The Characters Of Boxing: Tex Cobb

In boxing, the granite-jawed Tex Cobb is best remembered for his bloody one-sided battle against Larry Holmes, a fight so ugly it made Howard Cosell vow on air to quit announcing boxing if the fight wasn't stopped.

It wasn't.  And after Howard quit boxing, Cobb said:

"I'll go another 15 rounds with Holmes if Howard will quit announcing football!"

Before the fight Cobb was asked by Cosell how he planned to fight Holmes. Cobb responded "Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and out jab him."

During the fight Mills Lane stopped the action to ask Cobb if he was okay. When Cobb replied that he was, Lane asked him, "Do you know where you are?" Cobb replied, "I am in Reno, getting the shit kicked out of me."

And when the action was again stopped so that Lane could check on Cobb. He asked him, "Do you see me?" Cobb replies, "Yeah. You're white. It's the black guy I'm worried about."

"Hey, you're a white guy, do something about this!" To the ref in the Holmes fight.

"Let's party!" To Holmes as they touched gloves for round 15.

On the Johnny Carson show shortly after the fight, the glib Cobb responded to a Carson comment on how Holmes kept landing his jab by saying "you noticed that too?"

And  Cobb talked about his game plan "I stuck to my game plan -- stumbling forward and getting hit in the face." and "Larry Holmes didn't beat me he just won the first 15 rounds"

Asked if he would fight Holmes again he said "I don't think Holmes' hands can take the abuse," and Cobb said he would only fight Holmes again if the "fight was held in a phone booth."

Asked if he talked to Holmes during the fight, Cobb said.

"I wasn't talking to Holmes in there. Every time I felt like saying something to him I found it hard because he kept putting his left hand in my mouth."

Cobb also fought the incredibly hard hitting heavy weight Earnie Shavers and provided a few Cobbisms.

"Larry Holmes doesn't hit as hard as Earnie Shavers. Nobody hits like Shavers. If anybody hit harder than Shavers, I'd shoot him."

"Earnie Shavers could punch you in the neck and break your ankle."

During the referee's instructions prior to his bout with Shavers, the ref asked the customary "Any questions"? Cobb replied "Can I bite him"?

Cobb went on to a successful career as a Hollywood heavy. A character actor perhaps best remembered as the vicious bunny bombing biker, Leonard Smalls, in the Coen Brothers classic Raising Arizona.

"Name's Smalls. Leonard Smalls. My friends call me Lenny...only I ain't got no friends."

Cobb once had a legitimate shot to win the title in a scheduled fight against the beatable Mike Weaver.

Cobb was close friends of the gifted Philadelphia Inquirer writer Pete Dexter. Dexter had a running print feud with a certain segment of South Philadelphia he labeled criminal. 

Once, while admittedly drinking heavily, Dexter got into an ugly skirmish in a South Philadelphia bar. Enraged, he stormed out vowing to return with Cobb. Cobb came back with his friend and suddenly the bar was filled with a group of thirty men wielding baseball bats.

Cobb, always ready with a quip even in the worst situations, looked around at the bat wielding men and said. "I sure hope this is the softball team." 

Cobb's arm was broken in the melee and his fight with Weaver was cancelled. Dexter got off much, much worse. The writer was brutally beaten and permanently disabled. But Dexter said Cobb's ability to brutally fight off the tire iron and bat wielding thugs saved him from a worse fate.

Dexter left Philadelphia and after a stay in Deadwood, South Dakota settled in Oregon. His writing skills remain intact but the physical scars remain. Even with the scars Dexter wrote several excellent novels, including Deadwood, Paris Trout, God's Pocket, and Brotherly Love.

Cobb went on to a colorful Hollywood career and still provides colorful quotes when he is spotted ringside.

Cobb was extremely tough, with a sharp wit, and had an incredible chin. His ability to withstand brutal beatings from some of boxing's all time greats made him a minor legend and a legendary  character.

Cobb had an extensive kick boxing background and if in his prime today would be a hit in MMA.  

Some final Cobbisms.


"They called me a fat, cowardly, cocaine-snorting, fight-fixing
cheat," Who they calling fat!"

(When asked about continuing his career) "Better than getting a real job, right!"

"I was only knocked out once, by a Mexican bantamweight, you wanna know how come? Six of my pals were swinging him 'round by his heels at the time.."

"I'll do anything to keep from working for a living, if I've gotta fight a circus bear, then let's get the drawers on him and get it on!!"

"This fight will be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I've been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious." On his upcoming fight with Michael Dokes.

"Sure, I'd love to fight him. But I have my price: 25 cents and a loose woman." On if he'd like to fight Gerry Cooney.

"I've always thought the greatest crime a man can do is take himself too seriously. I mean, something like fighting is pretty ridiculous to take seriously. What I do is hit people; I'm not promoting anything that is real or valuable.

"All I do is hit somebody in the mouth. It's a whole lot easier than working for a living. Don't make anything noble out of what I do." When asked how he viewed his boxing career.

Thanks to James Slater of eastsideboxing.com for some of the collected quotes.