Carmen Basilio sends the original "Golden Boy" Art aragon through the ropes in 1958. Basilio won the fight by 8th round TKO. Aragon never won a world title but he was one heck of a fighter, a dangerous puncher, he knocked out 61 of his opponents. Los Angeles sportswriters gave him the "Golden Boy" moniker because of his good looks and golden ring attire, of course Oscar De La Hoya would later adopt the nickname. Aragon struggled to make weight throughout his career and was the only boxer that literally had to be carried to the ring because of weakness from the weight issues.
Carmen Basilio has one of the coolest nicknames, "The Onion Farmer." This is an awesome cartoon portraying Johnny Saxton as an onion and being pulled by Carmen Basilio.
Carmen Basilio living up to his nickname, as he tosses an onion into the air while being photographed on his family's onion farm. I would love to own the type 1 original photo of this image.
Henry Armstrong is one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in boxing history, ranked by some historians as THE greatest and I would certainly have no argument with that opinion whatsoever. He is the only boxer in history to hold world championships in three different weight divisions simultaneously (featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight) back when there were only eight traditional weight classes and one belt per division. He achieved a legendary streak of 27 consecutive knockout wins, one of the longest in the sport's history. In 1939 alone, he fought 12 title fights and won 11 of them, famously defending his welterweight title five times in just 21 days. He fought middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia to a controversial draw in 1940 in an attempt to capture an unprecedented fourth simultaneous world title. Just think about that for a minute, he came that close to having a monopoly on half of the weight divisions in boxing, four of the eight, that's insane, and you can certainly see why he very well could be the greatest pound-for-pound fighter that ever lived. Nicknamed "Homicide Hank," Armstrong fought with a relentless, suffocating pace. Opponents described him as a "punching machine" because he attacked nonstop from the opening bell to the final round. His combination of exceptional stamina, devastating body punching, and ferocious inside fighting made him one of the most feared and dominant forces the ring has ever seen. Over his remarkable career, he finished with 151 wins (including roughly 100 knockouts) out of 183 professional bouts. We'll start off with the 2010 Ringside Boxing Round One - Turkey Red - Gold #/9 - Henry Armstrong.
1946 Propagandas Montiel - Henry Armstrong. This is my favorite Henry Armstrong card. I know the image on the card came from a photo of Armstrong after his August 17, 1938 fight against Lou Ambers at Madison Square Garden, Armstrong won by split decision after 15 brutal rounds. This is as close as I can get to the photo that matches up with this card. Lou Ambers is a Hall of Famer and all-time great and he really put Armstrong through pure hell. From the opening bell, the bout was an absolute war. Ambers started fast, but Armstrong dropped Ambers in the fifth and sixth rounds. Armstrong's mouth began bleeding heavily by the third round. Starting in the eleventh round, Armstrong refused his mouthpiece to keep blood from escaping, choosing instead to swallow his own blood for the remainder of the punishing fight while continuing his relentless attack. It's one of the most savage things in sports history and I love this card because it captures an image of Armstrong afterwards.
HENRY ARMSTRONG’S QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY LED HIM THROUGH HELL AGAINST LOU AMBERS
For this series, I will be looking back at the most trying battles in ring history, picking one for each decade of the gloved era, beginning in the 1890s.
In the late Summer of 1938, Henry Armstrong was on top of the sports world. The reigning featherweight (127 pounds) champion of the world, he had leaped over the lightweight (135 pounds) division to take the welterweight (147 pounds) crown by sending Barney Ross — one of the sport’s finest champions — into retirement.
Some in the press were already acclaiming Armstrong as the pound-for-pound best fighter the sport had ever seen. His ultra-aggressive style inspired a shower of nicknames: “Hammerin’ Hank,” “Homicide Hank,” “Hurricane Henry,” “The Black Blitzkrieg,” “The Dusky Dynamiter,” “Perpetual Motion,” and many more.
Born in Mississippi, raised in Missouri, and living in California, Armstrong had strung together twenty consecutive knockouts by the close of 1937. Still, his handlers were worried that the new heavyweight champion Joe Louis was stealing the limelight and the money that came with it. To compensate, one of Armstrong’s managers, Hollywood actor Al Jolson, hit upon the idea of having Henry win three division championships in a year and hold them all simultaneously. It would be an unprecedented accomplishment and a headline-grabbing gimmick.
“Hurricane” Henry Armstrong
Following his fifteen-round assault of Ross in Madison Square Garden on May 31, 1938, Armstrong was set to return to the scene of his conquest to collect the third of his titles against the skilled and rugged lightweight champion, Lou Ambers on August 22.
The son of Italian immigrants who had settled in Herkimer, New York, a village between Utica and Schenectady along the Mohawk River, Ambers had been born Luigi D’Ambrosio in 1913. He was managed by Al Weill and trained by Charley Goldman and Whitey Bimstein, a many refer to as the best corner in boxing history (Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano would later also benefit from their guidance).
Though no knockout artist, “The Herkimer Hurricane” was known to relish a good scrap and wear down opponents with his work rate, not unlike Armstrong. He was also very clever and could box rings around a guy if the fight called for it, as it had against the great Tony Canzoneri when he won the lightweight crown in the Garden on September 3, 1936. Sportswriters marveled over his hair-trigger reflexes, praising his ability to dash in, land combinations on an opponent, and then escape untouched.
Lou “The Herkimer Hurricane” Ambers
At the weigh-in on the morning of August 17, champion Ambers came in at 134 ½ pounds and challenger Armstrong at 134, both under the required lightweight limit. The fighters were probably relieved the fight would occur inside, as the day had been sweltering and humid, and the evening was not much better. Twenty thousand fans joined them in the Garden, paying $102,000 for the privilege. The largest crowd that ever had jammed into the arena left some folks with standing room only. The fighters would reward their audience with one of the most viscous title scraps in the arena’s storied history.
When the first round opened, Ambers got off first with two lefts to Henry’s face. The crowd roared its approval, clearly rooting for the champion despite the betting odds. From there on out, the fighters were tearing away at one another.
By the close of round two, Ambers was already cut above an eye. Armstrong dominated round three, but Ambers fought back well in four and five, landing stiff right uppercuts against his bobbing-and-weaving challenger. With one second to go in the fifth, Henry surprised Ambers by switching from the body to the head and landing a fast right to the jaw. Lou dropped to his knees. As fighters could be saved by the bell, referee Billy Cavanagh did not need to count. Al Weill leaped into the ring and dragged Lou to the corner.
In the sixth, a left-right combination put Ambers back on the floor with plenty of time on the clock. He was up at the count of eight. “Homicide Hank” came in with no thought of defense and threw haymakers. Ambers tried to fight back but could not escape the ropes for the rest of the round. Both men returned to their stools bleeding, Ambers from the gash above his left eye, Armstrong from cuts he had suffered in training on his lip, now re-opened by the champion’s blows.
Armstrong’s relentless work rate dominated the seventh, but Cavanagh took the round away with a penalty for a low blow. Ambers landed three short rights square on Armstrong’s jaw to devastating effect at the start of round eight, but Armstrong’s “Perpetual Motion” arms were pumping away again soon enough. With Ambers trapped on the ropes, Cavanagh stopped the action to take yet another round away from Armstrong for punching low.
Henry was bleeding badly from a cut near his left eye and lip. He struggled to keep his mouthpiece in as he spat out blood to be able to breathe. In round nine, he consistently walked into accurate, well-timed blows from Ambers. After a highly competitive tenth round, a jolting Armstrong right rattled the champion and sent him careening across the ring in the eleventh. Armstrong badly battered the champion through the rest of the round, but Cavanagh took both eleven and twelve away from Henry with low blow calls.
Henry’s cut lip was spilling blood onto the canvas, turning the canvas floor into a slippery mess. After round twelve, Cavanagh considered stopping the fight, but Armstrong convinced him to let him continue. Armstrong then told his corner to take out his mouthpiece. He would swallow his own blood for the rest of the right to keep it from pouring out of his mouth and prevent the stoppage.
A few seconds into the thirteenth, the crowd was on its feet, watching both fighters land heavy blows to the head. Ambers “came forth such as he had never before exhibited, and fought Armstrong to a standstill,” reported Nat Fleischer in The Ring. The bleeding and the queasy feeling in his stomach noticeably weakened and distracted Armstrong. Looking to end the fight, Ambers was tearing him up toward the end of the round.
The crowd was in a literal riot. Fans were not just throwing their hats in the air with delight; they were throwing their chairs, and they shouted Lou’s name as they never had before. In round fourteen, the fighting was as furious as ever, but now Henry was doing the better work. An Armstrong right nearly put Ambers down for a third time just as the round ended, but the brave champion stayed upright.
At the start of the fifteenth and final round, the badly battered combatants respectfully shook hands. Both men then did their best to separate the other from his consciousness with stiff blows to the head. Almost as if to symbolize their evenly matched fighting prowess, they landed simultaneous hard right hands as the final bell tolled. Armstrong returned to his corner, looking to Jimmy Cannon of the New York American “like a broken egg-beater on two ramshackle clothespins.”
The referee scored the fight for Armstrong and the other two judges were split in their decisions, giving Henry a narrow split decision win. The decidedly pro-Ambers crowd hooted, hollered, and booed the verdict, but Armstrong had accomplished the previously impossible. He was now a simultaneous three-division champion of the world, a feat which has not been matched to this day.
He received a payday of $25,000 and eight to fifteen stitches (depending on the source) on the inside of his mouth for his trouble.
A week later, revered sportswriter Grantland Rice dubbed it “one of the greatest lightweight shows the ring has ever known, because for 15 rounds there wasn’t a minute — or scarcely a second — that they weren’t whirling at each other, fighting from rope to rope, in and out of corners and across the ring.”
The Ring later recognized the punishing and historic match as the Fight of the Year for 1938. Just over a year later, the pair of future Hall of Famers fought a rematch. Again, it was a savage war. Again, Armstrong was penalized multiple rounds for low-blow calls. Again, the decision was controversial but this time in Ambers’s favor, earning his own spot in history as only the second man ever to regain the lightweight championship and the man who ended Armstrong’s forty-six-bout undefeated streak.
2001 JF Sporting Collectibles - Boxers: World Champions - Henry Armstrong. The only match I can seem to find for the image on this card is from a 1956-65 Swedish Rekord premium.
Oh boy, this is really rare, a 1940s Adam Hats Premiums - Henry Armstrong. Adam Hats issued its celebrity and boxing photo premiums and related promotional items through its nationwide network of company-owned retail stores, authorized independent dealers and clothier agents, and as advertising giveaways tied to their heavy sponsorship of radio boxing broadcasts. Customers purchasing budget-priced hats (such as their popular fedoras or seasonal straw hats) received or could request black-and-white or colored photo premiums featuring athletes, boxers, and movie stars, often displaying replica signatures and personal quotes endorsing Adam Hats. Specialized sets—such as the 1942 Sam Taub's "Ring Personalities" series—were printed on matchbook covers and distributed widely through authorized clothiers and retail outlets as functional, everyday advertisements. During the 1940s, Adam Hats sponsored major boxing matches (including broadcasts from Madison Square Garden called by announcer Sam Taub and Bill Stern's Friday Night Fights), using the programming to drive listeners to local authorized agents where promotional items and specialized packaging (like sports-themed hat boxes) were available.
1960 Anglo American Gum - Sports Parade - Henry Armstrong. Awesome image of Henry Armstrong as a Baptist minister, which he became after retirement from boxing.
1947-66 Exhibit Supply Company - Henry Armstrong. I couldn't find the photo to match with this one either. I never have much luck with the exhibit cards.
Henry Armstrong was nicknamed "Homicide Hank" and "Hurricane Henry" because of his relentless, highly aggressive, and ruthless fighting style in the ring. He was the pressure fighter from hell. He kept up a relentless pace, constantly moving forward and throwing punches in bunches without pausing, his opponents must have felt like they were being buried alive. Despite standing only 5-foot-5½, his high-pressure inside fighting and body attacks led to 101 knockout victories during his legendary career. His dominance was unprecedented. His ruthless efficiency helped him accomplish the historic feat of simultaneously holding three world titles (featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight) during an era with only eight distinct weight classes. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on December 12, 1912. When he was 4, Armstrong and his large family—he was the 11th of 15 children—moved to St. Louis. There, his grandmother took care of him after his mother passed away. After graduating from high school, Armstrong was employed to lay railroad tracks. While on the job one day, he saw an article about a boxer who had earned $75,000 for a fight. Inspired, he decided to pursue boxing himself. In 1931, Armstrong fought as a professional in Pennsylvania, using the name Melody Jackson. He then headed to Los Angeles, where he became Henry Armstrong—he chose the last name of a close friend—and stood as an amateur once more. When he didn’t make the 1932 Olympic team, Armstrong again turned pro. After witnessing Armstrong’s ability to overwhelm opponents with an unceasing assault of punches, Al Jolson became one of the owners of Armstrong's contract. With new manager Eddie Mead, a plan was concocted for Armstrong to take the boxing world by storm by winning multiple titles. In 1937, Armstrong became the featherweight champion after knocking out Petey Sarron. The next year, he moved up two weight classes and, in May, took the welterweight title from Barney Ross. A few months later, he shifted down into the lightweight category. His August 1938 win against Lou Ambers gave Armstrong the lightweight crown and made him the first boxer to hold three different weight division titles at the same time. At the end of 1938, Armstrong chose not to defend the featherweight title. He lost the lightweight title in 1939. Armstrong tried to become the middleweight champion in March of 1940, but the match ended in a draw. Many observers believed that he had been robbed by the decision. Armstrong successfully defended his welterweight crown multiple times, but on October 4, 1940, a defeat by Fritzie Zivic saw him lose that title as well. Although he had more wins in his career, including one against Zivic in 1942, Armstrong would never again hold a championship title. In 1945, Armstrong retired from boxing. Though he had won at least half a million dollars during his career, he had very little money left when he retired. He soon compounded his problems by drinking heavily. Armstrong became a Baptist minister in 1951. He stopped drinking and started to work with at-risk youth in Los Angeles. After moving back to St. Louis, he took a job at the Herbert Hoover Boys Club. As he grew older, Armstrong’s health began to decline, perhaps due in part to the brutal poundings he had endured in the ring. Dependent on Social Security to make ends meet, he also had to deal with failing vision and dementia in his last years. This is my favorite photo of Henry Armstrong, reaching for the third crown. Henry Armstrong becoming a triple champion was a historic accomplishment because he is the only boxer in history to hold three world titles simultaneously at the same time. Many fighters have won titles across multiple weight classes sequentially (one after another), but Armstrong held the featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight crowns concurrently in 1938. During his era in the late 1930s, professional boxing recognized only eight total weight divisions, meaning there were no "interim," "super," or "junior" titles to pad the record. Holding three meant reigning over nearly half the entire sport. Back then, there was only one true "world champion" per division, making the titleholders he conquered the undisputed best in the world. Armstrong did not move up incrementally; he jumped multiple weight classes to face elite champions—defeating Petey Sarron (featherweight), Barney Ross (welterweight), and Lou Ambers (lightweight) in a span of just 10 months. It's truly an unbelievable accomplishment.
Phenomenal interview with Kenneth Brigham, author of the Book "Homicide Hank: The Life of Boxing Legend Henry Armstrong", it's the definitive biography on Henry Armstrong.
The Fight City
Righting A Wrong: The Story Of Homicide Hank
By: Neil Crane
Author and site contributor Kenneth Bridgham’s second book is a biography of the great Henry Melody Jackson Jr., aka legendary triple-crown champ Henry Armstrong, who was born on this day back in 1912. Set in an America beset by racism, corruption, the Great Depression, and World War II, Homicide Hank: The Life of Boxing Legend Henry Armstrong chronicles the story of a true ring great, from his humble beginnings to the heights of stardom and on to his post-boxing years as a man of God. Surprisingly, it is the only complete biography of one of pugilism’s most significant champions and thus deserves to be widely read and discussed. Herewith our interview with author Kenneth Bridgham on Homicide Hank. Check it out:
NC: Your first book was about the life and times of bare knuckle champion John Morrissey, but your newest work centers on Henry Armstrong, the great triple-crown champ, which means a completely different social context, and almost a different sport considering how much boxing changed in the span between Morrissey’s day and when Armstrong was active in the 1930’s. What compelled you to shift your focus to “Homicide Hank”?
The Life & Crimes of John Morrissey
KB: When I initially began work on the Morrissey book, I knew vaguely of this interesting character from the sport’s history and wanted to learn more about him. I was surprised to find that no scholarly book-length biography had been written on Morrissey, at least as of the time I began my research. That project began as an article I hoped to get published somewhere, but as I found more and more information, it gradually became book length. But as I was completing the Morrissey book, I was thinking about what my next project would be. There were three specific people I had in mind, and I settled on Henry Armstrong. The first reason was that I had asked myself, “Who is the best fighter to never have a biography written about them?” Other than an autobiography long out of print, that was Henry Armstrong, an astonishing fact, considering how highly regarded he is by those who know the sport. The secondary reasons were that he was a more sympathetic character and more easily researched than the two other boxers I was considering. But again, it’s almost hard to believe, not to mention an injustice, that up until now there has never been a proper biography on such an important fighter.
NC: Well, now there is, thanks to you. One might say you are righting a wrong, pun intended.
KB: Regarding the differences between boxing in Morrissey’s time and Armstrong’s, there are still some important links that connect them. First, boxing, regardless of the era, was always a sport of the oppressed. Both Morrissey and Armstrong achieved what they did by rising above poverty and discrimination to represent an oppressed people. In the cases of both biographies, this allowed me to construct the narratives around a rags-to-riches story set against a backdrop of historical and social context. Secondly, a boxing match is a narrative unto itself. Whether it is a gloved first round knockout in the 20th century or a marathon bare-knuckle war of attrition in the 19th, a fight almost always has an introduction, rising action, climax, and falling action. The inherent drama of a boxing match was available to me, whomever I was writing about, regardless of the period.
The only complete biography of a true ring legend.
NC: So I take it that it was your interest in boxing that eventually drew you to Morrissey and the bare-knuckle era, and not the other way around. Is it the same for your enthusiasm for Pittsburgh pugilists? Or, let’s go back a bit: how did you first get interested in the history of prizefighting?
KB: I had a passing interest in boxing from the first time I saw Rocky as a child. I remember jumping around my living room, throwing punches during the final fight. But I only got into watching real boxing when I was in my 20s, when I began watching it with friends. Once I discovered some information on the sport’s history online, investigating the great fighters and fights of yesteryear became an obsession, and it didn’t take long to discover the sport’s bare-knuckle past. Growing up near Pittsburgh, my interest in the stories of Pittsburgh’s past as a breeding ground of pugilistic talent was a natural extension. As far as getting into live boxing, that came later, when I was in my early 20s and watching with my friends the major fights and fighters of the late 90’s and onward, De La Hoya, Lewis, Tyson, Jones. Shortly thereafter, I was working at Borders Books & Music and began picking up The Ring magazine. This was in the era of Lewis vs Tyson and De La Hoya vs Vargas. The promotions to those fights and reading about them in The Ring really drew me in and The Ring‘s articles about historic fighters, as well as some websites around the subject, sparked my obsession with the sport’s history. Soon enough, I was buying every new issue of The Ring, KO, and World Boxing. The fact historians could trace back the lineage of champions and the records of boxers into the 19th century amazed me at the time. For Christmas 2002, my dad spent way too much money and bought me nearly every issue of The Ring from about 1930 to 1990, along with some outliers from the other decades. I still enjoy combing through them, and of course they were a great help with writing the Armstrong book.
Armstrong on the cover of The Ring in 1940.
NC: So a generous father and old copies of The Ring were key inspirations. Any particular books or authors which were also significant?
KB: I think the first boxing book I read was either A Flame of Pure Fire, Roger Kahn’s biography of Jack Dempsey, or the early 2000s edition of A Pictorial History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre. Those were great ones to start with, and now I have an overflowing boxing bookshelf full of hundreds. Adam Pollack’s books on the heavyweight champions were another game changer for me. How intensely he researches each and every fight from the pre-TV era was mind-blowing and set a new bar for us obsessives. I’ve actually been working up a list of my all-time favorite boxing books, and it keeps getting longer. It’s hard to single one out, but I think I can. It’s short and not as revered as some other books, but Springs Toledo’s Smokestack Lightning about Harry Greb is brilliant. Toledo always does a fantastic job staying with the facts of history but also bringing his subjects to vibrant life. It really feels like you’re part of Greb’s entourage as he speeds through opponents and life. Of course, it helps that I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, so I may be biased.
I got my BA in English from Pitt before I really got hardcore into the sport, so my affinity for writing goes back even further. But yes, ever since I began reading The Ring I always wanted to write about the sport. But earning a real living and life in general got in the way of me really pursuing writing as much as I should have for years. It wasn’t until my son was born in 2011 that I began to slowly put together Morrissey’s story with any intention of publishing anything, and that took me more than eight years to finish. In the past year, I’ve stopped watching live boxing, so my knowledge of current fights, fighters, and issues in the sport isn’t as strong as it once was. That’s why The Fight City, with its strong respect for boxing’s fabulous history, is a good fit for the stuff I write.
NC: How difficult was it to research Armstrong’s life? And were there any surprises along the way?
KB: The main primary sources I used were the old newspaper and magazine articles with first-hand accounts of Henry’s fights. My collection of The Ring issues were a source for this and there were also interviews and articles written by Henry in his later years in several magazines. Fellow boxing historian Clay Moyle was especially helpful with these. He told me that he had once considered doing an Armstrong biography and lost interest in the project. As you probably know, Mr. Moyle has maybe the most extensive collection of boxing books and magazines around, and he still had his old research file on Henry. He was kind enough to send that file to me, and that helped me build a framework for Henry’s life. Armstrong was not afraid to talk about his life and career when interviewed. He was a well-spoken, friendly guy. He liked to talk about his youthful accomplishments, especially if it brought attention to his Henry Armstrong Youth Foundation.
Armstrong in his prime.
There were three things I found most unexpected in exploring Henry’s life. One was that, even in old age, he never seemed to hold much of a grudge against the men who clearly ripped him off during his career. Multiple interviewers prompted him to open up about the ways guys like Eddie Mead stole tens of thousands of dollars from him during the Depression era, but he clearly didn’t like doing so. Whether this was because he didn’t want to come across to the public as bitter or because he genuinely held no hard feelings is anybody’s guess at this point.
The second surprising thing was an article I found where he admitted that his impressive 46-fight winning streak between 1936 and 1939 may not have been entirely on the level. He openly admitted that at least one win was fixed and that he would not have been surprised to find out that others were as well. Few boxers then or now would admit to that. They might cop to some of their losses being arranged (and Henry did that too), but few admit that their wins were dubious, especially those that are part of a significant piece of their legacy. But then, Henry’s legacy has so many strong points that admitting doubt about one of them can’t harm his standing much.
Speaking of fixes, that leads me to my third surprise. It has long been common talk around Henry’s record that his draw with Ceferino Garcia for a record fourth division championship was a fix. The story goes that Henry should have won it easy and that a shady ref was paid off. Watching the fight film and reading the first-person accounts of people who were there, I’m not entirely sure it was a fix at all. It was definitely a close fight. Yes, many thought Henry deserved the nod, but just as many favored Garcia, and there were those who felt a draw was appropriate. Perhaps most importantly, the referee George Blake was by all accounts a stand-up guy with an impeccable reputation. Henry always asserted the fight was fixed, and maybe it was, but it is not as clear cut as modern commentators and writers would have you believe.
Armstrong and Garcia at the conclusion of their 1938 battle.
NC: One imagines Armstrong’s Christian faith might be a factor in his attitude towards the people who stole from him, specifically Christ’s commandment to forgive others and “turn the other cheek.” As I understand it, that faith transformed his life.
KB: Henry claimed to have had multiple religious experiences that were direct messages from or visions of God, from childhood into adulthood. Without getting into my personal feelings about religion, I decided to report these incidents as Henry told them and let the reader form their own opinions about the nature of Henry’s faith. When he became a preacher later in life, he was very worried about being perceived as a pretender, a hustler, or a Johnny-come-lately, but religion was a centerpiece of his upbringing, and his mother and grandmother pushed him to become a preacher from the day he was born. He took a different route in his early adult life, but he credited God with awakening him out of his depression and alcoholism once his boxing career was over. When he devoted himself to the Bible and pulpit, he went at it with the same single-minded devotion he had once applied to the ring: all-out. He even called his study of the Bible “training,” like a fighter would his preparations for the ring. And he earned a reputation as a sort of force of nature up there. He was once “Hurricane Henry” but he used that same furious energy to become “God’s Ball of Fire.” So, I’ll leave it up to the reader as to how much of his preaching career was genuine faith and how much was showmanship; but no one can deny that he went at it with dedication and passion.
Armstrong behind the pulpit in 1950.
NC: To my mind, Armstrong is a strong candidate for being at the very top of the list of the all-time greatest boxers, pound-for-pound. What is your take on his standing and was your perception of this altered at all over the course of researching and writing the book?
KB: Well, I separate “greatest” and “best.” When considering the “greatest,” I also consider their historical impact on the sport and their social impact on the country or world. It’s not the only factor I look at, but I account for that along with their abilities, longevity, records, quality of opposition, titles, and records set when determining greatness. Therefore, my top ten greatest are Robinson, Ali, Louis, Armstrong, Pep, Greb, Johnson, Langford, Duran, and Benny Leonard, in that order. That’s part of what led me to write about Henry. I went down my list of greats and asked myself who is the highest ranked not to have a biography about him. Robinson, Ali, and Louis all have many books out about them. There were none in print on Henry, which, again, I found hard to believe.
If we’re talking the “best” fighter ever, in his prime, Armstrong would certainly be in the conversation for the number one spot. I wish there were motion picture footage of Greb in the ring to compare with the existing footage of Armstrong’s stamina and aggression and see who was truly boxing’s greatest brawler. Then, when you get into those mythical matchups, even when film footage exists of both A+ fighters, it’s very difficult to judge who is better, particularly if they were magically made the same size, because all fighters’ styles are built to accommodate their physical dimensions. Armstrong vs Robinson is a good example of this. Even at his best, I don’t think Henry could have beaten Sugar Ray due to Robinson’s sheer size advantage, as well as his other outstanding abilities. But if you made them literally the same dimensions? Who knows what that would even look like.
Armstrong defeating the great Barney Ross for the welterweight title in 1938.
When I first started the project, I rated Pep at four and Armstrong at five on my greatness ladder, mainly because I looked at Pep’s longer undefeated streak and greater longevity. But researching and writing about Henry’s career convinced me his greatness supersedes Pep’s. His overall quality of opposition was much better than Pep’s, and his cultural impact was enormous. That’s the side of Henry’s boxing legacy that I most hoped to communicate with this book. His winning three-division titles is the first thing anyone ever brings up about him, and that’s a mind-boggling achievement. He was fast and powerful, ridiculously rugged, and frighteningly aggressive at his peak. Like you said, he’s definitely in the conversation when it comes to the all-time best, pound-for-pound. But his real importance was as a rare idol to Black Americans in the Depression era, right alongside Joe Louis. A sociologist who visited a Southern school for Black students in that period noted that the students there didn’t know who the President was, what a president did, or what the U.S. Constitution was, but they all knew who Henry Armstrong was. Why? There are a number of reasons, but certainly one of them was his setting an example of how to rise out of oppression and poverty and fight, both figuratively and literally. As Armstrong once said, “You can’t Jim Crow a left hook.” And he had a hell of a left hook. — Neil Crane
Let's look at some of Henry Armstrong's greatest hits, brought to us by author Kenneth Brigham with the website Fight City.com
Sammy Angott, W10, June 11, 1943.
Against “Hurricane Henry,” not even “The Clutch” could be boring. The pair of ex-champions fought a scintillating 15 round round brawl that could have happened “in a jeep’s rumble seat,” as The New York Daily News put it. Though Angott was the betting favorite going in, an over-the-hill Armstrong scored a unanimous decision upset in front of 13 000 stunned fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Bad eyes and scar tissue contributed to Armstrong’s back-to-back losses to Zivic in 1940 and cost him his welterweight championship. Following corrective surgery to remove the scarring, Armstrong was able to walk through headbutts and low blows to wear Zivic down and win a unanimous decision in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium as Max Baer, Maxie Rosenbloom, John Henry Lewis, Eddie Booker, and Lloyd Marshall looked on. “Zivic was just nasty!” Henry would later tell Bill Libby of Boxing Illustrated.
Hard-hitting Puerto Rican legend and future Hall of Famer Montanez was the fourteenth man to challenge Armstrong for the welterweight championship, and the second in that month of January alone. Many in the Madison Square Garden crowd thought he might be the man to dethrone the champ, but Armstrong overcame the feared puncher with his exhaustive work rate, dropping his challenger three times before the referee mercifully stopped the slaughter in the ninth round.
As difficult as it is to ponder, at a time when Joe Louis was in his prime, there were those who considered the rugged Filipino Garcia “the most murderous hitter in the game.” The prior year, he had given the stellar Barney Ross hell in a bid for the welterweight title and had since won ten straight as a middleweight. Despite giving up over twelve pounds, Armstrong endured Garcia’s infamous “bolo” uppercuts for fifteen rounds to emerge the unanimous victor at Madison Square Garden and successfully defend his welterweight belt for the first time.
Armstrong’s second fight with Garcia saw him challenge for a record fourth division championship at a time when there were only eight universally recognized weight divisions in the sport. Garcia was the lineal middleweight champion of the world. Outweighed by over eleven pounds, Armstrong went toe-to-toe with Garcia in a slugfest in front of 25,000 fans in L.A.’s Gilmore Stadium and gave as good as he got. After fifteen rounds, the referee declared the fight a draw and then immediately high-tailed it out of the arena, but many came away thinking Henry deserved the win. Suspicions of a fix have persisted ever since.
Comments
Carmen Basilio sends the original "Golden Boy" Art aragon through the ropes in 1958. Basilio won the fight by 8th round TKO. Aragon never won a world title but he was one heck of a fighter, a dangerous puncher, he knocked out 61 of his opponents. Los Angeles sportswriters gave him the "Golden Boy" moniker because of his good looks and golden ring attire, of course Oscar De La Hoya would later adopt the nickname. Aragon struggled to make weight throughout his career and was the only boxer that literally had to be carried to the ring because of weakness from the weight issues.
Carmen Basilio slipping an uppercut from Sugar Ray Robinson. Carmen was very underrated at riding punches and slipping them.
Epic image of Carmen Basilio landing a brutal left hook on Sugar Ray Robinson.
Carmen Basilio has one of the coolest nicknames, "The Onion Farmer." This is an awesome cartoon portraying Johnny Saxton as an onion and being pulled by Carmen Basilio.
Carmen Basilio living up to his nickname, as he tosses an onion into the air while being photographed on his family's onion farm. I would love to own the type 1 original photo of this image.
Phenomenal book.
Carmen Basilio, vicious pressure.
"The Onion Farmer", Carmen Basilio.
Henry Armstrong is one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in boxing history, ranked by some historians as THE greatest and I would certainly have no argument with that opinion whatsoever. He is the only boxer in history to hold world championships in three different weight divisions simultaneously (featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight) back when there were only eight traditional weight classes and one belt per division. He achieved a legendary streak of 27 consecutive knockout wins, one of the longest in the sport's history. In 1939 alone, he fought 12 title fights and won 11 of them, famously defending his welterweight title five times in just 21 days. He fought middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia to a controversial draw in 1940 in an attempt to capture an unprecedented fourth simultaneous world title. Just think about that for a minute, he came that close to having a monopoly on half of the weight divisions in boxing, four of the eight, that's insane, and you can certainly see why he very well could be the greatest pound-for-pound fighter that ever lived. Nicknamed "Homicide Hank," Armstrong fought with a relentless, suffocating pace. Opponents described him as a "punching machine" because he attacked nonstop from the opening bell to the final round. His combination of exceptional stamina, devastating body punching, and ferocious inside fighting made him one of the most feared and dominant forces the ring has ever seen. Over his remarkable career, he finished with 151 wins (including roughly 100 knockouts) out of 183 professional bouts. We'll start off with the 2010 Ringside Boxing Round One - Turkey Red - Gold #/9 - Henry Armstrong.
2010 Ringside Boxing Round One - Turkey Red - Gold #/9 - Henry Armstrong.
2010 Ringside Boxing Round One - Gold #/9 - Henry Armstrong.
1938 W.A. & A.C. Churchman - Boxing Personalities - Henry Armstrong.
1977-79 Sportscasters - Lausanne Edition - Italy - Henry Armstrong.
1948 Leaf Gum - Henry Armstrong.
1996 Japan World Boxing - Henry Armstrong.
Awesome 1996 Japan World Boxing uncut sheet with the Henry Armstrong.
2010 Sportkings Gum - Base - Henry Armstrong, 2010 Sportkings - Mini - Henry Armstrong.
2025 Historic Autographs - Famous Americans - Base - Henry Armstrong.
1967-68 Panini - Campioni Dello Sport - Henry Armstrong.
1968 Mira Tuttosport - Henry Armstrong.
Authenticated Ink - 1938 Lincoln Wheat Penny - Rejected - Henry Armstrong.
1991 All World - Henry Armstrong.
1998 Futera Platinum - Boxing Legends #/1,250 - Henry Armstrong.
2004 Rockwell Publishing - Mighty Atoms - Blue Back - Henry Armstrong.
1946 Propagandas Montiel - Henry Armstrong. This is my favorite Henry Armstrong card. I know the image on the card came from a photo of Armstrong after his August 17, 1938 fight against Lou Ambers at Madison Square Garden, Armstrong won by split decision after 15 brutal rounds. This is as close as I can get to the photo that matches up with this card. Lou Ambers is a Hall of Famer and all-time great and he really put Armstrong through pure hell. From the opening bell, the bout was an absolute war. Ambers started fast, but Armstrong dropped Ambers in the fifth and sixth rounds. Armstrong's mouth began bleeding heavily by the third round. Starting in the eleventh round, Armstrong refused his mouthpiece to keep blood from escaping, choosing instead to swallow his own blood for the remainder of the punishing fight while continuing his relentless attack. It's one of the most savage things in sports history and I love this card because it captures an image of Armstrong afterwards.
BOXING’S GREATEST WARS, PART V: SWALLOWING BLOOD
By: Kenneth Bridgham
HENRY ARMSTRONG’S QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY LED HIM THROUGH HELL AGAINST LOU AMBERS
For this series, I will be looking back at the most trying battles in ring history, picking one for each decade of the gloved era, beginning in the 1890s.
In the late Summer of 1938, Henry Armstrong was on top of the sports world. The reigning featherweight (127 pounds) champion of the world, he had leaped over the lightweight (135 pounds) division to take the welterweight (147 pounds) crown by sending Barney Ross — one of the sport’s finest champions — into retirement.
Some in the press were already acclaiming Armstrong as the pound-for-pound best fighter the sport had ever seen. His ultra-aggressive style inspired a shower of nicknames: “Hammerin’ Hank,” “Homicide Hank,” “Hurricane Henry,” “The Black Blitzkrieg,” “The Dusky Dynamiter,” “Perpetual Motion,” and many more.
Born in Mississippi, raised in Missouri, and living in California, Armstrong had strung together twenty consecutive knockouts by the close of 1937. Still, his handlers were worried that the new heavyweight champion Joe Louis was stealing the limelight and the money that came with it. To compensate, one of Armstrong’s managers, Hollywood actor Al Jolson, hit upon the idea of having Henry win three division championships in a year and hold them all simultaneously. It would be an unprecedented accomplishment and a headline-grabbing gimmick.
“Hurricane” Henry Armstrong
Following his fifteen-round assault of Ross in Madison Square Garden on May 31, 1938, Armstrong was set to return to the scene of his conquest to collect the third of his titles against the skilled and rugged lightweight champion, Lou Ambers on August 22.
The son of Italian immigrants who had settled in Herkimer, New York, a village between Utica and Schenectady along the Mohawk River, Ambers had been born Luigi D’Ambrosio in 1913. He was managed by Al Weill and trained by Charley Goldman and Whitey Bimstein, a many refer to as the best corner in boxing history (Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano would later also benefit from their guidance).
Though no knockout artist, “The Herkimer Hurricane” was known to relish a good scrap and wear down opponents with his work rate, not unlike Armstrong. He was also very clever and could box rings around a guy if the fight called for it, as it had against the great Tony Canzoneri when he won the lightweight crown in the Garden on September 3, 1936. Sportswriters marveled over his hair-trigger reflexes, praising his ability to dash in, land combinations on an opponent, and then escape untouched.
Lou “The Herkimer Hurricane” Ambers
At the weigh-in on the morning of August 17, champion Ambers came in at 134 ½ pounds and challenger Armstrong at 134, both under the required lightweight limit. The fighters were probably relieved the fight would occur inside, as the day had been sweltering and humid, and the evening was not much better. Twenty thousand fans joined them in the Garden, paying $102,000 for the privilege. The largest crowd that ever had jammed into the arena left some folks with standing room only. The fighters would reward their audience with one of the most viscous title scraps in the arena’s storied history.
When the first round opened, Ambers got off first with two lefts to Henry’s face. The crowd roared its approval, clearly rooting for the champion despite the betting odds. From there on out, the fighters were tearing away at one another.
By the close of round two, Ambers was already cut above an eye. Armstrong dominated round three, but Ambers fought back well in four and five, landing stiff right uppercuts against his bobbing-and-weaving challenger. With one second to go in the fifth, Henry surprised Ambers by switching from the body to the head and landing a fast right to the jaw. Lou dropped to his knees. As fighters could be saved by the bell, referee Billy Cavanagh did not need to count. Al Weill leaped into the ring and dragged Lou to the corner.
In the sixth, a left-right combination put Ambers back on the floor with plenty of time on the clock. He was up at the count of eight. “Homicide Hank” came in with no thought of defense and threw haymakers. Ambers tried to fight back but could not escape the ropes for the rest of the round. Both men returned to their stools bleeding, Ambers from the gash above his left eye, Armstrong from cuts he had suffered in training on his lip, now re-opened by the champion’s blows.
Armstrong’s relentless work rate dominated the seventh, but Cavanagh took the round away with a penalty for a low blow. Ambers landed three short rights square on Armstrong’s jaw to devastating effect at the start of round eight, but Armstrong’s “Perpetual Motion” arms were pumping away again soon enough. With Ambers trapped on the ropes, Cavanagh stopped the action to take yet another round away from Armstrong for punching low.
Henry was bleeding badly from a cut near his left eye and lip. He struggled to keep his mouthpiece in as he spat out blood to be able to breathe. In round nine, he consistently walked into accurate, well-timed blows from Ambers. After a highly competitive tenth round, a jolting Armstrong right rattled the champion and sent him careening across the ring in the eleventh. Armstrong badly battered the champion through the rest of the round, but Cavanagh took both eleven and twelve away from Henry with low blow calls.
Henry’s cut lip was spilling blood onto the canvas, turning the canvas floor into a slippery mess. After round twelve, Cavanagh considered stopping the fight, but Armstrong convinced him to let him continue. Armstrong then told his corner to take out his mouthpiece. He would swallow his own blood for the rest of the right to keep it from pouring out of his mouth and prevent the stoppage.
A few seconds into the thirteenth, the crowd was on its feet, watching both fighters land heavy blows to the head. Ambers “came forth such as he had never before exhibited, and fought Armstrong to a standstill,” reported Nat Fleischer in The Ring. The bleeding and the queasy feeling in his stomach noticeably weakened and distracted Armstrong. Looking to end the fight, Ambers was tearing him up toward the end of the round.
The crowd was in a literal riot. Fans were not just throwing their hats in the air with delight; they were throwing their chairs, and they shouted Lou’s name as they never had before. In round fourteen, the fighting was as furious as ever, but now Henry was doing the better work. An Armstrong right nearly put Ambers down for a third time just as the round ended, but the brave champion stayed upright.
At the start of the fifteenth and final round, the badly battered combatants respectfully shook hands. Both men then did their best to separate the other from his consciousness with stiff blows to the head. Almost as if to symbolize their evenly matched fighting prowess, they landed simultaneous hard right hands as the final bell tolled. Armstrong returned to his corner, looking to Jimmy Cannon of the New York American “like a broken egg-beater on two ramshackle clothespins.”
The referee scored the fight for Armstrong and the other two judges were split in their decisions, giving Henry a narrow split decision win. The decidedly pro-Ambers crowd hooted, hollered, and booed the verdict, but Armstrong had accomplished the previously impossible. He was now a simultaneous three-division champion of the world, a feat which has not been matched to this day.
He received a payday of $25,000 and eight to fifteen stitches (depending on the source) on the inside of his mouth for his trouble.
A week later, revered sportswriter Grantland Rice dubbed it “one of the greatest lightweight shows the ring has ever known, because for 15 rounds there wasn’t a minute — or scarcely a second — that they weren’t whirling at each other, fighting from rope to rope, in and out of corners and across the ring.”
The Ring later recognized the punishing and historic match as the Fight of the Year for 1938. Just over a year later, the pair of future Hall of Famers fought a rematch. Again, it was a savage war. Again, Armstrong was penalized multiple rounds for low-blow calls. Again, the decision was controversial but this time in Ambers’s favor, earning his own spot in history as only the second man ever to regain the lightweight championship and the man who ended Armstrong’s forty-six-bout undefeated streak.
Blood on the canvas being wiped up after the fight.
2004 Helmar Brewing Co. - All Our Heroes - Henry Armstrong.
ACEO Swedish Boxing Game Card - Henry Armstrong.
2017 4LUVofBOXING - Legends Series II - Henry Armstrong.
2001 JF Sporting Collectibles - Boxers: World Champions - Henry Armstrong. The only match I can seem to find for the image on this card is from a 1956-65 Swedish Rekord premium.
2019 Edward Vela Art Cards - Henry Armstrong.
2024 RR Parks Cards - The Greatest, Great, And Not So Much #1/1 - Henry Armstrong.
2025 RR Parks Cards - The Greatest, Great, And Not So Much #1/1 - Henry Armstrong.
Oh boy, this is really rare, a 1940s Adam Hats Premiums - Henry Armstrong. Adam Hats issued its celebrity and boxing photo premiums and related promotional items through its nationwide network of company-owned retail stores, authorized independent dealers and clothier agents, and as advertising giveaways tied to their heavy sponsorship of radio boxing broadcasts. Customers purchasing budget-priced hats (such as their popular fedoras or seasonal straw hats) received or could request black-and-white or colored photo premiums featuring athletes, boxers, and movie stars, often displaying replica signatures and personal quotes endorsing Adam Hats. Specialized sets—such as the 1942 Sam Taub's "Ring Personalities" series—were printed on matchbook covers and distributed widely through authorized clothiers and retail outlets as functional, everyday advertisements. During the 1940s, Adam Hats sponsored major boxing matches (including broadcasts from Madison Square Garden called by announcer Sam Taub and Bill Stern's Friday Night Fights), using the programming to drive listeners to local authorized agents where promotional items and specialized packaging (like sports-themed hat boxes) were available.
Police Gazette - Gallery of Champions - Henry Armstrong.
Police Gazette - Gallery of Champions - Henry Armstrong.
1951 Topps Ringside - Henry Armstrong.
1960 Anglo American Gum - Sports Parade - Henry Armstrong. Awesome image of Henry Armstrong as a Baptist minister, which he became after retirement from boxing.
1935 United Tobacco Co. - World Famous Boxers - Henry Armstrong. It's a shame that I couldn't find the photo to match up with this legendary card.
1947-66 Exhibit Supply Company - Henry Armstrong. I couldn't find the photo to match with this one either. I never have much luck with the exhibit cards.
Henry Armstrong was nicknamed "Homicide Hank" and "Hurricane Henry" because of his relentless, highly aggressive, and ruthless fighting style in the ring. He was the pressure fighter from hell. He kept up a relentless pace, constantly moving forward and throwing punches in bunches without pausing, his opponents must have felt like they were being buried alive. Despite standing only 5-foot-5½, his high-pressure inside fighting and body attacks led to 101 knockout victories during his legendary career. His dominance was unprecedented. His ruthless efficiency helped him accomplish the historic feat of simultaneously holding three world titles (featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight) during an era with only eight distinct weight classes. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on December 12, 1912. When he was 4, Armstrong and his large family—he was the 11th of 15 children—moved to St. Louis. There, his grandmother took care of him after his mother passed away. After graduating from high school, Armstrong was employed to lay railroad tracks. While on the job one day, he saw an article about a boxer who had earned $75,000 for a fight. Inspired, he decided to pursue boxing himself. In 1931, Armstrong fought as a professional in Pennsylvania, using the name Melody Jackson. He then headed to Los Angeles, where he became Henry Armstrong—he chose the last name of a close friend—and stood as an amateur once more. When he didn’t make the 1932 Olympic team, Armstrong again turned pro. After witnessing Armstrong’s ability to overwhelm opponents with an unceasing assault of punches, Al Jolson became one of the owners of Armstrong's contract. With new manager Eddie Mead, a plan was concocted for Armstrong to take the boxing world by storm by winning multiple titles. In 1937, Armstrong became the featherweight champion after knocking out Petey Sarron. The next year, he moved up two weight classes and, in May, took the welterweight title from Barney Ross. A few months later, he shifted down into the lightweight category. His August 1938 win against Lou Ambers gave Armstrong the lightweight crown and made him the first boxer to hold three different weight division titles at the same time. At the end of 1938, Armstrong chose not to defend the featherweight title. He lost the lightweight title in 1939. Armstrong tried to become the middleweight champion in March of 1940, but the match ended in a draw. Many observers believed that he had been robbed by the decision. Armstrong successfully defended his welterweight crown multiple times, but on October 4, 1940, a defeat by Fritzie Zivic saw him lose that title as well. Although he had more wins in his career, including one against Zivic in 1942, Armstrong would never again hold a championship title. In 1945, Armstrong retired from boxing. Though he had won at least half a million dollars during his career, he had very little money left when he retired. He soon compounded his problems by drinking heavily. Armstrong became a Baptist minister in 1951. He stopped drinking and started to work with at-risk youth in Los Angeles. After moving back to St. Louis, he took a job at the Herbert Hoover Boys Club. As he grew older, Armstrong’s health began to decline, perhaps due in part to the brutal poundings he had endured in the ring. Dependent on Social Security to make ends meet, he also had to deal with failing vision and dementia in his last years. This is my favorite photo of Henry Armstrong, reaching for the third crown. Henry Armstrong becoming a triple champion was a historic accomplishment because he is the only boxer in history to hold three world titles simultaneously at the same time. Many fighters have won titles across multiple weight classes sequentially (one after another), but Armstrong held the featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight crowns concurrently in 1938. During his era in the late 1930s, professional boxing recognized only eight total weight divisions, meaning there were no "interim," "super," or "junior" titles to pad the record. Holding three meant reigning over nearly half the entire sport. Back then, there was only one true "world champion" per division, making the titleholders he conquered the undisputed best in the world. Armstrong did not move up incrementally; he jumped multiple weight classes to face elite champions—defeating Petey Sarron (featherweight), Barney Ross (welterweight), and Lou Ambers (lightweight) in a span of just 10 months. It's truly an unbelievable accomplishment.
Phenomenal interview with Kenneth Brigham, author of the Book "Homicide Hank: The Life of Boxing Legend Henry Armstrong", it's the definitive biography on Henry Armstrong.
The Fight City
Righting A Wrong: The Story Of Homicide Hank
By: Neil Crane
Author and site contributor Kenneth Bridgham’s second book is a biography of the great Henry Melody Jackson Jr., aka legendary triple-crown champ Henry Armstrong, who was born on this day back in 1912. Set in an America beset by racism, corruption, the Great Depression, and World War II, Homicide Hank: The Life of Boxing Legend Henry Armstrong chronicles the story of a true ring great, from his humble beginnings to the heights of stardom and on to his post-boxing years as a man of God. Surprisingly, it is the only complete biography of one of pugilism’s most significant champions and thus deserves to be widely read and discussed. Herewith our interview with author Kenneth Bridgham on Homicide Hank. Check it out:
NC: Your first book was about the life and times of bare knuckle champion John Morrissey, but your newest work centers on Henry Armstrong, the great triple-crown champ, which means a completely different social context, and almost a different sport considering how much boxing changed in the span between Morrissey’s day and when Armstrong was active in the 1930’s. What compelled you to shift your focus to “Homicide Hank”?
The Life & Crimes of John Morrissey
KB: When I initially began work on the Morrissey book, I knew vaguely of this interesting character from the sport’s history and wanted to learn more about him. I was surprised to find that no scholarly book-length biography had been written on Morrissey, at least as of the time I began my research. That project began as an article I hoped to get published somewhere, but as I found more and more information, it gradually became book length. But as I was completing the Morrissey book, I was thinking about what my next project would be. There were three specific people I had in mind, and I settled on Henry Armstrong. The first reason was that I had asked myself, “Who is the best fighter to never have a biography written about them?” Other than an autobiography long out of print, that was Henry Armstrong, an astonishing fact, considering how highly regarded he is by those who know the sport. The secondary reasons were that he was a more sympathetic character and more easily researched than the two other boxers I was considering. But again, it’s almost hard to believe, not to mention an injustice, that up until now there has never been a proper biography on such an important fighter.
NC: Well, now there is, thanks to you. One might say you are righting a wrong, pun intended.
KB: Regarding the differences between boxing in Morrissey’s time and Armstrong’s, there are still some important links that connect them. First, boxing, regardless of the era, was always a sport of the oppressed. Both Morrissey and Armstrong achieved what they did by rising above poverty and discrimination to represent an oppressed people. In the cases of both biographies, this allowed me to construct the narratives around a rags-to-riches story set against a backdrop of historical and social context. Secondly, a boxing match is a narrative unto itself. Whether it is a gloved first round knockout in the 20th century or a marathon bare-knuckle war of attrition in the 19th, a fight almost always has an introduction, rising action, climax, and falling action. The inherent drama of a boxing match was available to me, whomever I was writing about, regardless of the period.
The only complete biography of a true ring legend.
NC: So I take it that it was your interest in boxing that eventually drew you to Morrissey and the bare-knuckle era, and not the other way around. Is it the same for your enthusiasm for Pittsburgh pugilists? Or, let’s go back a bit: how did you first get interested in the history of prizefighting?
KB: I had a passing interest in boxing from the first time I saw Rocky as a child. I remember jumping around my living room, throwing punches during the final fight. But I only got into watching real boxing when I was in my 20s, when I began watching it with friends. Once I discovered some information on the sport’s history online, investigating the great fighters and fights of yesteryear became an obsession, and it didn’t take long to discover the sport’s bare-knuckle past. Growing up near Pittsburgh, my interest in the stories of Pittsburgh’s past as a breeding ground of pugilistic talent was a natural extension. As far as getting into live boxing, that came later, when I was in my early 20s and watching with my friends the major fights and fighters of the late 90’s and onward, De La Hoya, Lewis, Tyson, Jones. Shortly thereafter, I was working at Borders Books & Music and began picking up The Ring magazine. This was in the era of Lewis vs Tyson and De La Hoya vs Vargas. The promotions to those fights and reading about them in The Ring really drew me in and The Ring‘s articles about historic fighters, as well as some websites around the subject, sparked my obsession with the sport’s history. Soon enough, I was buying every new issue of The Ring, KO, and World Boxing. The fact historians could trace back the lineage of champions and the records of boxers into the 19th century amazed me at the time. For Christmas 2002, my dad spent way too much money and bought me nearly every issue of The Ring from about 1930 to 1990, along with some outliers from the other decades. I still enjoy combing through them, and of course they were a great help with writing the Armstrong book.
Armstrong on the cover of The Ring in 1940.
NC: So a generous father and old copies of The Ring were key inspirations. Any particular books or authors which were also significant?
KB: I think the first boxing book I read was either A Flame of Pure Fire, Roger Kahn’s biography of Jack Dempsey, or the early 2000s edition of A Pictorial History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre. Those were great ones to start with, and now I have an overflowing boxing bookshelf full of hundreds. Adam Pollack’s books on the heavyweight champions were another game changer for me. How intensely he researches each and every fight from the pre-TV era was mind-blowing and set a new bar for us obsessives. I’ve actually been working up a list of my all-time favorite boxing books, and it keeps getting longer. It’s hard to single one out, but I think I can. It’s short and not as revered as some other books, but Springs Toledo’s Smokestack Lightning about Harry Greb is brilliant. Toledo always does a fantastic job staying with the facts of history but also bringing his subjects to vibrant life. It really feels like you’re part of Greb’s entourage as he speeds through opponents and life. Of course, it helps that I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, so I may be biased.
I got my BA in English from Pitt before I really got hardcore into the sport, so my affinity for writing goes back even further. But yes, ever since I began reading The Ring I always wanted to write about the sport. But earning a real living and life in general got in the way of me really pursuing writing as much as I should have for years. It wasn’t until my son was born in 2011 that I began to slowly put together Morrissey’s story with any intention of publishing anything, and that took me more than eight years to finish. In the past year, I’ve stopped watching live boxing, so my knowledge of current fights, fighters, and issues in the sport isn’t as strong as it once was. That’s why The Fight City, with its strong respect for boxing’s fabulous history, is a good fit for the stuff I write.
NC: How difficult was it to research Armstrong’s life? And were there any surprises along the way?
KB: The main primary sources I used were the old newspaper and magazine articles with first-hand accounts of Henry’s fights. My collection of The Ring issues were a source for this and there were also interviews and articles written by Henry in his later years in several magazines. Fellow boxing historian Clay Moyle was especially helpful with these. He told me that he had once considered doing an Armstrong biography and lost interest in the project. As you probably know, Mr. Moyle has maybe the most extensive collection of boxing books and magazines around, and he still had his old research file on Henry. He was kind enough to send that file to me, and that helped me build a framework for Henry’s life. Armstrong was not afraid to talk about his life and career when interviewed. He was a well-spoken, friendly guy. He liked to talk about his youthful accomplishments, especially if it brought attention to his Henry Armstrong Youth Foundation.
Armstrong in his prime.
There were three things I found most unexpected in exploring Henry’s life. One was that, even in old age, he never seemed to hold much of a grudge against the men who clearly ripped him off during his career. Multiple interviewers prompted him to open up about the ways guys like Eddie Mead stole tens of thousands of dollars from him during the Depression era, but he clearly didn’t like doing so. Whether this was because he didn’t want to come across to the public as bitter or because he genuinely held no hard feelings is anybody’s guess at this point.
The second surprising thing was an article I found where he admitted that his impressive 46-fight winning streak between 1936 and 1939 may not have been entirely on the level. He openly admitted that at least one win was fixed and that he would not have been surprised to find out that others were as well. Few boxers then or now would admit to that. They might cop to some of their losses being arranged (and Henry did that too), but few admit that their wins were dubious, especially those that are part of a significant piece of their legacy. But then, Henry’s legacy has so many strong points that admitting doubt about one of them can’t harm his standing much.
Speaking of fixes, that leads me to my third surprise. It has long been common talk around Henry’s record that his draw with Ceferino Garcia for a record fourth division championship was a fix. The story goes that Henry should have won it easy and that a shady ref was paid off. Watching the fight film and reading the first-person accounts of people who were there, I’m not entirely sure it was a fix at all. It was definitely a close fight. Yes, many thought Henry deserved the nod, but just as many favored Garcia, and there were those who felt a draw was appropriate. Perhaps most importantly, the referee George Blake was by all accounts a stand-up guy with an impeccable reputation. Henry always asserted the fight was fixed, and maybe it was, but it is not as clear cut as modern commentators and writers would have you believe.
Armstrong and Garcia at the conclusion of their 1938 battle.
NC: One imagines Armstrong’s Christian faith might be a factor in his attitude towards the people who stole from him, specifically Christ’s commandment to forgive others and “turn the other cheek.” As I understand it, that faith transformed his life.
KB: Henry claimed to have had multiple religious experiences that were direct messages from or visions of God, from childhood into adulthood. Without getting into my personal feelings about religion, I decided to report these incidents as Henry told them and let the reader form their own opinions about the nature of Henry’s faith. When he became a preacher later in life, he was very worried about being perceived as a pretender, a hustler, or a Johnny-come-lately, but religion was a centerpiece of his upbringing, and his mother and grandmother pushed him to become a preacher from the day he was born. He took a different route in his early adult life, but he credited God with awakening him out of his depression and alcoholism once his boxing career was over. When he devoted himself to the Bible and pulpit, he went at it with the same single-minded devotion he had once applied to the ring: all-out. He even called his study of the Bible “training,” like a fighter would his preparations for the ring. And he earned a reputation as a sort of force of nature up there. He was once “Hurricane Henry” but he used that same furious energy to become “God’s Ball of Fire.” So, I’ll leave it up to the reader as to how much of his preaching career was genuine faith and how much was showmanship; but no one can deny that he went at it with dedication and passion.
Armstrong behind the pulpit in 1950.
NC: To my mind, Armstrong is a strong candidate for being at the very top of the list of the all-time greatest boxers, pound-for-pound. What is your take on his standing and was your perception of this altered at all over the course of researching and writing the book?
KB: Well, I separate “greatest” and “best.” When considering the “greatest,” I also consider their historical impact on the sport and their social impact on the country or world. It’s not the only factor I look at, but I account for that along with their abilities, longevity, records, quality of opposition, titles, and records set when determining greatness. Therefore, my top ten greatest are Robinson, Ali, Louis, Armstrong, Pep, Greb, Johnson, Langford, Duran, and Benny Leonard, in that order. That’s part of what led me to write about Henry. I went down my list of greats and asked myself who is the highest ranked not to have a biography about him. Robinson, Ali, and Louis all have many books out about them. There were none in print on Henry, which, again, I found hard to believe.
If we’re talking the “best” fighter ever, in his prime, Armstrong would certainly be in the conversation for the number one spot. I wish there were motion picture footage of Greb in the ring to compare with the existing footage of Armstrong’s stamina and aggression and see who was truly boxing’s greatest brawler. Then, when you get into those mythical matchups, even when film footage exists of both A+ fighters, it’s very difficult to judge who is better, particularly if they were magically made the same size, because all fighters’ styles are built to accommodate their physical dimensions. Armstrong vs Robinson is a good example of this. Even at his best, I don’t think Henry could have beaten Sugar Ray due to Robinson’s sheer size advantage, as well as his other outstanding abilities. But if you made them literally the same dimensions? Who knows what that would even look like.
Armstrong defeating the great Barney Ross for the welterweight title in 1938.
When I first started the project, I rated Pep at four and Armstrong at five on my greatness ladder, mainly because I looked at Pep’s longer undefeated streak and greater longevity. But researching and writing about Henry’s career convinced me his greatness supersedes Pep’s. His overall quality of opposition was much better than Pep’s, and his cultural impact was enormous. That’s the side of Henry’s boxing legacy that I most hoped to communicate with this book. His winning three-division titles is the first thing anyone ever brings up about him, and that’s a mind-boggling achievement. He was fast and powerful, ridiculously rugged, and frighteningly aggressive at his peak. Like you said, he’s definitely in the conversation when it comes to the all-time best, pound-for-pound. But his real importance was as a rare idol to Black Americans in the Depression era, right alongside Joe Louis. A sociologist who visited a Southern school for Black students in that period noted that the students there didn’t know who the President was, what a president did, or what the U.S. Constitution was, but they all knew who Henry Armstrong was. Why? There are a number of reasons, but certainly one of them was his setting an example of how to rise out of oppression and poverty and fight, both figuratively and literally. As Armstrong once said, “You can’t Jim Crow a left hook.” And he had a hell of a left hook. — Neil Crane
This is one of my favorite images of Henry Armstrong, reaching for a third crown.
Let's look at some of Henry Armstrong's greatest hits, brought to us by author Kenneth Brigham with the website Fight City.com
Sammy Angott, W10, June 11, 1943.
Against “Hurricane Henry,” not even “The Clutch” could be boring. The pair of ex-champions fought a scintillating 15 round round brawl that could have happened “in a jeep’s rumble seat,” as The New York Daily News put it. Though Angott was the betting favorite going in, an over-the-hill Armstrong scored a unanimous decision upset in front of 13 000 stunned fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Fritzie Zivic, W10, December 4, 1942.
Bad eyes and scar tissue contributed to Armstrong’s back-to-back losses to Zivic in 1940 and cost him his welterweight championship. Following corrective surgery to remove the scarring, Armstrong was able to walk through headbutts and low blows to wear Zivic down and win a unanimous decision in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium as Max Baer, Maxie Rosenbloom, John Henry Lewis, Eddie Booker, and Lloyd Marshall looked on. “Zivic was just nasty!” Henry would later tell Bill Libby of Boxing Illustrated.
This is actually a photo of Henry Armstrong after his eye operation.
Pedro Montanez, TKO 9, January 24, 1940.
Hard-hitting Puerto Rican legend and future Hall of Famer Montanez was the fourteenth man to challenge Armstrong for the welterweight championship, and the second in that month of January alone. Many in the Madison Square Garden crowd thought he might be the man to dethrone the champ, but Armstrong overcame the feared puncher with his exhaustive work rate, dropping his challenger three times before the referee mercifully stopped the slaughter in the ninth round.
Ceferino Garcia, W 15, November 25, 1938.
As difficult as it is to ponder, at a time when Joe Louis was in his prime, there were those who considered the rugged Filipino Garcia “the most murderous hitter in the game.” The prior year, he had given the stellar Barney Ross hell in a bid for the welterweight title and had since won ten straight as a middleweight. Despite giving up over twelve pounds, Armstrong endured Garcia’s infamous “bolo” uppercuts for fifteen rounds to emerge the unanimous victor at Madison Square Garden and successfully defend his welterweight belt for the first time.
Ceferino Garcia, D 15, March 1, 1940.
Armstrong’s second fight with Garcia saw him challenge for a record fourth division championship at a time when there were only eight universally recognized weight divisions in the sport. Garcia was the lineal middleweight champion of the world. Outweighed by over eleven pounds, Armstrong went toe-to-toe with Garcia in a slugfest in front of 25,000 fans in L.A.’s Gilmore Stadium and gave as good as he got. After fifteen rounds, the referee declared the fight a draw and then immediately high-tailed it out of the arena, but many came away thinking Henry deserved the win. Suspicions of a fix have persisted ever since.