Boxing Career
After nine straight wins as a kickboxer, Cobb lost his first two amateur bouts. In his professional boxing debut on January 19, 1977) in El Paso, Texas, he knocked out Pedro Vega. He went on to win 13 straight fights by 1979, all by knockout. On November 26, 1982, he fought champion Larry Holmes for the WBC World Heavyweight title at Houston's Astrodome. Cobb was defeated in a unanimous decision by Holmes, who won all 15 rounds on two of three scorecards. The bloody one-sidedness of the fight, which came 13 days after the bout between Ray Mancini and Duk Koo Kim that led to Kim's death four days later due to brain trauma, so horrified sportscaster Howard Cosell that he vowed never to cover another professional match, which Cobb jokingly referred to as his "gift to the sport of boxing." When prodded further regarding Cosell's remarks, Cobb observed, "Hey, if it gets him to stop broadcasting NFL games, I'll go play football for a week too!" His sense of humor was revealed when he was asked if he would consider a rematch, to which he replied that he did not think that Holmes would agree, as Holmes' "hands could not take it." In an interview after the Holmes fight he was asked how he could fight someone whose arms were a foot longer than his were, to which he replied, "Oh, it seemed that way to you too?"
After the fight, many sports fans all over the world wrote to Cobb and thanked him for his effort.
Cobb was a fighter who had hitting power, as shown by his eighth-round knockout victory over Earnie Shavers. He was knocked out only once in his career, by Dee Collier in 1985, and is known for having one of the greatest chins of all time. Cobb also fought Michael Dokes twice during his boxing career, losing both fights. In the early 1990s Cobb made a comeback into the world of boxing, winning 20 straight fights against lightly regarded opponents. He retired again rather suddenly.
Read more about this topic: Randall "Tex" Cobb
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