Frday Fun - The Wit and Wisdom of Randall Tex Cobb

As it's a Friday thought would have some fun with the undisputed boxing king of the one liners Randall tex Cobb. Cobb may have not been much in the way of a fighter but when it comes to humour or a one liner Cobb would be undefeated and the first name into the hall of fame. Came across these on East side and thought they were worth repeating, but am sure there are countless others, or would welcome any from other fighters that raise a smile.

In 1980 or so, there was a big dinner honouring heavyweights of the past and present. Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes were all there. So were Renaldo Snipes and Tex Cobb. In his usual fashion, Tex Cobb got up to give a toast. He said, "I'm honoured to be in the same room as some of the baddest n_____s ever." Renaldo Snipes stood up, and said, "I'm not going to stand here and let you call me a n______!" Cobb said, "Relax. I wasn't talking about you."


"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.

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

"You run for 45 minutes, you train for an hour and a half, and the rest of the time you just hang out and talk tough." On the typical day of a pro boxer.

"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.

"If you screw up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, it's your ass, darling!" On how tough fighting can be.

"I miss having bottle fatigue. Abstinence is for monks - not for me. This kind of life is really over-rated. I mean, I'm actually getting to sleep before I have breakfast." On keeping sober during training.

"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." On how he looks at fighting for a living.


On the Larry Holmes fight, Cobb's biggest ever bout.

"No, Larry don't hit as hard as Earnie Shavers. No-one hits as hard as Shavers. If there was a fighter that hit harder than Shavers, I shoot him!"

"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."

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

"I'd have been more active in there, if only I'd been a little more sober."

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

"I don't think his hands could take the abuse." On a possible rematch with Holmes.

And finally, three of Cobb's absolute gems.

"I can do my sport no greater service." On being informed that commentator Howard Cosell had hung up his mike after being so appalled at the one-sidedness of the Holmes-Cobb fight.

"Boxing writers are the only people out there who have less constructive jobs than what I do. I don't do nothing but hit people, and those mothers don't do nothing but write about what I do!"

"Yeah, I've been KO'd. Once. By a Mexican bantamweight. How come? Six of my buddies were swinging him around by the heels at the time."

“It’s one thing to call me white and slow. But to call me a fat, cowardly, cocaine-snorting, fight fixing cheat? Who are they calling fat?”

“I only had two fights as an amateur and lost both of them. Heck, I figure I didn’t have much of a future there. So I turned pro.”

“Hollywood’s a great place to vacation, but I wouldn’t want to live there. The people don’t have a concept of reality. Their reality is how good they pretend. "

“I love acting. It’s easy for me. All you do is look in the camera, smile, and lie with charm. I learned how to do that watching Don King promote fights.”

“Don King is one of the great humanitarians of our time. He has risen above that great term prejudice. He has screwed everybody he has ever been around. Hog, dog or frog, it don’t matter to Don. If you got a quarter, he wants the first twenty-six cents.”

“Don King is like everybody else in boxing. He’s a liar, a thief, a murderer and a racketeer. And a con man. But there ain’t anybody as bad as Bob Arum. That New York City Jew lawyer will make you hate city folks, Jews, and lawyers in the same day.”

“I find it a drag being sensitive twelve hours a day. I’ve got thirty minutes of sensitivity in me in the morning, thirty minutes in the evening and that’s it. I’m more at home kicking butt.”

“People always ask if success is going to change me, and I tell them I sure hope so.”

“I figure I’ve been hit in the head with everything ‘cept a ‘54 Pontiac.”

When asked before the fight if he was afraid of Larry Holmes, Tex replied, “What the hell is this guy going to do to me? Hit me? You think I got all this scar tissue running into parked cars?”

Tex explained away the loss to Holmes. " When I got up I stuck to my plan - stumbling forward and getting hit in the face.”

HumanWindmill wrote:“It’s one thing to call me white and slow. But to call me a fat, cowardly, cocaine-snorting, fight fixing cheat? Who are they calling fat?”

Reminds me of the Tyson one: "They call me a Ray Piste and a recluse. I'm not a recluse."

I think Windy and Rowley have just about covered RTC (never heard of him before but sounds like my kind of sportsman). Chris Eubank quote for Haito.....

Nigel Benn is like washing-up liquid: built on hype and one day the bubble will burst.

Must have been a mouthful for him

Sean Cobb has gone on to be a relatively successful actor, normally plays the henchman type role. Believe he was in The Golden Child and Raising Arizona

Yes, Cobb played the biker assasin in raising arizone, and a fine job he did of it as well

He's a good character Cobb, had a mullet to die for too.

and the jaw of a prehistoric monster.

He did look like a bit of a monster, albeit a cuddly one.