurak]

The book I was referring to is actually Robinson's autobiography -- titled 'Sugar Ray' by SRR & Dave Anderson.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sugar-r ... 0306805745

That's good info though. It makes sense now that the situation is shrouded in uncertainty, knowing that the certificate was filled out by someone barely literate.

But if Ray and his son claim he was born in Detroit, I guess I'll go with that over a piece of paper filled out by someone who can barely read and write.

[Rover]

The book I was referring to is actually Robinson's autobiography -- titled 'Sugar Ray' by SRR & Dave Anderson.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sugar-r ... 0306805745

That's good info though. It makes sense now that the situation is shrouded in uncertainty, knowing that the certificate was filled out by someone barely literate.

But if Ray and his son claim he was born in Detroit, I guess I'll go with that over a piece of paper filled out by someone who can barely read and write.

Yeah I'd say that is a pretty good source (Robinson and his father).

[crib73]

Just read Pound for Pound book pages. It refers back to Ray's book written with Anderson regarding this info so seems to be going on Sugar's interpretation. The cert was filled in by someone who was barley literate as the word coloured or US spelling was written as colerd.

It also states that Walker Smith Snr may have gone to Detroit & back to Georgia to bring his family up north in stages. Ray may have been born in Georgia but went to Detroit early. I'm still leaning to Georgia as the Detroit info comes from Sugar himself & even if the person who did fill out his cert. was barely literate they should still be able to determine roughly where their child was born.

I read the info last night whilst tired but you can see the info here & obviously its in Chapter 1

http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinsi ... 0061749698