“Mighty” Ivan Robinson – Part IV
By Boxing Reporter and Writer, Chris Cercola
The Ivan Robinson chronicles continue as the “Mighty” one discusses his father’s absence whenever he fought the South African, Philip Holiday and his thoughts on trainer Tommy Brooks as his main trainer for this fight for the IBF Lightweight Title.
There was a problem with my father already in the making, it just got bad, and to me, it just got worse ‘cause it was out of context, and I didn’t know how to handle i.e. felt as though the best way to handle it, was not to pick someone and choose, and he was pretty much the problem, although sometimes he tried not to be the middle person, but he was, so I figured if I eliminated him, the problem would be OK, but that was eliminating the problem, and starting a new problem.
Carl Moretti, I guess was putting so much pressure on the IBF to fight Philip Holiday that they didn’t have any choice. We was number one, I think Shane was number two, and it was crazy, everybody was wondering how I was on top of Shane. At that time, Shane was the best, but I still thought I could beat him, you know, but we got it. I`ll never forget it, they called us, and I guess Pernell was getting ready to fight and Junior Jones was in line to fight too, so they sent us down to Virginia Beach with Pernell Whitaker down in his hometown. At that time, his conditioning coach was Bob Waring, my God, Bob Waring was the man.
We went down there and conditioned with Bob in the morning and then we trained at night, and I mean, what a team of boxers could you have in that facility? It was Pernell, it was me, it was Junior Jones, there was David Tua, there was Arturo Gatti, I mean God, if you wanted a starting five team, and there goes your team right there. It was great man, I boxed Pernell, and we had a kid that was coming up at that time called Robbie Peden, he was from Australia, me and him got along real well, me and Robbie did a lot of boxing together. Me and him boxed a lot and Pernell and Gatti boxed, I can’t even remember who Junior Jones boxed. When we got there Junior Jones had like a week and half left and he was getting shipped out to Vegas to go fight Barrera. But Pernell treated us real well, he took me out, he showed me Virginia Beach, I went to his house, met his kids, met his wife and you know, it was just our camp. We lived good, we trained good. We conditioned in the morning and at night we boxed, we trained, it was good, the only thing that I felt was messed up is me and my dad had the falling out, and with that falling out, he didn’t come down.
My dad was 2nd chief, and Odell (Butch) Cathay was my head trainer, but still, although Butch was the head trainer and he gave all the commands, my dad was still pretty much the brain. Me and him trained for so many years but before Butch came down, I was wondering who was gonna work the media didn’t know. Tommy Brooks was in the gym at the time, and Brooks was giving me advice here and there and at the time. Brooks was hot, but he wasn’t smoking, but when he took Junior Jones up there to fight Marco Antonio Barrera, and he beat him…Oh my God! Tommy Brooks was like a bullet, and I knew my dad wasn’t coming, I knew my trainer was ifgonna come, but he also worked, so he really couldn’t get that much time off, so we grabbed Tommy Brooks, he was hot, but that was pretty much the downfall of everything.
Tommy Brooks was in the corner when we got down there…You know, when you have a fighter for so many years, y`all pretty much draw a chemistry, like when you get married to your wife, you and her got a chemistry together y`all just about know each other, y`all know what to do, what not to do, you know what move she gonna make, she know what move you gonna make, if you make a deal, she know exactly what the figures gonna be, and that’s the type of relationship me and my dad had, and with him not being there, it was gone, but you know me being the guy that I am, I`m just gonna chalk it up and I`m gonna go in there. I`m gonna get this championship belt, and do what I do from here.
Man, Tommy Brooks came in there in this fight with Phillip Holiday and changed everything absolutely around, and it was just a disaster. I’ll never forget it, when I went to the corner, I think it was the sixth round, and my trainer Butch, who I was with since I was with my dad, he wanted to say something, and Tommy Brooks told him, “No!”, that just made me mad I was like, “Yo, how you gonna tell my man no, and he been training me longer than you been, you been with me only two weeks!” I mean I understand you hot and whatever, but, I knew exactly what to do. I didn’t feel comfortable ‘cause my ace wasn’t there, my dad wasn’t there, and I lost. But then again, we set all kinds of crazy records throwing punches, and it was crazy, I got a big shot on TV again. It was a good night and it was a bad night, the bad night was, I didn’t have my man there which was my dad, the good thing was, I guess I broke records for TV and all those type of things, he was strong…Well, he wasn’t actually strong, the thing was…That thing called pressure…It’s like you being in a relationship, and that pressure come on you, if you’re not a strong person, you break.
I didn’t break, but I did know prior to the fight, this motherfucker ran marathons all through South Africa, so I did know that his ability and his stamina was gonna be strong, but I didn’t care about that because I ran like a work horse too, you know, I didn’t run for time but when I was running in Jersey, there’s a lake over there called Cooper River, which, a five mile run over there, would take a normal person probably an hour to run, I was running the five miles in like 26 minutes. My manager would take me running every day six days a week, the only day we would have off was on Sunday because that’s the Lords day, so I don’t do nothing that day, but I’m over there just running at a normal pace, I’m not trying to break no records or nothing, then I`m doing wind sprints, then I’m out there shadowboxing.
Stay tuned for part V of the Ivan Robinson chronicles. You do not want to miss it as Ivan goes into detail about his work ethic, his loss with Israel Cardona, and how the fight with Gatti was made. You don’t want to miss it!
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