Henry Armstrong, a former shoeshine boy, stood 5’5½" and never weighed more 145 lbs, yet he successfully fought in divisions from featherweight to middleweight. In his prime he was nothing short of phenomenal, winning world titles across three weight divisions (feather, light, and welterweight), at one point holding all three simultaneously, and drawing for the NYSAC version of the world middleweight title, which was also, as best I can tell, the linear championship.
Henry Armstrong emerged in 1935 with a lot of buzz. He defeated Midget Wolgast (142-17-12) that year, flooring the former NYSAC flyweight champion twice in the second round and battering him throughout. Although fading, Wolgast was a durable fighter and an excellent boxer, successful in matches from flyweight to featherweight. Armstrong handled him with ease. The Wolgast fight was sandwiched between two dramatic stoppages of Alton Black for the Western Featherweight title.
In 1936 Armstrong defeated tough Mexican fighter Baby Arizmendi (56-11-8). Arizmendi, long-time NYSAC featherweight champion, was a chunk of iron (stopped only three times in his 113 fight career, two times because of swollen eyes) and an accomplished boxer. Armstrong and Arizmendi would meet five times in all, with Arizmendi winning the first two bouts, and Armstrong sweeping the last three.
Armstrong posted several impressive wins in 1936. He knocked out future lightweight champ Juan Zurita (41-7-1). It was only the second time Zurita had been knocked out in 49 fights. Hank outpointed NYSAC featherweight champion Mike Belloise (49-4-5). Both were under the weight, so Armstrong won the title in the ring; however, the NYSAC argued that it only recognized 15 rounders as championship fights and continued to list Belloise as champion. A year later Armstrong knocked out Belloise in the fourth round. Henry knocked out former world featherweight champion Benny Bass (170-36-5). In 228 bouts, it would be the only knockout loss Bass ever suffered. By the end of the year, Armstrong was recognized as not only the best featherweight in the world, but a claimant the featherweight championship of the world.
In 1937, Armstrong knocked out talented Rudolfo “Baby” Casanova (40-8), avenging an earlier disqualification loss. He stopped rugged Frankie Klick (83-21-12). The only fighter to have stopped Klick besides Armstrong was all-time great Tony Canzoneri. Klick held a stoppage win over Kid Chocolate and a draw with Barney Ross. But more importantly, 1937 was the year that Armstrong was finally recognized as the best featherweight in the world, when he knocked out world featherweight championship Petey Sarron (90-22-12). It was the only time Sarron was knocked out in 150 bouts.
Henry never defended his featherweight championship, but he did knock out several top contenders in nontitle fights, among them Billy Beauhuld (31-0-4), Enrico Venturi (64-11-13) (who had never been counted out before), future world featherweight champion Chalky Wright (77-18-15), Al Citrino (61-8-15), and Lew Feldman (92-38-15), who had faced Kid Chocolate for the NYSAC featherweight title. Feldman was counted out three times in 186 fights; two of those time were against Armstrong (the other one was to Kid Chocolate, an all-tiume great featherweight).
Astonishingly, Armstrong moved all the way up to welterweight in 1938 and defeated Barney Ross (74-3-3) to win the world welterweight championship. Ross, world lightweight champion and the two-time welterweigt champion, truly was an outstanding fighter, holding victories over Battling Battalino, Billy Petrolle, Joe Ghnouly, Klick, Al Manfredo, Tony Canzoneri, Jimmy McLarnin, and Ceferino Garcia. Armstrong overwhelmed Ross, prevailing by scores of 12-2-1, 11-2-2, and 10-4-1. Only Ross’ toughness allowed him to hang with the world featherweight champion through the grueling 15 rounder.
Not three months later, Armstrong took on world lightweight championship from Lou Ambers (78-5-7), an outstanding lightweight who held victories over Canzoneri, Klick, Arizmendi, Davey Day, Pedro Montanez, Paul Junior, and Al “Bummy” Davis. The decision was split and looked close on paper (8-6-1, 7-6-2, 7-8), but Armstrong had four rounds taken away from him for low hitting. Whatever the defects in the scoring, Armstrong was now world champion in three of boxing's eight traditional weight categories.
Armstrong went on to defend his linear welterweight title an astonishing 21 times. He defeated future middleweight title claimant Ceferino Garcia (85-21-10) over 15 rounds (Garcia outweighed Henry by 12 lbs). He stopped rugged Manfredo twice. Armstrong was the only fighter to stop Manfredo in 96 bouts. He stopped Day (57-5-4), an outstanding fighter who held a win of Sammy Angott and had nearly defeated Angott for the NBA lightweight title. He outpointed Ernie Roderick (78-12-3) over 15 rounds. He stopped Montanez (92-5-4). Montanez had nearly won the world lightweight title from Ambers a few years before, losing a majority decision. Montanez was stopped only twice in 105 fights, a cut eye to Day, and a brutal beatdown curtesy of Armstrong.
Armstrong defended his lightweight title only once, a first round knocked out over Lew Feldman (100-45-16), before losing to Ambers (87-6-7) in 1939 in an outright robbery. The scores were 7-8, 3-11, and 7-8 in favor of Ambers. However, the referee took five rounds away from Armstrong for low blows. For at least four of these rounds, reports had Armstrong winning easily. Undaunted, Armstrong continued defending his welterweight title, knocking out huge puncher Lew Jenkins in six rounds (Jenkins was coming off a third-round destruction of Ambers), twice stopping Junior (151-19-13), and stopping Ralph Zannelli (43-7-3).
As if being world champion across three weight division simultaneously was not awe-inspiring enough, Armstrong shocked the boxing world when, in March of 1940, outweighed by more than 11 lbs, he battled Ceferino Garcia (96-22-10) to a 10-round draw. The draw was a travesty of scoring, according to observers. Garcia, the NYSAC titlist, a status he earned by beating Freddie Apostoli, had a strong claim to the middleweight championship. Armstrong overwhelmed him, opening a gash over his eye in the third round. Garcia bled freely throughout the contest, his face a mask of blood. Garcia managed to rock Armstrong twice in the fight, but Armstrong quickly regrouped and regained his momentum. Armstrong had Garcia reeling in round eight. The
Modesto Bee and News-Herald (Saturday, March 02, 1940, p. 8) called Garcia "the luckiest middleweight champion of the world."
Referee George Blake didn’t announce the decision in the ring. At the end of the fight he simply left the ring. He then sent a message to both fighters in the dressing room that he scored it a draw. What happened to Blake in between the ring and his dressing room is anybody’s guess. But there were widespread rumors even before the fight that no matter what happened in the ring a draw was inevitable. Blake, who had a good reputation, was brought in to dispel those rumors. But his actions on the night of the fight confirmed for many that there had been a conspiracy against Armstrong. The powers that be had decided that Armstrong was not going to be the first fighter to win world titles in four weight divisions.
Armstrong lost his welterweight title to Zivic (100-25-5) in 1940. Zivic, who turned his career around after a nearly lethal bout of pneumonia, gave Armstrong a thrashing, opening up every cut Armstrong had ever suffered and then finding new ones. Hank failed to regain the title from Zivic in their 1941 rematch, although he gave it everything he had and rallied in the later rounds before the referee waved off the fight. The collective judgment of observers was that Armstrong needed a long rest. His burn-the-candle-at-both-ends style had left him mentally and physically exhausted.
Nevertheless, Armstrong had a substantial post-title career, posting an impressive record of 40-7-2 (25). He knocked out Zurita (101-18-2), avenged his loss to Zivic (125-32-7) with a decisive 10-round victory in non-title match, knocked out Tippy Larkin (88-8), defeated former lightweight champion Sammy Angott (71-16-5), knocked out Aldo Spoldi (94-22-7), stopped Leo Rodak (72-21-9) and Maxie Shapiro (63-11-5), outpointed Willie Joyce (47-6-7), and knocked out Al “Bummy” Davis (59-8-4). When he lost it was usually to outstanding fighters such as John Thomas (35-4), Beau Jack (49-6-2), Sugar Ray Robinson (44-1), and Willie Joyce. Armstrong finished with a record of 151-21-10 (101). Armstrong was only stopped twice — by knockout in his very first fight (which went unrecorded for years) and when the referee stopped the fight against Zivic.
On the question of early losses and draws, Armstrong entered his February 1936 match with Ritchie Fontaine with a record of 40-9-7. One of those losses was via disqualification (to Rudolfo Baby Casanova), a loss that Armstrong avenged. Two of those losses were points losses to the vastly more experienced Baby Arizmendi. As noted, for their first fight, Arizmendi was recognized by New York as the world featherweight titlist. In fact, their January 1, 1935 match was to see who would face Freddie Miller, the NBA champion. It was a hard fought contest, with Armstrong starting slow but roaring to the finish. Nonetheless, Arizmendi was deemed to have nicked it. With more experience, Armstrong would avenge his losses to Arizmendi several times over. One of his three draws against Kid Moro was actually a win for Armstrong, but the decision was changed to a draw by the state commission to calm a riot. In fact, newspapers report that the deputy sheriff actually saved the referee’s life from the mob by announcing the draw. His two early draws with Perfecto Lopez were avenged in four subsequent victories. He had earlier defeated Lopez, and would in their final meeting draw with Perfecto again (they met a total of eight times). Armstrong avenged an early loss to Baby Manuel and he avenged his loss to Davey Abad, nearly shutting out the New York fighter (Abad held decisions over Canzoneri and Bass). Armstrong lost three of his first four fights. He never avenged these three losses. He also never avenged his draw with Hoyt Jones (over 4 rounds). Armstrong lost to Joe Conde, an opponent he had previously knocked out. All of these losses were by decision except for one, his pro debut, which he lost on a third round knockout. So of these early fights, all told, Armstrong avenged all losses except for three, and all draws except for one.
He lost his fight with Ritchie Fontaine on decision, but avenged it in his very next fight (later on they could face each other again and Armstrong would knock out Ritchie). After avenging his loss to Fontaine, Armstrong would win his next 55 fights against one loss — a disqualification against Tony Chavez — which he would twice avenge, both by brutal stoppage victories. (Armstrong had been dealing out a wicked beating to Chavez when a punch strayed south of the border. Chavez couldn’t continue and so, after some discussion, the the state boxing commissioner awarded the fight to Chavez. Thus Chavez won on a foul.) When Armstrong entered the rematch with Lou Ambers, Armstrong carried into the ring a record of 96-11-7. Given that Armstrong was not properly handled early in his career (he was thrown early and often to the lions), and the names he has on his resume (Bass, Zurita, Sarron, Arizmendi, Casanova, Wolgast, Ross, Belloise, Venturi, Wright, Citrino, Feldman, Beauhuld, Ambers, Garcia, Manfedo, Day, Roderich, aned Montanez) this is a phenomenal record. All this is before he lost his lightweight title to Lou Ambers on a controversial decision.
Because Armstrong was often on the bad side of decisions, one should consider the following. Between March 1936 and October 1940, Armstrong won 68 of 71 fights with two losses and one draw. One of those defeats was via disqualification. The other was due to penalties against Ambers, in a fight he clearly won on points. The draw with Garcia at middleweight was a robbery. Arguably, Armstrong went undefeated in 71 fights during this period.
Armstrong is the best featherweight in the history of the sport. He would have simply overpowered any other featherweight. At lightweight, he is second only to Roberto Duran (although Julio Cesar Chavez threatens). At welterweight, he arguably ranks only behind Robinson (Jose Napoles, Kid Gavilan, and Emile Griffith threaten). In the over all pound-for-pound rankings Armstrong ranks only behind Robinson with Ali a close third. No pound-for-pound list that does not have Homicide Hank in the top three is not a list worth considering. He was that great.
Note: I recognize all matches under 147 lbs with Armstrong recognized the welterweight champion as linear title defenses. There is a controversy, however. When Armstrong lost his linear welterweight title to Ambers, both were under the welterweight limit. According to tradition, Armstrong lost both titles that night. However, there was a contract clause that stipulated that the welterweight title was not at stake. Ambers management publicly discussed the fact that they had defeated the welterweight champion under the weight (there is a fascinating article on this in the New Your Times). Whatever the various arguments, the welterweight title was disputed after that point. Ambers lost his lightweight title to Jenkins in 1940, thus making Jenkins a claimant to the linear welterweight champion. Jenkins was then knocked out by Armstrong in his very next fight. If we recalculate Armstrong’s title fight record according to linear rules, Armstrong has 12 fewer title defenses and becomes two-time world welterweight champion.)
