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Pasadena trainer Canto ‘TNT’ Robledo to be inducted in National Boxing Hall of Fame

April 25, 2026

PASADENA – A boxing legend in the Pasadena area, Canto “TNT” Robledo, will be inducted into the National Boxing Hall of Fame on Sunday at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello.

The National Boxing Hall of Fame was established in 2015 and is based in California, but not limited to California-based boxing icons.

Robledo was a longtime proprietor of Crown City Boxing Stables, a gym that provided training to youth and adults alike on Manzanita Avenue in Pasadena. He was involved with the business and operations of the establishment for 40 years from its opening in 1954 to 1994.

He coached well over 500 amateur and professional boxers during his time at Crown City.

Robledo is arguably best known for being the first and only licensed boxing coach to be fully blind.

Prior to his career as a boxing coach and manager, he held an active fighting career. In 1931, at 18 years old, Robledo won the Pacific Coast bantamweight title. Robledo accumulated a 29-5-10 record as a fighter.

At the peak of his career in 1932, he suffered a detached retina in a bout that initially cost him his vision in his left eye, and eventually the vision in both eyes.

Legally blind, Robledo battled and overcame depression in the years following his life-changing injury. He eventually got back on his feet with the help of his family and started training fighters when he could in the early 1940’s.

Shortly after, Robledo became the first blind person to earn a license as a boxing coach.

“In 1943, he wanted to get a professional license in boxing,” his son, Joseph Robledo, said. “So, he went to the state athletic boxing commission and applied to have a license. They read him the questions from the exam, which he answered correctly and the second part was to wrap a fighter’s hand. He was able to do that as well and they granted him his license.”

Using his self-described sense of touch, Robledo developed a reputation as one of the best boxing coaches in California and opened up a small boxing gym inside of a two-car garage on Cyprus Street in the late 1940’s.

“My dad used something that he called the sense of touch,” Joseph Robledo said. “He would place his hands on your shoulder and on your waist and he could tell by your movements how you hit the bag … how hard they were being hit.”

Robledo passed away in 1999, but his legacy has grown significantly thanks to multiple posthumous honors. Joseph Robledo said that being inducted into the Pasadena Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 would’ve been among his proudest accomplishments.

“Being inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame was also a huge accomplishment for him. The West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame was also a big one for him as well,” Robledo said.

Joseph Robledo added that there has been a significant push in recent years to get his father enshrined into the widely known International Boxing Hall of Fame.

“We have been contacted. Now that the National Boxing Hall of Fame will be inducting him, maybe the next one will be the International. They’re definitely aware of it,” Robledo said. “I think they’re waiting for the National Boxing Hall of Fame to induct him and then maybe next year he’ll be placed in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.”

Editor’s note: Southern California News Group sports writer Fred Robledo is Joseph Robledo’s cousin.

Orange County Register

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Pasadena trainer Canto ‘TNT’ Robledo to be inducted in National Boxing Hall of Fame

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