The Sudden Sweet Death of Jimmy Doyle

His last name Delaney wasn't Irish enough for James and neither for that matter was his first name. He changed his name to something that sounded more like the welterwirght that he was. He became Jimmy Doyle although the hepcats and hangers on at the LA gym where he trained called him JIMMMAY which he loved. They yelled it ever louder as JIMMAY rose through the welterweight ranks finally deciding to head East and get closer to the Garden. He headed for Cleveland.

Elliot Ness had returned to Cleveland and so had the lesser known Artie Levin.

It was Artie rather than Elliot who met Jimmy. Artie knocked Jimmy cold in a slugfest.

Jimmy headed back to LA. He had been fighting every few weeks but he needed a full nine months to recover from the beating he took from Levin.

Jimmy could lose himself in books as well as the speed bag and the shadowing. The hepcats noticed Jimmy didn't shadow box as much and read a lot more.

Finally he returned to the local ring and won a few fights. In the welterweight rankings he was numer 4 according to Ring magazine.

He said he was ready to return to Cleveland to the same ring where Artie Levin had laid him out. He was obsessed with reurning to that very same ring. To Jimmy it was a question of manhood and Jimmy not yet 24 was a man goddamned it.

They say Jimmy looked like a man, a fightin' man. His face was already battered beyond his years and he wasn't a looker to begin with. They say his appearance was the total opposite of the man he would meet in Cleveland, Sugar Ray Robinson. I don't know. The only picture I've ever seen of Jimmy was a rear view. This was Sugar's first defense of the welterwight title after years of being the uncrowned champ. 

They say that Sugar didn't want to fight Jimmy. They say that Sugar had a dream and tried to call it off. They say that the mob forced Sugar to go ahead with the fight. They say Frankie Carbo had something to do with the fight proceeding. Nobody had to force Jimmy. He was going back to Cleveland for redemption. He was gonna earn eighteen grand for the fight. He was gonna buy a house for his Momma.

Sugar Ray gve Jimmy a boxing lesson for six rounds. Jimmy managed to open a cut on Ray's eyebrow on the seventh. He could always say that he nicked Sugar.

In the eighth round Sugar caught Jimmy with a perfect left hook directly on the button, JIMMAY's chin. Jimmy went down. On his way down, a ringside photographer popped his flash and caught Jimmy heading to the canvas. All we can see is Jimmy's back and his splayed arms and used up gloves. 

Thephoto show Sugar watching Jimmy fall. Sugar is looking into the eyes of his opponent. Sugar is seeing those Irish eyes roll back into Jimmy's head as the Irishman begins his crash landing. The look in Sugar's eyes is one of alarm. Jimmy's head hit the canvas before the rest of his body.

They ref could have counted to 14,000. 

Jimmy left the Cleveland ring on a stretcher. They got him to the hospital

Fourteen hours later he was dead.

Sugar had to stay in Cleveland and address a charge of manslaughter.

When tthe DA asked Suger if Doyle was in his class Sugar said that they were both welterweights.

The DA asked Suger if he had gone into the ring expecting to beat Doyle.

Sugar said that he was the Champion and as such he and everybody else expected that he would beat Doyle.

The DA asked Sugar if he knew before the fatal punch that Jimmy was in trouble.

Sugar said it was his job to put people in trouble.

Nobody asked Sugar about his dream. Sugar wanted to get back to Harlem and behind the wheel of only pink convertible that Cadillac had ever built.

The DA dropped the charges, the mayor backed the DA.

Elliot Ness was running for mayor.

He lost.

Meanwhile back in LA on that very same day, Bugsy Siegel got blown away in his living room. They never caught the hitman. Today, people think the hitman was Frankie Carbo.

The Delaney family didn't blame Sugar.

They knew he was doing his job.

Sugar kept doing his job, getting his opponents into trouble.

He took some of the proceeds from his next four fights and bought JIMMMAY's Mom her house.