Let's Talk About Rockin Robin Blake
Charles Beauchamp
featuring young contenders on the way up in the rankings. One of the
mainstays for several years was a Lightweight named Robin Blake. Blake was
a guy from Levelland Texas who was pretty tall for his weight class. He was
a boxer puncher who could be hit, but was tough enough to take it from most
top 135 pounders in the world.
Peaking during a time when there were a lot of just excellent lightweights
competing for supremacy, Blake more then competed. The division was loaded
with guys like Arguello, Mancini, Jimmy Paul, Harry Arroyo, Rosario and
Camacho.
He did face many good fighters in his initial run up the world ratings. He
ran off a string of wins over Chris Calvan, Ruben Munoz Jr, Sterling
McPhereson, Tony Baltazar and Melvin Paul.
He ran into trouble finally against perhaps the greatest of the ESPN
fighters in that era Tyrone Butterly Crawley losing a decision. Three
months later Blake (still a top contender) legitimized Harry Arroyo losing a
decision as Arroyo charged towards a title shot.
Blake restarded going on another winning streak. Along the way he beat
Edwin Curet and Adolfo Medal to earn a IBF shot against Jimmy Paul. At the
time I rated Paul as the premier 135lb fighter in the world. Blake lost a
bloody fight getting stopped in 14 rounds by the superior Paul but put on a
very very strong performance in his only real title shot. Blake was never
the same after that fight...but it must be stated....neither was Jimmy Paul.
Robin was really a throwback to another era. He kept his fists moving. He
could really hit but did not posess one punch knockout power. Rather he
would win by outlasting his opponents and won many fights with a badly
bruised bloody face for his efforts. A tendency to lean down to shorter
opponents and not the fleetest of feet probably kept Blake from winning a
major alphabelt in his career, but I can think of several lightweight
champions in history that are fortunate that he was not around during their
time.
After the Paul fight Robin essentially slipped to oponent status losing
against the better fighters that he would face over the closing of his
career. Guys like Robin Blake are the bread and butter that make the sport.
Everyone is not going to be a De La Hoya or Roy Jones superstar. The sport
lives through generations of guys that just work their tails off in the ring
like Robin Blake.
I did not really root for him when he was a fighter, but I have many boxing
memories that are from his fights. Thoughts anyone?
v/r Beau
Loki
Robin Blake was nothing if not prolific. It seems to me that the first
year that I was married that he was fighting just about all the time.
At your mention of him, I went to box rec and found that sure enough
between September of '83 and December of '84 he fought 7 times against
decent, if not top competition.
Of course, while he was on TV a lot, he never really impressed me when
he stepped up in competition and faced the Crawley's or Arroyo's of
his day and by the time he fought Jimmy Paul, he was primarily just a
name. The fight after Paul, Meldrick Taylor beat him decisively in
Meldrick's first 10 round fight.
But we used to watch him because, among other things, my wife liked
his nickname "Rockin' Robin".
Loki
Loveboxing
>memories that are from his fights. Thoughts anyone?
>
>v/r Beau
>
Well put... the only thing I could add to this was that CBS loved showing the
expressions of Robins' wife sitting ringside... adding to the drama.
Russ
Charles Beauchamp
"Loveboxing" <loveb...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030521225513...@mb-m18.aol.com...
As I recall she was kind of hot looking. <G>
v/r Beau