Randall "Tex" Cobb

Randall Craig "Tex" Cobb (born May 7, 1950) 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, Cobb was a brawler who also packed considerable punching power. 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.

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 TV programs Miami Vice, The X-Files and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Early life

Cobb was born on May 7, 1950, in Bridge City, Texas, the son of Norma Grace (née Alexander) and Williard Glynn Cobb, a factory foreman. His mother was of Scottish ancestry. 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. 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 five kickboxing matches, going 5–0 with all knockouts before losing to John Jackson by decision.

He TKO'd El Paso Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion and karate black belt, David Ochoa, in the first-ever full contact martial arts 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 five straight wins as a professional kickboxer,

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,

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?"

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.

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$150 million. In 1999, a jury awarded Cobb $8.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.2 million 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". Joel Coen later described Cobb as difficult to work with: "he's less an actor than a force of nature".

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."

In 1992, he appeared in Vince Gill's music video for his song "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away". In 1993, he spoofed himself by appearing in a commercial for Old El Paso salsa.

Personal life

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. 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.

Boxing record

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; font-size:95%;"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|42 Wins (35 knockouts, 7 decisions), 7 Losses (1 knockout, 6 decisions), 1 Draw, 1 No Contest

! Result

! Record

! Opponent

! Type

! Round, time

! Date

! Location

! Notes

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Andre Smiley

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Mike Acklie

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Guile Wilkinson

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| John Warrior

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Mike Smith

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Paul Lewis

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Jim Taylor

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Rick Kellar

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Jeff May

|align=left|

|- align=center

|style="background:#ddd;"|NC

|align=left| Sonny Barch

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Leon Spinks

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Michael Johnson

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Aaron Brown

|align=left|

|- align=center

|style="background:#ddd;"|Draw

|align=left| Bill Duncan

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Rick Kellar

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Louis Pappin

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Frank Lux

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Stan Johnson

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Frank Lux

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Phil Rendine

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Dee Collier

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Eddie Gregg

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Michael Dokes

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| James Douglas

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Mark Lee

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Ernie Smith

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Ruben Williams

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Mike Jameson

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Larry Holmes

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Jeff Shelburg

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Bernardo Mercado

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Harry Terrell

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Michael Dokes

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Loss

|align=left| Ken Norton

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Earnie Shavers

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Robert Echols

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Roy Wallace

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Eusebio Hernandez Jr.

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Terry Mims

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Don Halpin

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Jesse Crown

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Zack Ferguson

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Rodell Dupree

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Paul Solomon

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Don Hinton

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Dave Martinez

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| David Wynne

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Ernie Smith

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Trinidad Escamilla

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Tyrone Harlee

|align=left|

|- align=center

|Win

|align=left| Pedro Vega

|align=left|

Kickboxing record

|- style="background:#fbb;"

| 1984-05-05 || Loss ||align=left| John Jackson