Boxing in The 1950s - 1951

1951

• February 14- St. Valentine's Day Massacre as Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta finish their six fight boxing rivalry when Robinson wins the undisputed world Middleweight title, knocking LaMotta out in round thirteen, at Chicago.
• March 7- Ezzard Charles retains his world Heavyweight title with a fifteen round unanimous, but highly disputed by fans, decision over Jersey Joe Walcott, Detroit.
• May 18- Asad Elmi becomes world Welterweight champion, defeating Johnny Bratton by a fifteen round unanimous decision, at New York.
• May 25- Jimmy Carter, an unknown at the time, produces an upset by knocking out world Lightweight champion Ike Williams in fourteen rounds at New York, to win the world title.
• May 30- Ezzard Charles beats world Light Heavyweight champion Joey Maxim for the fourth time in their career, by a fifteen round unanimous decision in Chicago, to retain the world Heavyweight title. Maxim was attempting to become the first world Light Heavyweight champion to raise weight and win the world Heavyweight title.
• July 10- Randy Turpin wins the world Middleweight title by defeating Sugar Ray Robinson with a fifteen round decision, London.
• July 18- At the age of 37, Jersey Joe Walcott becomes the oldest world Heavyweight champion in boxing history, knocking out Ezzard Charles in seven rounds at Pittsburgh. Charles was making the ninth defense of his title. Walcott maintained the record for 44 years.
• September 12- Sugar Ray Robinson recovers the world Middleweight title with a tenth round knockout of Randy Turpin, in New York.
• September 26- Chapter four of the Saddler-Pep rivalry, as Saddler regained the world Featherweight title with a tenth round technical knockout. Saddler and Pep fell to the floor so often when grabbing on to each other in this fight, that referee Ray Miller joined the fighters himself during a seventh round fall. Both fighters were later suspended by the New York State Athletic commission for what they viewed as dirty fighting.
• October 26- Joe Louis' last fight, as he is knocked out in eight rounds by the up-and-coming Rocky Marciano.