By Terence Dooley
Cardiff’s Francis Luke Robinson will have a solid career if he matches the achievements of his father and trainer Steve Robinson. The Cardiff coach won the WBO featherweight title as a late sub in 1993 with a decision victory over Newcastle’s John Davison, he defended the belt seven times before losing against the mercurial Naseem Hamed in 1995.
The ‘Cinderella Man’ regrouped, lifting the EBU and WBO Inter-Continental straps before retiring in 2002 with a 32-17-2 (17) slate after a run of six defeats. The baton has been passed on, Luke netted his third win when out-pointing veteran journeyman Sid Razak over four-threes at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.
Luke (140lb) boxed well to keep Razak (142½lb) at bay throughout, winning by a deserved 39-37 margin on referee Robert Williams’ scorecard. Sid headed back to Birmingham with a 7-74 (3) slate. Luke will now sit down with his father and pick apart his performance.
“It was pretty good,” Steve’s verdict on his son’s win. “He trained for so long for this fight. I think he went a little bit stale because he was last out in May [a points win over Johnny Greaves]. He threw some pretty good shots and overall you can’t take nothing away from Sid but Luke made it hard work.
“I think he can do well if he gets more fights. He’s been sparring with good guys so has had harder sparring than fights. But he hasn’t been fighting enough. I want him out again before Christmas.”
“No, not really,” he stated when asked if he had thought twice about allowing his son to follow him into the sport. “He’s always been into boxing since he was a young kid, he didn’t have many amateur fights but I knew from his style of punching that he’d make a good pro. He’s still learning the game and will get better.”
Robinson picked up the vacant WBO belt on 48-hours notice after Ruben Dario Palacios failed an AIDS test and withdrew from his scheduled defence against Davison. Steve won a tight decision and grew into his role during successful title outings against the likes of Colin McMillan, Paul Hodkinson and Duke McKenzie before succumbing to Hamed in eight one-sided stanzas.
Upon hanging up his gloves, Robinson had no qualms about heading into the tough world of training. “It was natural, the first thing I wanted to do after boxing because I wanted to bring my skills over to training fighters and build up champions,” he revealed.
“My aim is to get people off the street, get them in the gym and there’s not a lot of world champions around near us so it would be nice to take someone all the way. People still come up to me on the street. It is nice to still be recognized for what I achieved. I want to pass my experience onto others.”
He added: “Winning and defending the world title is my fondest memory in boxing. It showed I deserved to be world champion. There wasn’t much pressure on me but I was fit so had to go in there and take the world title fight with both hands.”
Given the family history of upsetting the odds, Luke could be one to watch as the 21-year-old writes his own chapter in the fist family Robinson’s boxing book.
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