Generally regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in history, Sugar Ray Robinson came of age as a man and a boxer in the ’40s and ’50s.  He’s best known for the six legendary brawls he fought with Jake Lamotta, but his cultural significance extends beyond athletics. His story is also the story of post-war Harlem featuring the likes of Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, and Miles Davis.  At the height of his career, Robinson owned a Harlem night club that was frequently the hottest spot in town.  Will Haygood, who writes for the Washington Post, brings not only the inimitable Robinson to life in Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Knopf, $27.95), but also fixes him within the electric milieu that is Harlem.  After penning bios of Adam Clayton Powell and Sammy Davis, Jr., Haygood rounds out his picture of African-American icons of the mid-twentieth century with this life of Sugar Ray.