Question about Henry Armstrong's greatness

He was World Champion in 3 divisions at the same time. No split belts he was the man. There were about 8 divisions total. Had the Garcia fight gone his way he would have been making the sport his personal property.
Head to Head too

 

"Could be considered" sounds like there was some gray area. Armstrong put alot of stress on his body with those weight swings.

The only thing he doesnt show strong is longevity. His fight style and he lived fast.

 

Unranked by the Ring Magazine at the time Armstrong beat them:
Spoldi
Klick
Bass
Feldman
Manfredo
Montanez

 

I join the consensus ranking him around #3. Maybe as generations come and go, older era fighters fall off.

I have no problem if a person under age 30 has zero fighters listed as ATG from era previous to the 1960s or 1970s as there isn't enough footage to prove or, not enough known about the competitors who got to fight said greats.

Case in point is Benny Leonard. I rank him top 20 out of respect, not out of who he beat cause I just don't have much footage on his foes. & looking at how many losses Hank had, I can understand a younger person bringing that into question, thus dropping him in their rankings.

 

They may not have been in the top ten at the time but Aldo Spoldi,Frankie Klick,Benny Bass, Lew Feldman,Al Manfredo,and Pedro Montanez, were not 2nd or third raters and you know this as well as anybody ! BTW These you singled out were not title fights!
How about the other14? lol
ps Spoldi fought Armstrong several times including 1937.In1938 Spoldi was no7 and in1940 no9.
Montanez fought Armstrong in1940, he was number 5 in1935, no 3 in1936, no1 in in1937,and no 2 in1938 .

Here's one I didn't mention Davey Day ,he fought Armstrong in1939.
He was no8 in1936,no2 in1937,no 3 in1938 ,and no1 in1939!

 

1. My statement about second and third-raters wasn't in reply to your list, it was about "defended the welter title 20 times".
2. Some of the well-known names on his resume had achieved nothing at the weight he beat them at.
3. Some of them were quite far from their peak years. Willie Pep who was losing to Tibbs and Leon was a second or third-rater. Ray Robinson from the 1960s was a second or third rater. Roy Jones Jr, who fought last year, was a third-rater.

 

Naturally it was a gray area, there was no official organ to decide who's the champion, of what continent, and at what weight limit. Bob Fitzsimmons was claiming he was the middleweight champion of the world in 1900s, he never had his title taken from him in the ring. And it's debatable whether he was the middleweight champ of the World or America only.

 

Boxing Register (albeit not the latest edition) doesn't list Spoldi as being top 10 ranked in any of his fights with Armstrong.

 

The underlined is not germane to the argument.
Montanez had won26 of his last 27 fight s losing the other on a cut eye to no1 contender Day
A cut eye caused the fight to be stopped, causing the crowd to "jeer thunderously". Day was "clearly beaten as far as the fight had gone, although the battle he put up was a gallant and credible one." (New York Times) The subjectivity of the fight game--The (Chicago Tribune )wrote that "Day's victory was a popular one" and that most ringsiders had the fight even going into the eighth round. The Hartford Courant also had the fight even going into the eigth round.

So no 2nd or 3rd rater.

 

Hmm... a later edition does list the 1937 bout with "top 10" icon. https://archive.org/details/TheBoxi...lBoxingHallOfFameOfficialRecordBook/page/n321
An earlier edition didn't.

 

Fair play to you ,an honest man.Ring had Spoldi at7 in36,7 in38,9 in40 End of year rankings.he fought Armstrong in March37 and had been no7 in Dec 36.

 

Top 5 at LW & WW for me!