Im a huge fan of his. Looks great on film. Tough as nails. I think he gets overlooked a bit. Opinions? How does he rate H2H among the other greats in his division?
I rank him #30 p4p and within the top 6 at Lightweight. His resume speaks volumes, he fought in such a tough era with Armstrong, Canzoneri, Zivic, etc. Luckily for him he never had to fight Ross.
He’s in the conversation for a top 10 spot at lightweight, certainly. The 1930s was a great era for the lightweight division with 4 greats of the division in Canzoneri, Ross, Armstrong and Ambers. Ambers definitely gets overlooked and is the least celebrated of that quartet, which is a shame but he was a great one, no doubt.
Great fighter and a seemingly nice man. He had a tough era as far as his division goes with a host of top, top names around at the time and he pretty much beat them all once. I think a fair assessment has him one notch below Armstrong and half a notch below Canzoneri. That puts him right up there around top 10-15 lightweight. Al Weill, not a man I'd have expected to be sympathetic, talked him out of fighting on before he had turned 26 and probably saved him from suffering defeats to lesser lights so his legacy is not tainted. I'm pleased about that and also that he seemed to enjoy a fairly long life, in good health and was never destitute. Weill was yet to perfect his managerial larceny at this point. I remember an article in The Ring ca 90/91 and that highlighted how well his life had panned out. One of the sport's good guys and happy stories.
I had him at #8 last time I reckoned up my Lightweights. So far, then, it looks as if there's a rough consensus that he's in or around that top ten, albeit near the lower end of it. But that's still some achievement as it was an amazing era for the 135 pounders. The only slight blemish of note are the two losses to Jenkins. Granted, Jenkins was a hellish puncher, but in terms of all those quality fighters at Lightweight during that era, Jenkins was really more of a glorified gatekeeper (I'm being a little harsh there, but you get my drift) amongst them and generally lost to the very best on offer such as Armstrong, Ramey, Angott etc. If you had two goes at Jenkins, you'd generally expect to win at least one of them. But I guess that's a minor detail. He did it with a bit of help from Donovan, and even with the deductions there's a claim to be made that the result was perhaps dubious...But the record books show that, during those years between 1936 and 1941 when Armstrong was simply the greatest and most incredibly consistent fighter in the world, Ambers was the only man to beat him. And it was a great performance in that rematch whether you agreed with the verdict or not. Some of his countering and manoeuvring, even when Armstrong had him near the ropes, was fantastic.
My latest lightweight top 10: 1. Benny Leonard 2. Roberto Duran 3. Joe Gans 4. Ike Williams 5. Carlos Ortiz 6. Tony Canzoneri 7. Pernell Whitaker 8. Freddie Welsh 9. Lou Ambers 10. Joe Brown
I must admit I forget about him most of the time and, when you look at his resume and how he fought, it's pretty criminal to do so!
Except for Duran and Leonard I think Lou could beat any lightweight in history and gives those 2 hell.
He was undeniably skilled, but the wrap on him was that he was chinny. He got dogged by that label a bit like Ken Norton maybe, although Ambers was miles ahead of Norton (no disrespect, rip). My question is: how does a chinny guy make it through 30 total rounds with Henry Armstrong on virtually even terms? Because I think Ambers was probably Armstrong toughest rival, right? 'Lightning Lou' probably got out at just about the perfect time. He lost his title in devastating fashion to Lew Jenkins, in sort of a lightweight equivolent of Foreman vs. Frazier. He rebounded to beat Bummy Davis with a sharp lead right and clever boxing, but lost again by knockout to Jenkins despite an improved effort. I guess he saw fighting as pointless at that stage and he retired. Unfortunately Lou apparently got ripped off badly by Al Weill. Ambers' plight was a big cause of Rocky Marciano's ever escalating distrust of Weill and his well known paranoia about money.
Chinny? Horse****! Any lightweight Jenkins hits flush, goes. Any! As well as a used up Ambers. Whete do you get chinny? Ridiculous
Ambers was a great more than the sum of his parts fighter imo. Not the quickest, slickest, most aesthetically pleasing or hardest hitter but a crafty natural fighter with a high ring IQ and a hard, gritty edge to him. Great at countering on the move, a good mover at that and a superb infighter. Very good at drawing people onto quick counters and then falling inside to mug them and get off with a good variety of quick, clean shots while taking little in return. Lightweight is so deep and prolific that it's fairly easy to not pay enough attention to a fighter like Ambers despite how great he was. And he was great, make no mistake.
At lightweight? No I don't think so, although he did beat great lightweights albeit in higher weight encounters.
