Angel Robinson Garcia (May 9, 1937 – June 1, 2000) was a Cuban professional boxer, who was the Latin American Super-Featherweight champion. He also fought for the Cuban national Lightweight title, but lost.
Robinson Garcia was known for his large number of professional fights-he fought 237 times-the quality of opponents he faced and number of countries he visited. Robinson Garcia competed against 42 boxers who were world ranked, 16 world champions, 6 International Boxing Hall of Fame members, in 19 countries and 4 continents. Many of the places he fought at, like France, the United States and Italy, were visited very often by Robinson Garcia.
Notable professional fights
Angel Robinson Garcia started his professional boxing career on July 23, 1955, beating Roberto Garcia by first-round knockout at Havana. He was undefeated for his first four fights, all wins by knockout. On October 28 of 1955, he faced Reinaldo Marquez at Santa Clara, losing for the first time, on a four-round decision. He avenged that loss with a six-round decision win over Marquez on April 5, 1956, also at Santa Clara.
Having amassed a record of 28–2 with 10 knockouts, Robinson Garcia challenged Isidro Martinez, 19-4-1, for the Latin American Super-Featherweight (Junior-Lightweight) title. Robinson Garcia defeated Martinez after dropping him in round eight, with a ninth-round technical knockout, on February 26, 1958, at Havana. Two weeks after, Robinson Garcia held his first fight abroad, and first in the United States, when he faced Bobby Rogers on March 11 at the Auditorium, Miami Beach, losing that encounter by a ten-round decision.
On June 28, 1958, he faced fellow Cuban, world-ranked "Puppy" Garcia, who was 33-8-4 before their fight, at Havana, losing a 10-round unanimous decision.
On January 20, 1959, Robinson Garcia fought Frankie Ryff, again losing by unanimous decision in 10 rounds. On March 14 of that year, he met Doug Vaillant in Havana, losing a ten-round unanimous decision before then taking on Mexico's Alfredo Urbina on May 16, beating the Mexican by a ten-round unanimous decision. He then met Carlos Hernandez, the future Venezuela's first world champion boxer in history, and fought Hernandez to a ten-round draw (tie) August 15, 1959. Robinson Garcia faced Vicente Rivas and Jiro Sawada before 1959 ended, losing to Rivas but beating Sawada, both by ten-round decisions in Venezuela.
During 1960, Robinson Garcia squared off with Jose Stable twice, Mantequilla Napoles, Hernandez and Vaillant in rematches. He split his two bouts with Stable, winning a split decision and then losing a unanimous one, lost a ten-round decision to Napoles, drew with Vaillant and lost twice to Hernandez. He also fought six other fights against lesser-known rivals, going 5–1 with 3 knockout wins on those.
Robinson Garcia had a third meeting with Doug Vaillant, this time with the Cuban national title on the line. On February 1, at Havana, they had a close 12 round bout, Vaillant prevailing by a split decision. On March, Robinson Garcia made his first trip as a professional boxer to Mexico, being defeated there on March 25 by Urbina on a rematch by ninth-round technical knockout and then on April 22 by Kid Anahuac by third round disqualification. Robinson Garcia lived in Mexico for one month, before returning to Cuba to face Jose Napoles a second time: on June 3, 1961, he again went ten rounds with the future world Welterweight champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame member, but once again dropped a points decision.
One month later, on July 7, Robinson Garcia boxed 16-1-2 Pastor Marrero at Havana and won by decision in ten rounds. Fidel Castro soon abolished professional boxing in Cuba, however, and this would be Robinson Garcia's last presentation as a boxer in his home country.
Robinson Garcia flew to Jamaica to fight Bunny Grant at the National Stadium in Kingston, on August 30, losing that fight by a close but unanimous ten-round decision, judges Tony Bridge scoring against him 99–96, Gilbert Aarons also against him 97-96 and Seaside Johnson deeming him loser by a wider score of 99–93.
Robinson Garcia returned to the winning column six weeks later, defeating Hilton Smith by a 10-round unanimous decision at Miami. He temporarily moved to Miami, being trained by Angelo Dundee at the 5th Street Gym there.
He then settled in France, fighting his next seven bouts there, going undefeated during that period, with four knockout wins. On September 11, 1962, Robinson Garcia faced world ranked Valerio Nunez, 36-1 before their bout, at Palazzetto dello Sport, Rome, Italy, and upset Nunez by pulling a seventh-round disqualification win.