HG paid scant attention to the over-hyped Mayweather-Pacquaio fight. HG had watched Mayweather battle on TV a few times. HG, a student of “the sweet science” (That’s what A.J. Leibling, the great New Yorker writer called boxing), thinks Floyd the best boxer of the modern era. No puncher, Floyd is a beautifully conditioned athlete who defeats his opponents with fast hands, ring intelligence and flawless footwork. Brilliant, but unexciting. Pacquaio is a busy little guy who is a persistent fighter without a knockout punch. Floyd won a unanimous decision (which is what HG predicted to BSK). Dull fight. Lovers of blood and thunder were disappointed. This made HG take a trip down memory lane and remember a dinner with Joe Louis, the great ex-heavyweight champ and Billy Graham, the very slick Irish welterweight from New York’s East 30’s neighborhood. The venue was the Park Avenue Club, a New York midtown night club fronted by Louis. (Moonlighting from his job as a journalist, HG was the press agent for Louis and the club). The time was the early 1950’s. Graham and Louis ate some thick steaks accompanied by French fries. HG sipped martinis and ate corned beef hash. Graham had just retired (He lost his last fight to Chico Vejar). Graham lamented the fact he never became world champion, losing some disputed fights to Kid Gavilan. Louis and Graham agreed that mob influence played a role in denying Billy the title. Graham was a good or better boxer than Mayweather. He won 58 straight fights without a loss. He had 120 fights (102 wins, 15 losses and 9 draws). He was never knocked off his feet and he battled some bruising punchers: Joey Giardello (three fights); Kid Gavilan (three fights); Carmen Basilio (three fights). Mayweather’s 49 fights seem a paltry number when compared with the records of old time battlers. Benny Leonard (“The Pride of the Ghetto”), had 219 fights losing only 22, most in the early part of his career. Charley Goldman, who became famous as the trainer of heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano, had some 400 bouts as a bantamweight. Barney Ross, the welterweight champ, had 81 fights (72 wins; 4 losses; 3 draws; 2 no contests. Was never kayoed and was knocked off his feet only once (by Jimmy McLarnin). Ross fought three epic battles with McLarnin (Winning the first and became the first boxer to hold lightweight and welterweight titles at the same time; lost the second and won back the welterweight championship in the third). Their battles had ethnic overtones. Ross was Jewish (born Dov Ber Rosofsky) and McLarnin was Irish (much beloved by New York’s Catholic Irish despite the fact that McLarnin was a Methodist). McLarnin knocked out three great Jewish welterweights –Ruby Goldstein, Sid Terris and Benny Leonard (during an ill advised comeback by Leonard). This earned him (very political incorrect times) the nicknames: “The Jew Killer” and “The Hebrew Scourge.” Ross, a World War Two hero who killed a score of Japanese in the Battle of Guadalcanal and rescued a wounded comrade, was a very, very tough guy. His childhood pal (and partner in small time crime) was Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Ross, who worked briefly for Al Capone, before becoming a boxer, used his mob connections to smuggle arms to Israel during the War for Independence. He was a character witness for Ruby during the latter’s trial. In his last fight, Ross lost his welterweight title to Henry Armstrong. Ross took a terrible beating. Despite efforts by the referee and his manager to stop the fight, Ross refused and said he’d lose the title but walk out of the ring on his own two feet. And, that’s what he did.
Ah, Friday nights from long ago.