Jimmy Doyle was a
professional boxer from Los Angeles, California, and a pretty good one…his
record was 43-6-3 when in 1947, Doyle fought the champion Sugar Ray Robinson
for the World Welterweight Title…Robinson who was 78-1-1 at the time, dominated
the fight except for the sixth round, when he was staggered twice by punches
and obviously hurt, but he made it through the round…later though, it was a
single left hook from Robinson ended the fight…. Doyle was
floored...eyewitnesses said Doyle went down like a ton of bricks…he hit the
canvas with a loud thud and the referee began counting…Doyle raised his head up
but Doyle’s dream of a championship vanished…the count reached ten and the
fight was over…Doyle, who appeared to have a serious injury, was then transported
to St. Vincent's Charity Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio where the fight took place
immediately, but died a few hours later… Jimmy Doyle was only 22 years old…strangely before the fight took
place, Sugar Ray Robinson had tried to back out of the clash…he had recently
had a nightmare and during this nightmare, he saw himself killing Doyle in the
ring…Robinson, who was disturbed by the dream talked with clergy members and
was convinced to go ahead and take the fight anyway…one that ended in profound
tragedy…was this some sort of terrible premonition that Robinson had?...it
certainly seems so.
