"Rockin' Robin" Deakin officialy retires.

31 years old. Final record of 2-53 (zero of his wins and fourteen of his losses by way of stoppage), and last saw action in July of 2017.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/boxing/...xer-has-finally-had-enough-12-years-beatings/

Actually comes off as being a pretty likeable kid with a good head on his shoulders, making the right call. For the exceedingly lazy or those inclined to hastily skim articles: he was born with clubbed feet (both of them, but the left is worse) and in youth had a couple dozen corrective surgeries that prevented him from learning to walk until he was six years old and caused him to miss a lot of school. He took up boxing to strengthen his legs and to defend himself against the bullying he received as result of his disability, and in the amateurs was able to hash out a better than .500 record, going 40-36. In the pros, however, it was all downhill after winning his debut as he fell into a pattern of taking fights with prepped & groomed A-sides on very short notice with no camp - the usual journeyman M.O., basically. He also was never able to cultivate the style he wanted because of his limited mobility, ambling in a stilted & flat-footed manner and often forced by his physical shortcomings to simply lay on the ropes and take abuse, relying on his toughness in order to survive and ever hopeful to land a Hail-Mary bomb to pull out the W.

Considering the numbers in the result columns (and what he needed to overcome) to my eyes he wasn't truly all that shabby a fighter, to be honest:

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Happy trails, "Britain's Worst Boxer". (not sure he ever was that, despite the 51-loss streak - but it was a clever bit of self-promotion embracing it!

 

He actually mentions in the article that he fought on for so long in part (more so early on) for love of the game and desire to entertain the fans but ultimately to eke out a living, which he says was unsuccessful. Kind of a bummer, actually. Taking so many lumps, and so many L's, and for all that hard work (and yes, just to go the distance with as many prospects as he did and only be stopped a scant minority of times, especially given his disability, probably took loads of effort on his part), pain & humiliation it still didn't bear much fruit. I'm just glad he's getting out with his wits intact.

 

He actually mentions in the article that he fought on for so long in part (more so early on) for love of the game and desire to entertain the fans but ultimately to eke out a living, which he says was unsuccessful. Kind of a bummer, actually. Taking so many lumps, and so many L's, and for all that hard work (and yes, just to go the distance with as many prospects as he did and only be stopped a scant minority of times, especially given his disability, probably took loads of effort on his part), pain & humiliation it still didn't bear much fruit. I'm just glad he's getting out with his wits intact.

 

What, to his opponents? That's just the game, virtually all pros banter like that.