They say boxing is a strange mix of brutality, beauty and – for those who can do it at the highest level – perfection. And so it was that on this day in 1957, the boxing world witnessed a single punch, a magnificent one-punch knockout, an essentially flawless display of punching without being hit, that showed how, one night, this sport we all love so much can deliver all three: B, P and B, if you want it to.

How was the fight, KO?

It was on this day, in rematch for a lost fight, that the one and only, truly incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson, faced the tougher than tough Gene Fullmer. In a sold-out stadium in Chicago, the one and only boxing Sugar gave us the BEST KO of all KOs.

To this day, the great boxing trainers (perhaps a dying breed – but that’s another article altogether) show a brilliant example of pure poetic violence that was literally unleashed, not in the split second at best, on their students. Indeed, it was “The Perfect Punch.” Try as they might, no boxer has ever managed to replicate the brilliance of Sugar Ray, his superhuman blend of balance, timing, and explosively correct power. All delivered in one punch.

Fullmer went down the previously seemingly bulletproof Fullmer and never got up again before the count of 10. Fullmer was knocked down by a punch that left everyone who saw him (and Gene, by his own admission, never saw the unstoppable projectile coming) in absolute awe.

So what was the punch that did this?

Sugar Ray, who was 36 at the time, was already in his prime (or so it seemed, as it turned out, very wrongly) combing his hair back, uncorking the greatest left hook he had ever thrown – that anyone in this sport had ever thrown and thrown the country. Fullmer, who had been transported to another orbit by a divine shot from hell, instinctively tried to get up, but fell on his face, his right glove searching for the world as if it were pinned to the canvas. That was the end. But it will never be forgotten.

We’ve seen some exceptional knockouts over the years, many of them from our favorite and biggest stars. However, at the risk of making the repetition tiresome, there’s never been a knockout captured on film that was/is as epic as the one born Walker Smith Jr scored on this day 63 years ago.

How many times have you watched and admired this KO? youtube!

It’s engaging, you may or may not agree, how a certain month of the year can create greatness. Lots of greatness. Take our sport of boxing, for example. It’s quite possible that the fifth month of the year has produced more truly great fighters than any other month.

Check out these special ones who were born here in May:

Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Rubin Carter, Sonny Liston, Marvin Hagler, Gene Tunney, Jerry Quarry, Iran Barkley, John Henry Lewis, Jose Torres, Tony Zale, Mark Breland, Harry Wills, Fritzie Zivic, Joe Brown, Carlos de Leon , George Benton, Rocky Castellani, Newborn Corbett III, Sam McVey, Harry Forbes… and of course Sugar Ray Robinson.

I agree, I think so, that the month we are in now has produced so many great boxers. Sure, maybe it’s just a tiny thing and nothing more, but May has certainly given us the greatest fighter of them all.

Born 102 years ago in Alley, Georgia, Robinson was born Walker Smith Jr. Fight fans know the story of how the teenage Smith Jr. got his modern, soon-to-be-world-famous name. Drawn to boxing by his friend Joe Louis, for whom Walker carried his gym bag, the 15-year-old tried out for a boxing tournament but was rejected because he was too juvenile. Smith Jr. borrowed the ID card of a boxer named Ray Robinson, and the rest is history — Smith Jr. was now Ray Robinson.

The nickname Sugar came about later when a ringside spotter told Ray and his manager that he was a “sweet fighter.”

Sugar Ray Robinson was in a league of his own. As an amateur, he went an incredible 85-0 with 69 KOs. Turning pro in 1940, Robinson was untouchable, winning his first 40 fights. His first loss came to Jake LaMotta as a middleweight, and Robinson decided to seek revenge no less than five times as a welterweight. Robinson met and defeated many great fighters, including Henry Armstrong (Robinson’s idol along with Louis; Sugar Ray meets a faded version of Armstrong), Fritzie Zivic, Tommy Bell, Rocky Graziano, Gene Fullmer, Carmen Basilio, and many others. But it’s Sugar Ray’s wild and competitive rivalry with “The Bronx Bull” that fans tend to think of most when discussing the majesty of Sugar Ray.

And certainly Robinson showed everything in his formidable arsenal in the fights/wars with LaMotta: his speed, strength and accuracy, his great endurance, his pretty chin, his heart and desire. Sugar Ray was the complete fighter. His status as the greatest of all time is not changing anywhere. Not always.

201 pro fights – 174 wins, 19 losses, 6 draws. I stopped only once, when a 104-degree heat overcame Robinson (and the referee). Welterweight king from 1946 to 1951, five-time middleweight king from 1951 to 1960. Robinson made the sport in which he excelled look prettier, more attractive, and more special than any man before or since.