New York Fight Nights by Thomas Myler

Author:Thomas Myler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Drama at the Graveyard

Henry Armstrong v Barney Ross, Long Island Bowl, 31 May 1938

IT WAS raining heavily on the evening of Thursday, 26 May 1938, causing a 24-hour postponement of the world welterweight title fight between the champion Barney Ross and his challenger Henry Armstrong, who held the featherweight title, at Madison Square Garden’s outdoor venue, Long Island Bowl. It rained again the following evening, even more heavily, causing a further postponement and providing another major headache for promoter Mike Jacobs of the 20th Century Sporting Club, who could not have been blamed had he pulled out what was left of his hair and swallowed his ill-fitting false teeth.

Many out-of-towners who could not stay on called the box office and cancelled their tickets. Jacobs was reluctant to hold the fight on the Saturday, when the weather forecast was good, because Saturday was not a traditional day for big fights in New York, so he rescheduled it for the third time.

It finally went ahead on Tuesday, 31 May and the crowd, just over 50,000, expected some real action from these two big names. Ross was not too worried about the Bowl’s reputation as an unlucky venue. Known as the ‘Graveyard of Champions’ and the ‘Jinxed Stadium’, many champions had lost their titles there, including Max Schmeling, Max Baer, Jack Sharkey and Jimmy McLarnin.

He felt he could handle the lighter challenger and leave the ring still welterweight champion of the world. ‘Henry is a good fighter with a big reputation but I’ll take him,’ he told a packed press conference. Armstrong said: ‘The heavier weight division means nothing to me. Ross is there to be taken and I’m the man to do it.’

Armstrong was certainly a formidable fighting machine. Earlier in the year, he had sent out a challenge to the world lightweight champion Lou Ambers for a title fight but Ambers’ canny manager Al Weill, who in later years would guide Rocky Marciano to the world heavyweight title, was having none of it. Weill wanted big money for a title defence but Armstrong’s manager Eddie Mead considered Weill’s demands exorbitant and that it was purely an excuse by Weill to avoid his boxer’s most dangerous challenger. Mead reasoned that the next best thing for Armstrong was to skip the lightweight division, at least for the present, and challenge Ross for the welterweight title.

Sportswriters would put several nicknames on Armstrong such as ‘Homicide Hank’, ‘Hammerin’ Henry’ and ‘Mr Perpetual Motion’ and each one stuck like glue. His all-action style endeared him to scribes and fight fans, not to mention promoters, because action was guaranteed whenever he climbed into the ring, which was often. In 1936 he had 14 fights, with 11 wins. In 1937 it was 27 fights, all wins. So far in 1938 he had ten fights, all wins. The big question now was: Could he move up two divisions and win a second world title?

Ross was a classy operator, an all-rounder, once the bell rang. Armstrong, on the other hand, was essentially untried in the heavier division.

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