Robert Cohen (boxer)

Taking the French and European Bantamweight Titles

On November 6, 1953, Cohen defeated French bantamweight champion Maurice Sandeyron easily taking the title in a fifteen round bout in Paris, having beaten Sandeyron earlier on January 19, in a ninth round knockout in a non-title bout.^[4]

Cohen defeated Jake Tuli on December 14, 1953, in Manchester, England in ten rounds.^[4]

Before a crowd of 20,000, on February 27, 1954, Cohen took the European Bantamweight Title, defeating John Kelly in a third round knockout in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Cohen knocked Kelly to the mat for counts of four, seven and six in the second round. Kelly was down again at the end of the second from a right hook shortly before the bell. Thirty seconds into the third, Kelly went down for the full count from a right to the jaw.^[7]

Taking the World Bantamweight Title

On September 19, 1954, he won the vacant World bantamweight title in a fifteen round split decision in Bangkok, Thailand, against police Lieutenant Chamroem Songkitrat. An enormous crowd of 60,000 that included the King and Queen of Thailand watched the bloody contest. Cohen was left with a badly sprained or broken wrist in the fifth and his opponent with a broken nose. Cohen was formerly the European Bantamweight Champion.^{[8][9][10][3]} Later that year, his marriage took place at the Synagogue de la rue des Tournelles, in Paris, presided by Rabbi David Feuerwerker.

On December 20, 1954, he defeated Roy Ankrah in a fourth round technical knockout in Paris.^[4]

Stripped of the World Bantamweight Title

On December 23, 1954, Cohen was stripped of his title by the National Boxing Association for failing to defend it within 90 days against Raul "Raton" Macias. Few sanctioning bodies other than the NBA recognized Macias as the World Champion.^[11] Both the New York State Athletic Commission and the European Boxing Union continued to recognize Cohen as champion.^[12] On December 11, 1955 Cohen lost in a ten round technical knockout before French featherweight champion Cherif Hamia before a crowd of 14,000. Cohen was down for an eight count in the second from a right cross to the jaw and was down again in the seventh from a right hook.^[13] The referee ended the bout 1:27 into the tenth round, when Cohen's left brow was injured by a left from Hamia.^[14][15] Some time after the bout, Cohen was severely injured in an automobile accident, and suffered a broken jaw. He attempted to defend his title, but the injury shortened his career.^[16]

On September 3, 1955, he drew with Willie Toweel in a fifteen round world bantamweight title bout in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cohen dropped Toweel three times in the second and put him down a no count in the tenth. Toweel had never been knocked to the mat in a previous bout.^[17] In a brutal bout, Cohen was deeply fatigued by the end of the match.^[18]

Cohen lost a title bout to Mario D'Agata on June 29, 1956 before a crowd of 38,000, in a seventh round technical knockout in Rome. D'Agata dropped Cohen to the mat for a nine count near the end of the sixth. After the sixth ended, the referee stopped the fight due to a serious gash over the left brow of Cohen. D'Agata appeared superior in the in-fighting, and many of Cohen's blows were wide of his mark. America's National Boxing Association (NBA) did not recognize the match as a title bout, though nearly every other world boxing organization did.^[19] Only a year and a half earlier, D'Agata had been injured by a shotgun blast.^[20][21]

His professional record over 43 bouts was 36 wins (13 KOs), 4 losses, and 3 draws.