She grew up in the roughest of the rough neighborhoods in Chicago — Cabrini Green. Leatitia Robinson literally had to fight to survive.

If you go

Gloves up, Guns Down: The Battle on the River

Saturday, 7 p.m.

Tickets are $100 ringside and $35 general admission. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster and by phone at 601-355-5252

“I came from the roughest projects in Chicago. No father to lean on, and everyday, somebody would jump me and either I got beat up or they got beat up, just about every day,” Robinson said with a steely face.

Now 28, Robinson is making a comeback to fighting, but these days, it’s a legitimate one. When she stepped away two years ago after a shoulder injury in a bout in Kenya, Robinson was without peer as a woman middleweight, a holder of four world title belts and a 15-0 record as a professional fighter.

Saturday night at the Vicksburg Convention Center, she steps back into the ring, this time as a super middleweight (168 pounds). And it’s not against any hand-picked, easy opponent. Robinson will be taking on Nigeria’s Ijeoma Egubunine (15-2, 6 KO), a No. 1 contender in the super middleweight class. It will be a co-main event and one of six bouts of “Gloves Up, Guns Down” boxing card put on by Showdown Boxing Productions.

Robinson arrived in Vicksburg Sunday night from Chicago. She agreed to take the fight here as a favor to a longtime friend in former Vicksburg resident and long-time boxer and trainer James Dixon.

“I like the hills here. It would be a good place to train,” Robinson said. She’s seen some of scenery by the Mississippi River, getting up at 5 a.m. to get her running done. She might even have time to take a running tour of the National Military Park, which is a top hangout of most local runners.

“You know I was raised right near the park, right off Clay Street,” Dixon said. “Getting Tish to come here was a big part of my plan to bring boxing back to Vicksburg. And with her, I’ve got some one who has won world title belts.”

Rather than finding boxing, boxing found Robinson. When she was 10 years-old, Robinson was engaged in one of her daily scraps.

“I got into a fight over someone stealing my No. 2 pencil.” Robinson said with a grin. “Lucky for me, there was a boxing coach who was there to break it up. His name was Alfonso Hasbro. He said I needed to get in a ring. And I did and it totally changed my life. Boxing has become my life,” Robinson said.

Hasbro took Robinson to train at Chicago’s Seward Park in 1995. Within a year, she won her first Golden Gloves bout. By age 14, she was the woman Chicago champion.

Robinson, though, was still a big target of the local street thugs.

“There were some who wanted to kill me,” Robinson said.

With her promise as a boxer blossoming, Robinson moved out of the North Side and to the South Side of the city.  As an amateur, Robinson compiled an outstanding 38-1 record. Her only loss came at 156 pounds in the USA Boxing/Everlast National Senior Championships.

Two years later, in the 161-pound class, Robinson won the Everlast Nationals by beating Emily Longoria.

In March 2001, she made her pro debut with a four-round TKO in Rosemont, Ill. Eighteen months later, in Dorchester, Mass, Robinson won the vacant IWBF belt by stopping Dakota Stone in the sixth round. It was her first world title belt.

In 2004, she added the WIBA belt by winning a 10-round decision over Nikki Epilon in a battle of unbeaten middleweights.

A year later, Robinson had what she said is her career highlight.

On ESPN, and on the undercard of a Laila Ali bout, she knocked out Monica Nunez of the Dominican Republic in 36 seconds.

“I’ve had two televised fights, but that was my first one on ESPN. Knocked the girl out in 36 seconds,” Robinson said proudly.

*

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com