How is boxing a “Sweet Science”? I’m just not grasping this nickname.
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Because if you’re not careful, they’ll make your teeth fall out…? 😛
Sugar Ray Robinson is widely regarded as being one of the greatest boxers ever. He got his nickname because a woman in the audience was flirting with him, called him sweet, and the name stuck- because calling a world class boxer “sweet” was amusingly incongruous. He was incredibly successful, a media darling, and at that time, boxing was in its heyday.
Several boxers with a style similar to Sugar Ray Robinson adopted the nickname after he retired- mostly to hype the fighter up, but often with a dubious origin story. Ray Leonard and Ray Seales are the only two boxers I can think of who were also called Sugar Ray, but the name became a meme (probably a fairly early example of one) due to it’s presence in the press.
Boxing hype men were legendary, and the legacy of “sweet science” and “Sugar Ray” are testament to their effectiveness.
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