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Boxing: Light-Welterweights
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★ Boxing: Light-Welterweights

In a glittering career Ross fought 79 times in a nine-year journey immediately preceding the 2nd World War.  Not the heaviest of punchers the Chicago-man relied upon technique, guile, and indefatigable stamina.  His single-minded resolve and determination to show that his besieged people could fight back made him impervious to punishment.  It was fitting that the man who carried the hopes and dreams of every desperate, ghetto-trapped Jewish kid was never stopped in his professional career.  Any surrender, Ross, would have considered as a betrayal of his people.  In an era when many fighters wore the Star of David on their shorts, Ross carried it on his chin and propelled it from both fists.  In a decade remembered for warped Nazi ideology and religious persecution Ross became the dynamic, living embodiment of the Jewish people’s ability to demonstrate resilience and ultimately fight-back.

 

In March 1933, a little over a month after Hitler assumed the Chancellorship of Germany, Ross fought Tony Canzoneri for the world lightweight and light welterweight title at Chicago stadium.  Coming into the fight with a record of 43 wins from 47 contests, Ross edged the bout by a majority decision.  The fight reports of the time praised the Chicago-man’s high work-rate, piston-like left jab and solid defence. These characteristics proving sufficient to navigate the rugged and hard-hitting Canzoneri.

 

The rematch just three months later ended with the same points verdict result in favour of Ross.  After some further successful defensives of the then relatively lightly regarded light welterweight belt, Ross set his sights on stepping up and challenging future Hall of Famer Jimmy McLarnin for the welterweight strap.  In the space of a single year the pair met three times with the world title changing hands on each occasion. 

 

On, 28th May 1934 at Madison Square Garden Ross snatched the belt via split decision amidst wildly divergent judges scoring.  However, he had to hand it back just four months later when McLarnin triumphed by the same mechanism.  In a brutal encounter where both men fought to a standstill, many ringsiders felt that Ross deserved at least a draw and they made their displeasure plain through a chorus of boos,

 

The pair met for a final time at New York’s Polo Grounds a year to the day after their inaugural meeting at Madison Square Garden.  This time Ross was able to break the prevailing narrative and retake the championship belt via a commanding and unanimous decision, in a fight where the legendary Jack Dempsey occupied one of the judge’s chairs. 

 

In his outstanding career Barney Ross contested 17 title fights across three weight divisions and was victorious in all but two.  Apart from McLarnin his only other reverse came in his final professional outing against the incomparable Henry Armstrong.  Three division champion Homicide Hank went on to defend the title 18 times and stake his claim to being the greatest of all-time.  In gaining the welterweight crown he dished out a 15-round hammering to Ross who refused to quit or go down despite protestations from his own corner.  Such marks of courage were integral to the character of Ross.

 

This courage in the ring diminished into insignificance when compared to his later war record.  Safely retired in his early 30s Ross committed to enlisting in the US Marine Corps.  They were keen to accept him and utilise him in a ceremonial role to aid recruitment and boost morale.  However, the ex-champion insisted in serving on the frontline.  Sent to the South Pacific Ross won the Silver Star – America’s 3rd highest military honour  for single-handedly defending 3 wounded comrades from over 20 enemy soldiers.  His presidential citation recorded that he fought through the entire night and by morning had neutralised all the enemy combatants before carrying his last surviving comrade to safety.   The Boxing Writers of New York named him as their fighter of 1942 despite him having retired from the ring in 1938.

 

Ross, subsequently developed a reliance on the morphine administered to him for his battle wounds and when returning home this morphed into a full-blown addiction to heroin.  He underwent rehabilitation to kick the habit and then predictably devoted his time to lecturing high school students on the dangers of drugs.  His amazing life ended in January 1967 when he succumbed to throat cancer aged 57.

 

In his time, Ross transcended boxing and sport to be a genuine national icon.  One that has steadily and sadly diminished from view as boxing’s hold on the public consciousness has rescinded.  He deserves to be remembered as one of the truly great Americans of the 20th century.  An individual that never turned his back on anyone from: family, ring opponents or stricken comrades.  A man defined by principal who wouldn’t even turn his face away from his old pal Jack Ruby as the eyes of the world pulled him sharply into focus. 

 

Most of all he kept that promise to his 14-year-old self and reunited the Rasofky clan.  Perhaps, it is for that above all else that he was most proud.  Real Sport online article 7th February 2018 Gerry White

 

 

[8.7] PERNELL WHITAKER 46-40(17)-4-1-1 [Light-Middleweight & Welterweight & Light-Welterweight & Lightweight]:  Encyclopaedia Britannica online - Boxing News online -

 

American professional boxer, world lightweight (135 pounds), junior welterweight (140 pounds), welterweight (147 pounds), and junior middleweight (154 pounds) champion in the 1980s and ’90s.

 

Whitaker was a left-handed boxer who excelled at the defensive aspect of the sport.  He had a stellar amateur boxing career as a lightweight: he won the US Golden Gloves and a silver medal in the World Boxing Championships … and the gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1984.

 

Whitaker won his first professional fight on November 15th 1984, as well as his next 10 fights before getting a title shot.  On March 28th 1987 Whitaker won a 12-round decision (a fight whose outcome is determined by judges’ scoring) over American Robert Mayweather to take the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) lightweight title.  Although he lost a 12-round decision to Jose Luis Ramirez of Mexico for the World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight title on March 12, 1988, Whitaker came back to win the International Boxing Federation International (IBF) lightweight title … He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.  Encyclopaedia Britannica online article  

 

 

On This Day: Pernell Whittaker Was Born: Injustice was a theme of Pernell Whitaker’s career.  No-one should have beaten him until he met a rising star Oscar De la Hoya in 1997 at Welterweight.  On paper though his first defeat was recorded in 1988, at Lightweight, against Jose Luis Ramirez in Paris.  Whitaker may have baffled the Mexican in the ring but he in turn was left flummoxed at the judges’ decision after the contest.

 

Unfairly denied a world title at the first attempt he picked up the IBF’s portion of the Lightweight crown from Greg Haugen.  Justice was served when he brought Ramirez to his home turf in Virginia a year later and added the WBC belt to his waist, widely outpointing Ramirez and rewriting that blip on his record.

 

It wouldn’t be the only time Whitaker had trouble getting the right decision against a Mexican in a WBC title fight.  He fought the great Julio Cesar Chavez in Texas but left disappointed with only a draw, a result widely disputed at the time. 

 

The raw stats of his career are impressive.  A recognised world titlist at four weights, he beat Roger Mayweather in his first 12-rounder, with the two trading knockdowns.  He scalped Azumah Nelson at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  To unify the WBC, IBF and WBA lightweight titles, he knocked out Juan Nazario in a round.  Boxing News online article 2 January 2018

 

 

[8.6] JACK KID BERG 192-157(61)-26-9 [Welterweight & Lightweight]  Boxing.com online - The Sun online -

 

The beginning of the 20th century saw a much larger percentage of Jewish boxers plying their trade in the squared circle than currently operate.  A contributing reason for this was that in the early to mid-20th century, boxing was the number one attraction in all of sport.  These athletes earned the mega-money of the day.  Whereas in today’s society, basketball, football and baseball reward its participants with huge salaries, boxing has by and large regressed for the average fighter.  

 

Of course the modern-day superstars of boxing still command mammoth purses but these are the exceptions rather than the rule.  Human nature dictates man will chase higher reward for less risk.  In this day and age, most young Jews can earn money by using their brains rather than their brawn, but a century ago, times were much harsher and using their fists was one way out of impoverishment.  The fact that so many Jewish boxers were carving out reputations early last century encouraged the young and impressionable from their faith to also try their hand.  Some of the greatest to lace up the gloves have worn the Star of David on their shorts.  Names like Benny Leonard, Barney Ross, Ted Kid Lewis, Abe Attell and Maxie Rosenbloom are just a fraction of the all-time greats who happened to be Jewish.  It was one of the aforementioned, Ted Kid Lewis, who inspired the larger-than-life character, born Judah Bergman, whose amazing life story is truly inspiring.

 

Jacob and Millicent Bergman escaped the oppression that befell them in Odessa, Russia, simply for the fact they were Orthodox Jews.  They headed for the safe environs of London’s East End for a life free of religious tyranny.  Judah Bergman was born in Whitechapel on the June 28, 1909, the second son and the fourth of seven siblings.  Life for a family of nine was no picnic in a two-bedroom flat with neither heat or hot water in the repressed eastern suburbs of London.  Jacob was a tailor by trade and his salary of two pounds a week made life a continual struggle.  Sadly, the Bergman’s situation was commonplace throughout the district.  The destitution they suffered fostered a resolve amongst his family and in a wider context, the community around them.

 

Though Britain was certainly more broadminded to religions other than the mainstream Anglican faith, there was still a seam of apartheid inherent in its society.  Being Jewish could lead to ostracism from boys his own age so Judah took shelter with fellow Jews to prevent the Gentiles from bullying him.   He teamed up with the Whitechapel Boys Gang who were always up to a spot of mischief.  He wasn’t averse to a spot of pickpocketing and had a little racket going where he’d string a line of cotton across the street and remove a gentleman’s hat.  Judah would then go fetch the hat and return it to the unsuspecting mark, who would tip him a shilling for his kindly act!  Another sideline the young larrikin enjoyed was setting up a human boxing ring and going hell for leather with a fellow member of his gang.  Men passing by would throw nobbins on to the cobbles for the boys to pick up in appreciation of their efforts.  Judah had begun to develop an inimitable style and it wasn’t long before he joined a local boxing club, the Oxford and St Georges on Betts Street.

 

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