Not So Great Nate: Robinson Ends Up Face Down in Boxing Debut

Former two-sport Husky great doesn't last long in the ring in Los Angeles, KO'd in second round.

Dan Raley | Nov 29, 2020

Nate Robinson always has believed he can do just about anything.

An NBA career. All-Star weekend dunk contests. College football and basketball. Podcasts. Clothing line. Restaurant owner.

On Saturday night, the former University of Washington athletic great found something he wasn't quite ready for.

A pro boxing career.

Robinson, as part of the undercard for the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. heavyweight bout, went down hard in a scary manner with a second-round knockout in his fighting debut to Jake Paul, himself a mouthy self-made YouTube personality and somewhat of a boxing pretender.

Two minutes into the round, Paul delivered a shot to Robinson's forehead and it was over at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Read about it here.

The ex-Husky defensive back and basketball high flyer lay on the canvas before he had to be helped away.

It was more disconcerting than sad.

Robinson was knocked down in the first round, hit above the ear, but he gamely got back up and kept going.

His approach was to bull-rush the other fighter, which wasn't a conventional boxing technique.

He paid for it dearly.

Robinson and Paul had waged a war of words on social media and this was the end result.

Hopefully, Nate finds a new hobby soon.

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Published Nov 29, 2020

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.