Randall Craig "Tex" Cobb (born December 10, 1953) is an American actor, martial artist, and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Considered to possess one of the greatest boxing chins of all time,[1] Cobb was a brawler who also packed considerable punching power.[2] He began his fighting career in full contact kickboxing in 1975 before making the jump to professional boxing two years later. He unsuccessfully challenged Larry Holmes for the WBC and lineal world heavyweight title in November 1982, losing by a one-sided unanimous decision. Cobb took wins over notable heavyweights of his era such as Bernardo Mercado, Earnie Shavers, and Leon Spinks. He was ranked in the global top 10 heavyweight boxers by The Ring, in 1981 and 1982, and BoxRec in 1982.[3][4]
In addition to his fighting career, he has acted in numerous films and television series, usually appearing as a villain or henchman. Examples include roles in the Coen brothers film Raising Arizona and the popular programs Miami Vice and Walker, Texas Ranger.
Early life
Randall Cobb was born in Bridge City, Texas, the son of Norma Grace (née Alexander) and Williard Glynn Cobb, a factory foreman. He was raised in Abilene, Texas, and attended Abilene High School, where he played on the football team. Cobb later studied at Abilene Christian University, but dropped out at the age of 19, and began karate training. He lived in the dojo, cleaning the mats to earn his keep.[5] After earning his black belt, he craved full-contact competition, thus took up kickboxing, fighting in an era when only full contact rules were used in the United States. He won his first nine matches, going 9–0 with all knockouts.
He TKO'd El Paso Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion and karate black belt, David Ochoa, in the first-ever professional kickboxing event in El Paso, Texas, in 1975. The promoters were Robert Nava and boxing trainer Tom McKay under the guidance of boxing guru and matchmaker, Paul Clinite. Clinite signed Randall to a professional-boxing contract a few weeks later. He also signed Ochoa, who had fought amateur under the guidance of McKay as his trainer.
Clinite provided films of heavyweight boxers to study, to get the huge Cobb a good style. After a few days, it was decided that Randall should work at learning the "Joe Louis shuffle". Randall, Paul, and Tom spent a few months at El Paso's San Juan Boxing Gym just doing the simple basics. A few months later, Clinite made arrangements for Randall to be sent to Joe Frazier's gym in Philadelphia.
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, he knocked out Pedro Vega. He went on to win 13 straight fights by 1979, all by knockout. Cobb was a fighter who had hitting power, as shown by his eighth-round knockout victory over Earnie Shavers in 1980. He lost his two following bouts to Ken Norton and Michael Dokes, respectively, but soon bounced back to earn a shot at Larry Holmes' WBC World Heavyweight Championship.[6]
On November 26, 1982, 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, horrified sportscaster Howard Cosell so much that he vowed never to cover another professional match, which Cobb jokingly referred to as his "gift to the sport of boxing."[7]
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!"[citation needed] When asked if he would consider a rematch, Cobb replied that he did not think that Holmes would agree, as "the champion's fists couldn't handle a rematch."[8] In an interview with Johnny Carson after the Holmes fight, Carson said "He seems to have a much longer reach than you do", to which Cobb replied, "Looked like that to you too?"[9]
He made a brief return to kickboxing on May 5, 1984, to challenge John Jackson for the Professional Karate Association United States Heavyweight title in Birmingham, Alabama, losing on points. Returning to boxing, between late 1984 and 1985, he lost four straight fights, the last of which was a knockout at the hands of Dee Collier, the only time he was ever KO'd. After a two-year hiatus, he made a return to the ring and went on a 20-fight undefeated streak against lightly regarded opponents, including a win over past-his-prime former champ Leon Spinks in 1988, before retiring again rather suddenly in 1993.[10]
A 1993 Sports Illustrated article alleged that Cobb had participated in a fixed fight with Sonny Barch and had used cocaine with Barch and promoter Rick "Elvis" Parker before and after the fight. Cobb said the magazine libeled him, and he sued for US$150million. In 1999, a jury awarded Cobb $8.5million in compensatory damages and $2.2million in punitive damages. The verdict was overturned in 2002 by a federal appeals court, which said that the article was not published with "actual malice". The magazine did not interview the referee and other ringside officials who were at the match, which tends to show that the magazine "might not have acted as a prudent reporter would have acted", the ruling stated. "But the actual malice standard requires more than just proof of negligence".[11]
Cobb's other appearances include the 1983 film Uncommon Valor, in which he played a rare heroic role; the 1987 movie Critical Condition, in which he plays a character in the psych ward who thinks he is a "brother" (an African American); The Champ, which referred to his boxing career by casting Cobb as a boxer who fights the title character, Billy Flynn; and Diggstown, in which he plays a prison inmate who fights at the behest of a con man.
One of his more memorable roles is the menacing outlaw biker/bounty hunter Leonard Smalls in the 1987 Coen Brothers film Raising Arizona.[12]Joel Coen later described Cobb as difficult to work with: "he's less an actor than a force of nature".[13]
On Late Night with David Letterman on January 7, 1987, he was asked how boxing compared to acting and said "In the last job I had, if you didn't do it just exactly right you got hit in the mouth. In this kind of job, the worst thing that can happen, I mean if everything in the whole world goes wrong, take two."[14]
Cobb lives in Philadelphia, and maintained a friendship with Philadelphia Daily News columnist Pete Dexter, who frequently commented on boxing. In a notorious 1981 Grays Ferry incident, Cobb came to the defense of Dexter, who during the course of a bar brawl, was severely beaten.[15] Cobb rescued him and endured a broken arm, costing him a scheduled fight with Mike Weaver.
Cobb's eldest son Bo was killed in an accident in early 2001. His younger son Joshua pursued a short career as a boxer. Cobb was married to his sons' mother, Kathy Krakauskas Morin, from 1982 to 1986.
In January 2008, at age 57, Cobb graduated magna cum laude from Temple University with a bachelor's degree in sport and recreation management. He remarked that it was odd to hear the cheers of a packed arena without being in a boxing ring. "It was nice to have that opportunity to wear a robe, to step up there and not have to worry about bleeding", Cobb said.[16]
Dwight Trammel / Ross Dollarhide / 'flashbacks', Desperado
Episode: "The Final Showdown"
Related Research Articles
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, as well as fighting-based video games. A full knockout is considered any legal strike or combination thereof that renders an opponent unable to continue fighting.
Larry Holmes is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002 and was world heavyweight champion from 1978 until 1985. He is often considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which led to his boxing nickname of the "Easton Assassin".
Michael Spinks is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed light heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and the lineal heavyweight title from 1985 to 1988. As an amateur he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. was an American actor and professional boxer who competed from 1967 to 1981. He was awarded the WBC world heavyweight championship in 1978, after winning a close split decision over Jimmy Young in a title eliminator bout, after which Leon Spinks refused to fight with him.
Ron Stander was an American professional boxer, who fought from 1969 to 1982. The highlight of Stander's pro career came on May 25, 1972 when he challenged for the world heavyweight championship in Omaha, Nebraska. Stander lost to champion Joe Frazier by fifth-round technical knockout when the ring doctor stopped the fight after the fourth round. Prior to his unsuccessful match versus Frazier, Stander had scored a fifth-round knockout victory over hard-punching Earnie Shavers in 1970, and a decision win over contender Thad Spencer in 1971. An award-winning documentary titled "The Bluffs Butcher," after his adopted hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa, produced by journalism student Andrew Batt, was released in 2004. The documentary tells the story of Iowa's arguably best shot at a World Heavyweight Boxing Title and chronicled Stander's journey from virtual unknown to boxing's largest stage.
Leon Spinks was an American professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1995. In only his eighth professional fight, he won the undisputed heavyweight championship in 1978 after defeating Muhammad Ali in a split decision, in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Spinks was later stripped of the WBC title for facing Ali in an unapproved rematch seven months later, which he lost by a unanimous decision.
Earnie Dee Shaver, best known as Earnie Shavers, was an American professional boxer who competed between 1969 and 1995. A two-time world heavyweight championship challenger, he is known as one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight boxing history. He scored 70 knockout wins, including 23 in the first round, for a 76.7% overall knockout rate.
Michael Dwayne Weaver is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1972 to 2000, and held the WBA heavyweight title from 1980 to 1982. He is widely regarded as one of the Best Heavyweight Boxers of the 1980s beating Heavyweight Champions such as Gerrie Coetzee and John Tate.
Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 2000. He won the WBC heavyweight title in 1986 by defeating Pinklon Thomas, then lost it in his first defense in the same year to Mike Tyson. Berbick was the last boxer to fight Muhammad Ali, defeating him in 1981 by unanimous decision.
Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney was a heavyweight boxing match that took place on June 11, 1982, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It was one of the most highly anticipated fights of the early 1980s.
Bernardo Mercado was a Colombian professional boxer briefly ranked as the top contender for the title of champion in 1980 by the WBC.
Michael Dokes vs. Gerrie Coetzee, billed as The Buckeye Homecoming, was a professional boxing match that took place on September 23, 1983, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio, United States for Dokes' WBA heavyweight title.
Troy Glenn Dorsey is a former U.S. boxer and kickboxer who competed in the bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight divisions. Known predominantly for his physical endurance and power, Dorsey began his martial arts training in karate and taekwondo at the age of ten before later making the switch to full contact kickboxing. He was a three-time kickboxing world champion as well as a gold medalist of the WAKO Amateur World Championships in both 1985 (London) and 1987 (Munich). He then began dedicating himself to boxing in 1989. He won the IBF World Featherweight Championship and IBO World Super Featherweight Championship before retiring in 1998.
Joe Lewis was an American martial artist, professional kickboxer and actor. Originally a practitioner of Shōrin-ryū karate and champion in point sparring competitions, he became one of the fathers of full contact karate and kickboxing in the United States, and is credited with popularizing the combat sport in North America.
Jeff Lampkin is an American former professional boxer. During his 11-year professional career, Lampkin won the USBA cruiserweight title and IBF cruiserweight belt.
David Bey was a heavyweight boxer who held the USBA title. He unsuccessfully challenged Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title in 1985.
Kevin Rosier was an American kickboxer, boxer and mixed martial artist. He had much success as a kickboxer, winning a number of titles, but did not transition particularly well into the world of boxing and was mostly seen as a journeyman fighter. Notably, he also took part at the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship event in 1993 where he reached the semi-finals.
Anthony Perez was an American boxing referee and judge of Puerto Rican descent. During his career, he refereed many major boxing fights and participated in a number of boxing related documentaries.
Carol B. Polis is an American writer, stockbroker and former professional boxing judge. From 1973 to 2009, she judged 143 professional boxing contests, including many world championships. Polis is the first woman in the sport's history to become licensed to judge professional boxing fights.
The Michael Dokes vs. Mike Weaver or, alternately, Mike Weaver vs. Michael Dokes, boxing fights were a pair of fights that occurred in 1982 and 1983 and were for the World Boxing Association's world Heavyweight title. Both fights were considered controversial due to a separate set of situations. They are both among the most widely spoken about heavyweight boxing contests of the 1980s.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Andre Smiley
Bernardo Mercado 
Eusebio Hernandez, Jr.
