D’Animal: 4 rounds are just not for me

Andrew Robinson: shock loss at the H Suite

ANDREW “D’Animal” Robinson was tamed in an upset at Edgbaston’s H Suite on Friday night.

What’s more, Birmingham’s former British middleweight title challenger suffered the ignominy of hitting the deck on his way to being outpointed by veteran Serge Ambomo.

Ambomo was a fine amateur, a Cameroon international, but, at 36, he’s seen much better days. Those better days were at light-middle.

He’s now won 10 of 55 (three draws) in the paid ranks.

It appeared, on paper, a fairly routine night’s work for Robinson, a real warrior who has held Midlands and international belts.

It was far from that. On the BCB Promotions show, he was dropped by a right hand counter in the third and, despite rallying in the last, was judged a 39-37 loser on the card of referee Kevin Parker, scoring from outside the ropes. His arithmetic was correct.

Trainee Ryan Churchill took care of matters inside the ring.

Robinson – who took part in his 200th round of professional boxing during the contest – has, doubtless, seen better days. He vehemently disagrees, but D’Animal has not shown the same venom or relentless pressure that took him to shock victory over unbeaten Polish star Damian Jonak in 2019. And that was in Poland.

At 38 and with a decade long, 37 fight CV crammed with epic battles, Father Time may be knocking on Robinson’s door.

But I’m not going to ask Andrew – one of the game’s true warriors – to consider his future. Not yet.

That’s because the fight was over the apprentice four round distance and those brief encounters are littered with potential banana skins.

Robinson is not a four round fighter: he needs time to go through the gears and grind opponents down.

He certainly isn’t contemplating retirement.

“The four rounders are not for me,” he said. “It’s all rushing and I couldn’t get started. And it was all up in the air until the last minute. It was c***.”

‘D’Animal’ did have periods of success, especially with straight shots from range, but was caught too often throughout the contest by Ambomo to have any real complaints.

Robinson had a much better final round but could not force the knockdowns or stoppage that he needed.