In the book, "When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport," by Allen Bodner, there is a short section on Maxie Shapiro, a lightweight from the thirties/forties that I previously knew nothing about. At different times in his career, he was trained by Willie Grunes, Ray Arcel, and Whitey Bimstein. He beat Bob Montgomery in Philadelphia in their first fight, which was refereed by Benny Leonard, and he fought well against Henry Armstrong at the end of Armstrong's career. Ray Robinson smoked him. Bodner describes his style as "arms dropped, and slipped or ducked under his opponent's punches." Is there any video on him? I couldn't find any on you tube after a quick glance last night.
In this article on Teddy Brenner, he has a funny anecdote about Shapiro's fight with Ray Robinson: It sometimes can be an asset in business to be unpredictable, just to keep the other fellow off balance, and Brenner gives the people he deals with vertigo. "Teddy can be all dripping with honey one minute," says a longtime associate, "and be cold as a latke the next." A couple of days before the Garden's recent Emile Griffith-Kitten Hayward fight, Maxie Shapiro, a pretty fair lightweight three decades ago, stopped by the matchmaker's office for tickets. Sitting down, Shapiro reminisced about the time he was matched with a young opponent everybody described as "inexperienced." It was Sugar Ray Robinson, and he finished off Shapiro in the third round. Shapiro, now white-haired and 55, chuckled to himself. "I'll tell you why he was inexperienced," he said. "Up to that time he'd knocked everybody out in the first round." Brenner laughed heartily and paced the room, talking animatedly with the former fighter. Pausing by his desk, he suddenly began thumbing through a newspaper distractedly. Then he sat down and doodled on a note pad, rectangles and circles alike. He was utterly lost from the conversation, and Shapiro, at length, got up and left.
Yes, though I never saw him fight, people at Stillman's gym would relate that Maxie Shapiro would fight in a crouch with his ASS sticking out...He had an odd style but was a damn good lightweight...Ray Robinson ruined Shapiro in 1941....
Right. I read he also boxed with his arms hanging at his side. Allegedly, he was very clever. I think he might have been out of his natural weight class (and depth) when he faced Robinson.
:rofl I had read that too. He was too small to play baseball from what I've read and that is why he didn't pursue it further.
