Around Christmastime, I received a call from an unfamiliar number. It was from a figure I had not heard from in years. It was former lightweight contender Ivan ?Mighty? Robinson, best known for his two back-to-back- and back-and-forth- battles against Arturo Gatti in 1998. What was even more surprising than hearing his raspy voice was that he had gotten my number from Eddie Woods, who managed Robinson from his days fresh out of the amateurs (where he just missed a berth in 1992 Olympics after losing a narrow decision to Oscar De La Hoya in the Olympic trials) throughout his prime. They had just recently had breakfast, it turned out.
The stunning part to me was that they were even on speaking terms.
Like many other relationships in this hard business, Robinson and Woods had become estranged for the better part of a decade. After hitting a skid in 2000, when he lost to Antonio Diaz and Jesse James Leija (which were sandwiched between a draw versus Vivian Harris), Woods wanted his fighter to walk away from the sport. He could even be heard in the immediate aftermath of the loss to ?To?o? Diaz telling Larry Merchant of HBO, who called the fight, ?It?s over; it?s over.?
For all intents and purposes, after losing to Leija, the sun had set on Robinson?s time as a true world-class professional prizefighter. Predictably, he fought on but without Woods in his corner and, basically, his life.
“Let me just go back a little bit,” Woods explained to Maxboxing, “when we were in the car when he was 20 years old, before he turned pro. The week before we signed the pro contract, I was driving him to his mother?s house in my Lincoln car. I told him, ?You gotta make me one promise. Now you?re starting pro next week. We?re going to fight at the Resorts International in Atlantic City. So you gotta promise me and you gotta shake my hand, right now; once I tell you that you?re finished, your legs are gone, you?ve gotta quit.? He said, ?I think that?s right thing.? I said, ?You gotta promise me now.? So we made that promise.
“And then after he fought and I had seen his legs shaking and he took shots, weakening and getting hurt, I didn?t want to see him get hurt because he?s a very intelligent guy and I told him, ?Ivan, you didn?t keep your promise,? and we had a little spat, not an argument, just a disagreement and I said, ?Ivan, we made an agreement, a handshake, my word?s my bond and you didn?t keep your word. Get out before you get hurt. I don?t want to see you walking around on your heels.
“And he went one way and I went another.”
Robinson fought till 2008, losing much more than he won. He finished his career losing five of his last six bouts in small venues for modest purses. “I didn?t come to one of his fights after I told him to quit- not one fight,” said Woods. “I wouldn?t go. Why? Because he?s a good kid.”
When you ask Robinson if he stuck around too long, he admits, “I think so; I think so but y? know, I?m a kid from Philly. I?m from North Philly; I had a big head. I had a big ego and everything. That was one thing my wife always told me that made me mad- and she was one of my biggest critics out of everybody- she told me that I was just too good for my own self. I would fight anybody; you know that. I would fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, any day. And see, back then, if a promoter came to me and said, ?Mr. Robinson, we want you to fight for $30,000, $40,000, it was cool with me. Nowadays, if a promoter goes to a fighter and tells him to sign for $40,000, the fighter wants more, three times more than what he?s getting and a lot of times guys out-price themselves- and half of them can?t even fight.”
Woods describes their relationship during this stage as “frosty.” The man who represented Teamster Local 107 in Philadelphia for three decades was pained by the mere mention of the career he believed was allowed to continue for far too long. “Honest to God, if you ask my wife, I said, ?Ivan fought.? She?d ask, ?How?d he do?? I said, ?I don?t know and I don?t care but he probably lost.? And then it was on my mind; she used to say to me, ?You?re thinking about it, ain?t ya? Maybe you should be there?? I said, ?No, I shouldn?t be there because I made a promise with him and he made a promise with me and he didn?t keep it.”
Robinson, in many ways, was the last of the consummate Philly fighters. Tough, hardnosed and he never gave an inch. He wasn?t a puncher but he was never, ever afraid to get into a slugfest (sometimes to his own detriment). The fights with Gatti were two of the best of that decade. But he came into those fights one guy and left another. Wood says, “Those two fights took a lot out of him.”
Woods was able to parlay a few more lucrative paydays from those victories. But as it became clear that Robinson was fading, Woods attempted to use his contacts within the Teamsters to land Robinson a regular gig.
“I tried to get him a couple jobs here and there and things got a little bad and then somebody would say, ?I seen Ivan; he didn?t mention you,? I asked a few times how he?s doing and it ate me up inside. I have to tell you the truth; I hate to admit it but I hurt inside all the time because he was like a son to me and it hurt me. It just hurt me to know that…a lot of sh*t went on that was crazy. He was listening to the wrong people and I said, ?I?m not running away from him.? And then the word got around Philadelphia that I left him cold- no, I didn?t leave him cold. I told him it was over. The ball game was over; three strikes, everything is over. The ninth inning?s over. Nobody listened to me.”
Robinson is like many other fighters who find that their commitment and focus to this sport they love comes with a downside. Oftentimes, they have nothing else to really fall back on. In his historic book Ball Four, Jim Bouton said that all along, while he thought he had always gripped the baseball, in reality, it was the other way around. The same holds true for those that lace up the gloves.
“Life is always going to throw you curveballs,” said Robinson, whose career ended with a record of 32-12-2 (12). “You?re like a train; you?re either going to stay on the track or you?re going to fall off and I had my bumps and bruises in life. And all fighters do; no fighters don?t. There?s not one fighter in life today, past or present, that you can?t tell me that hasn?t been off the track. But with all that said, if boxing can upscale me to become a multi-millionaire, of course, I?m going to take it. If it doesn?t, it don?t mean I like it any less.”
Part of finally transitioning to life outside the ring was making amends with his former manager, the old white guy from Jersey who he considered his second father.
“Finally we met and I said, ?Hey, we gotta get together? and he came over to the house and had breakfast and then I went out with him a few times,” said Woods. “I went over to his house and said, ?We gotta stop all this bullsh*t.? Then it was on my mind to try and help him out. Then about a year ago, he said, ?Y? know, I might try a comeback.? I said, ?If you ever make another comeback, don?t ever, ever, talk to me again. I want nothing to do with you again.”
Thankfully, those plans were scrapped. But now Robinson spends his time at the Camden Academy in Camden, New Jersey, as a trainer.
“It?s funny but the fight game ain?t like it was when I was out. Ya? know, I?m just staying around, keeping the flow. Staying in contact with my ex-manager, he?s got a bunch of fighters under contract and I?m just waiting for him to throw me a nice prospect that he has that I can put my name out there as a good trainer.” Robinson, like many others, believes there is a dearth of real teachers in the corner. “Right now, no. I mean, the last good one I feel is good, that has potential, is Freddie Roach. I don?t know too many other guys. I don?t know why there aren?t more but the fight game had really taken a nosedive and I?m hoping it can be rekindled and can come back to what it once was in the ?70s and ?80s.”
One of the problems, truthfully, is that Philadelphia is no longer a fight town. The scene has crumbled like the Spectrum.
“It has,” agreed Robinson. “I don?t know what happened to the big promoters or the fighters. Because we do have some young, good fighters that are hungry and aren?t able to break through. But we just don?t have the quality of promoters to help you to get these guys to where they need to be. I don?t want to say we don?t have the managers because we do but money is short and guys aren?t really giving out the money or looking to advance like they did in the past.”
Growing up, Robinson was part of live gym scene, where fighters and trainers were in abundance. Where have you gone George Benton?
Robinson recalls, “When I first went, the first gym I went to was ?Champs? and everybody in Philly is going to be like, ?What you mean, ?Champs?? There was a bunch of ?Champs? but the prime ?Champs? that I went to was the one that had Bennie Briscoe. When I was still a baby, ya? know, I didn?t know these names like that but I trained around these guys. Willie ?The Worm? Monroe, all these big names that are now referees and some of them are trainers.”
In those days, for kids, it was the thing to do. Now? Well, not so much.
“No, it?s not like that. A lot of the kids that have the potential, I don?t know what it is, they get caught up in the street. They want to sit on corners and sell drugs. They put their time in. You can?t ever get a kid to go home and do his homework,” said Robinson, who recalled a recent visit he made with former classmate and recently retired Boston Celtic Rasheed Wallace to their alma mater, Simon Gratz High School. “I tell ya?, these kids nowadays, man, I had one kid ask me yesterday, after I told them the fights that I?ve been in and how tough it was- he actually got up in the middle of the classroom and asked if he could spar with me. I?m like, ?Homey, that?s for the gym; that?s not for the classroom.? So you know, kids, it?s different nowadays. It seems like kids on the street nowadays, they get their big reputation by fighting a guy like me and knocking me out- which none of them would- or beating me up and they become real big names by doing that, when they can just put their gloves and go in and spar with a guy who?s champion or been known as a champion.”
When asked what he can impart to a novice boxer, Robinson answers, “I think I can bring a lot of wisdom, even though I don?t know what people may know about my career. What I can impart into a fighter is his ability to be the best he can be and I think I can enlighten them as it relates to situations in life, as far as the street. As far as the struggle, as far as you just bobbing-and-weaving, catching and sliding, as it comes to the streets. I don?t want everyone to think it?s all about boxing because it?s not all about boxing.
“Someday, you?ll have to be like me. You?re going to have to give up boxing. I don?t care what you think or how you think about it.”
And Woods, who helps manage the likes of Derek and Farah Ennis, among others, states, “Now I?m trying to find him a good little young fighter that I can stick him with to make some money. He can be a helluva trainer.”
Robinson and Woods are now back in each other?s corner. It?s a happy ending (at least, for now) in a sport that doesn?t have too many of them.
“Even though I continued to go on with my career, Eddie was still a major figure in my life,” said Robinson, “to the point he was like that daddy figure. Even though I had money, I didn?t have a whole lot of money. I had money to keep me grounded and there were other things I was trying to do and I didn?t have enough money to help me. Eddie was always like my pillow. [If] I needed something, Eddie was always there. Eddie is still that guy; I can call Eddie right now and ask for anything and if it?s in Eddie?s reach to do it, he?ll do it for me.”
LITZAU LOSES FIGHT?
On Tuesday, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions told me that he was hoping to match Jason ?Lazarus? Litzau against Daniel Ponce de Leon as the opening bout on HBO?s ?Boxing After Dark? broadcast on March 5th before Saul Alvarez faces Matthew Hatton in the night?s main event. Well, on Wednesday afternoon, I received a release from Team Litzau stating that they had accepted the fight with Ponce de Leon for the April 9th pay-per-view show.
This was a tad confusing.
Well, a few minutes after getting that release, I spoke with Schaefer, who said that Litzau and his reps had simply taken too long in making up their minds and that now they were hoping to open up that show in March with a bout between Adrien Broner and Ponce de Leon.
So I?m not sure where that leaves Litzau.
THURSDAY FLURRIES
Speaking of Alvarez-Hatton, a public press conference has been scheduled by Golden Boy for this Friday afternoon at one at the El Mercado of Los Angeles (3425 East 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90063). Along with ?Canelo,? Oscar De La Hoya will be there…Some future Telefutura fights: Jan. 28th: Charles Huerta vs. Raul Hilares Jr. and Gary Russell Jr. vs. TBA, Feb. 4th: Mike Perez co-headlines with Jayson Velez, Feb. 11th: Peter Quillin vs. TBA, Feb. 18th: Eloy Perez vs. TBA, Feb. 25th: Danny Garcia and Mercito Gesta are featured in separate bouts…Seeing Bob Arum and Don King all chummy now is akin to when Tom and Jerry became all buddy-buddy…You know what is hugely underrated? The nachos at 7-11…I can be reached at [email protected] and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.
