At the age of 28, Rob is a six-year pro. The WBA middleweight world champion, he was an accomplished amateur before his debut. He also had three fights in AIBA’s World Series of Boxing in 2010 and 2011.
In his last fight on October 20 in Las Vegas, Rob won the WBA world title with an upset 12-round unanimous decision against defending champion Ryota Murata.
The Ring’s Doug Fischer reported [excerpts]: Rob Brant bounced back from a decision loss to Juergen Braehmer last October, to score the biggest victory of his six-year professional career at the Park Theater inside the Park MGM.
Brant outboxed, outworked and outmaneuvered the aggressive but one-dimensional holder of the WBA’s “regular” title for 12 entertaining rounds, averaging 100 punches per round en route to unanimous decision scores of 119-109 (twice) and 118-110.
Brant bloodied Murata’s nose and raised a mouse under the 2012 Olympic 165-pound champ’s left eye during the opening round. The blood and facial bruising didn’t seem to bother Murata, who stalked Brant for the entire fight, grinning during the early rounds.
Murata, who earned the WBA strap with a seventh-round stoppage of Hassan N’Dam last October after suffering a controversial decision loss to the veteran in May, had moments in the middle rounds. The pressure fighter appeared to suck Brant into a slugfest in Round 5 after landing hard 1-2 combinations and lefts to the body. Brant gamely fired back with 1-2 combos of his own over the next two rounds, but as the bout became more grueling it seemed to favor the more physical fighter. However, Murata was unable to break Brant physically or mentally.
The Minnesotan caught a second wind down the stretch of the fight and got back to his busy jab and lateral movement. In the championship rounds, Brant withstood a desperate rally from the no-longer smiling Murata and was able to land head-snapping two-and-three-punch combinations for every single right hand the Japanese fighter scored with. [End Fischer item]
In his post-fight interview, Rob said, “This is one of the best moments of my life. I had no idea I threw that many punches. I wasn’t thinking about punch output, I was just thinking about winning, but outworking him was one of the keys to victory.
“The smiling didn’t bother me. It just let me know I was hurting him. Seeing the blood drip over his white mouthpiece let me know I was getting to him. His smiling was just gassing me up.
“My key to winning, going forward, is not to look ahead and just to stay focused on what’s in front of me.”
In an earlier interview, Rob said, “I train out of Las Vegas now. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad is training me now.
“My style – boxing ability is how I got to where I’m at now, and I’m just adding facets to the game. I’m comfortable putting the pressure on, too – step forward, and not just be on the back foot all of the time.”
Regarding his nickname, he said, “It’s a really funny story. I’ve always been one of those people who thinks that you can’t choose your own nickname. Through the amateurs, you’re introduced to a lot of different coaches from different areas. My coaches always called me Robbo – in the gym, it was always ‘Robbo this, Robbo that.’ There’s a coach named Ben from the Bay Area and in my last-ever tournament, the 2012 U.S. National Championships, he ran into my coaches and asked, ‘Hey, where’s Bravo?’ He thought my name was Bravo. Everybody was like, ‘I don’t know who you’re talking about.’ He said, ‘You know, the light heavyweight.’ ‘Oh, Robbo!’ I thought it was really funny that for the last five years this guy thought my name was Bravo. He told me about the story, and I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m going with Bravo.’ I think it’s really solid.”
AMATEUR, PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Rob said, “I was born and raised in St. Paul. I have two brothers – the oldest, Michael, and the middle brother, Anthony. Michael is significantly older than us, and we didn’t grow up in the same house as him. Anthony is 18 months older than myself. My father has done a lot of different things in his life – he was in the Navy and he played football for UCLA. He worked as a correctional officer for a long time, but he’s retired now. He ran a strict household, let’s put it that way. I’m the only boxer in the family.
“I got started in kind of an odd way. I played football my entire life, but I always enjoyed watching boxing on TV. I always thought those dudes were really cool – truly the badasses! My high school football team’s quarterback, his dad boxed. I would go down to his house where he had these big 20-ounce gloves, and a bunch of guys from the football team would box each other in the driveway. I always thought it was really fun, and I thought I was pretty decent at it. When I was 15, I went to a gym. I had looked at gyms before, but I didn’t have a driver’s license so there was no way for me to get there.
“So, when I was 16, I got in my car and drove to the White Bear Lake Boxing Club. There was a real old guy there – he was 87 at the time. He was your stereotypical old boxing trainer in a small sweatbox of a boxing gym. There were four or five guys in there hitting the bags, the speedbag is rattling in the background. He took me in the office and pulled out four or five of these huge filing cabinets of paperwork. He pointed to the paperwork and said, ‘You can be one of these guys,’ then he points out to the boxing area and says, ‘or you can be one of those guys. Sign this paperwork and come back tomorrow and I’ll put it in.’ I thought that was really cool, like something out of a movie. So, I came back the next day and from that point on, I was the first person in the gym and the last person out.
“I had 124 amateur fights – I was 102-22. I had a short but extremely dense amateur career. I went to every national tournament. My coaches were retired – one was about 75 years old and the other was just hitting 88 – so we just hopped in the van and drove around the country. I really enjoyed it the entire time. I didn’t have any money – I was really blessed and fortunate to have coaches that didn’t mind footing the bills and taking me around to different places.
“I’m naturally right-handed. I’m married now, but no children.”…
AMATEUR HIGHLIGHTS:
2012 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Fort Carson, Colorado, 178 pounds – BRONZE MEDALIST: in his first fight on 2-28-12 he stopped Nigel Rogers of Pennsylvania (no round reported); in his second fight on 2-29-12 he won a 13-7 decision against Reese Bennett of San Clemente, Calif.; in the quarterfinals on 3-1-12 he won a 17-14 decision against Jerry Odom of Bowie, Md.; in the semifinals on 3-2-12 he lost a 31-16 decision against Steven Nelson of Fort Walton Beach, Fla….
2011 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS – Mobile, Alabama, 178 pounds/double elimination tournament: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 7-31-11 he lost a 14-8 decision against Siju Shabazz; in the Challengers Bracket Round 1 on 8-1-11 he lost a 20-10 decision against Shaborn Ryals…
2011 LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER – Cincinnati, Ohio, 178 pounds – SILVER MEDALIST: in his first fight on 7-5-11 he won a 28-6 decision against Antwon Herndon; in the quarterfinals on 7-6-11 he won a 28-16 decision against Linden Thomas; in the semifinals on 7-7-11 he won a 15-13 decision against DeRae Crane; in the finals on 7-8-11 he had a 23-23 draw, but lost the tiebreaker against Shaborn Ryals…
2011 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Colorado Springs, Colorado, 178 pounds: in his first fight on 6-21-11 he had a 12-12 draw, but lost the tiebreaker against DeRae Crane…
2011 WORLD SERIES OF BOXING: on 1-5-11 in Palm Beach, FL, he lost a 5 round decision against Siju Shabazz…on 3-13-11 in Miami, FL, he lost a 5 round decision against Ahmed Elbiale…
2010 WORLD SERIES OF BOXING: on 11-19-10 in Mexico City, MX, he lost a 5 round decision against Francisco Ortega…
2010 NATIONAL PAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – San Antonio, Texas, 178 pounds: in his first fight on 10-6-10 he lost a 6-4 decision against DeRae Crane…
2010 NATIONAL GOLDEN GLOVES CHAMPIONSHIPS – Little Rock, Arkansas, 178 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in his first fight on 5-4-10 he won a decision against Nathan Brinkman; in his second fight on 5-5-10 he won a decision against Andrew Hernandez; in the quarterfinals on 5-6-10 he won a 5-0 decision against Armando Pena III; in the semifinals on 5-7-10 he won a 4-1 decision against Marcus Browne; in the finals on 5-8-10 he won a 3-2 decision against Khalib Whitmore…
2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Milan, Italy, 178 pounds: in his first fight on 9-6-09 he lost a 17-8 decision against Jose Larduet of Cuba…
2009 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Denver, Colorado, 178 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in his first fight on 6-8-09 he won a 7-3 decision against Shad Cramer; in the quarterfinals on 6-10-09 he stopped Robert Sherman in the 3rd round; in the semifinals on 6-11-09 he won by disqualification against Thomas Williams Jr.; in the finals on 6-13-09 he won an 11-9 decision against Siju Shabazz…
2009 NATIONAL GOLDEN GLOVES CHAMPIONSHIPS – Salt Lake City, Utah, 178 pounds: in his first fight on 5-5-09 he won a decision against Jacque Lutz; in his second fight on 5-6-09 he lost a decision against Alejandro Canez…
2008 YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 178 pounds: in his first fight on 10-25-08 he had a 10-10 draw, but lost the tiebreaker against Artur Schmidt of Germany…
2008 U.S. NATIONAL UNDER 19 CHAMPIONSHIPS – Kansas City, Missouri, 178 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in the semifinals (his first fight) on 8-8-08 he won a 15-7 decision against Antwon Herndon; in the finals on 8-9-08 he stopped Erick Hernandez in the 2nd round…
STRENGTHS: Has good skills and movement…has good punching power…is experienced against good opposition…had a strong amateur background…
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 25 fights…100 total rounds…12 world championship rounds…
AVERAGE LENGTH OF BOUTS: 4 rounds…
KNOCKOUT PERCENTAGE: of total fights – 64 %…of wins – 66 %…
DISTANCE FIGHTS: 12 rounds – 2 (1-1)…10 rounds – 1 (1-0)…
