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Give Me More Robin Reid
THU August 11, BUSTER PARIS - The booing didn’t seem to bother Robin “Grim Reaper” Reid as he heroically strode towards the ring looking like a cold-blooded warrior and matinee idol.
Blasting throughout the St. Pete Times Forum was Springsteen’s “Born In The USA” and it - as well as the screaming crowd ushered in Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy.
All of that didn’t seem to bother Reid.
The horrible, useless and crappy refereeing of Jorge Alonso didn’t really bother him either.
Ultimately what bothered Robin Reid in what was an ugly, awkward and surprisingly exciting fight was Lacy’s well-used jab.
I know that Lacy’s the star here, I know that he’s the favorite in this fight and in the fight’s story, especially fighting in his hometown. I know too that he’s boxings sweetheart of the moment – he’s young, extremely likable and appears really genuine – he seems like a terrific kid.
So yes - I know that Lacy’s the main attraction here, but I gotta say I came away from this fight with a huge respect for and wanting to see more of Robin Reid.
For full details of the August 6th 2005 bout check out what TalkingBoxing’s Frank Gonzalez Jr. says – but for now here’s some of the highlights of fight:
Round 4: At the two minute mark Lacy got the jab working. The round ended with Jeff throwing and landing bombs. Reid’s not hurt, but he took some major flurries.
Round 5: This is the round where both boxers fists were tongue-tied and the refereeing was gangly and inept. Reid and Lacy were tied up and Robin no doubt frustrated decided to go with a head butt. Referee Jorge Alonso stepped in to separate the two, Reid looks towards the ref and Lacy let’s fly a punch that drops Reid to his knees. Amazingly this is Robin Reid’s first time to the canvas – ever!
Backing up for a second – the referee is putting a stop to the action and separates the two; Jeff throws a punch and the ref calls time - as he’s making the “T” motion with his hands Robin starts to buckle. Astonishingly Jorge starts counting – he’s calling it a knockdown even though he had already attempted to stop the action. To add insult to injury he takes a point away from Reid for the butt and doesn’t say anything to Lacy about not hitting on a break.
Lacy followed up brutally - for the second time in his 12-year career and second time for the night Reid goes down to a knee.
Round 6: Robin goes down again – it took Alonso some time to get over there, but he eventually made it.
In between rounds 6 and 7 Reid’s corner talked about stopping the fight.
Round 7: Robin has a point taken away for holding even though it wasn’t the type of holding that deserved having a point taken away. This round saw some beautiful engagements and some amazing uppercuts by Lacy that eventually put Reid down again.
Lacy put Reid down a total of 4 times – before this fight Reid had never been down and that’s extremely impressive. Impressive in what it says about the tremendous power of Jeff Lacy and impressive in how it didn’t seem to effect Robin Reid’s head for even a second.
He went on as if nothing had happened and that’s got to be hard to do when what did happen has never happened before in 12 years of boxing.
Robin’s corner stopped the bout after the 7th because they didn’t want to see Reid ‘go out like that’ – they didn’t want him to get knocked out.
Bravo to Reid – he never was on his back; only a knee and astonishingly nothing seemed to get inside his head. He was the consummate professional, masterfully kept his wits about him and was an absolute warrior.
What I like best about Robin is that he forces an awkwardness similar to fighting a Southpaw while being in the orthodox stance. It’s not a sloppy John Ruiz hugging type of mess. It’s uniquely ugly, “pub like” in brawling style and captures your attention - think of splicing Micky Ward with Winky Wright.
Post fight: I liked and respected what Reid had to say. He thought that most of the shots he took were not clean shots, that most of them hit him behind the head. He did say that he’d need to see the film to get the whole story, but this is how he’s interpreting the fight.
I liked how he handled himself with the overtly and unashamedly pro Lacy Showtime press, he didn’t back down. He wasn’t disrespectful or rude about anything – just honest and vocal about it - and he’s got that cool accent.
I’d like to see Robin Reid again – against who I don’t know – 168 lbs is slim pickings – I’d love to see him go up to light heavyweight and fight Glen Johnson – stylistically - I think it would be a great fight.
I’d like to see Robin Reid again – on HBO – and fighting just 1 guy in the ring.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions.
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