did henry armstrong defend his lower titles after winning the ww title?

Armstrong never defended the featherweight title and lost the lightweight title to ambers on his first defense.

 

Well, Armstrong weighed in for most of his ww title defences under the lw limit ... and comparing Pac's achievements with Armstrong's is a bit of a stretch.

 

Pacquiao, in my eyes, has a long way to go before he's even in the same stratosphere as Armstrong, who beat end-of-year RING rated contenders 75 times over the course of his career - and this is before all the ABC federations and ratings we recognise today.

Armstrong in 1937 alone went 27-0 with 26 knockouts - and this is after he'd reached the top level. From '37 until '40, he went 59-1-1, both loss and draw controversial, with 51 knockouts, including a defence of the lightweight title and eighteen defences of the welterweight title, despite usually weighing in as little more (or sometimes less) than a lightweight. It took a Hall of Fame welterweight to eventually stop the natural 130lbs Armstrong by cutting his by-that-point worn and scarred eyes with his thumbs, head and laces, blinding him.

He beat ten Hall of Famers (thus far - a couple of his other opponents may soon be inducted) a total of thirteen times.

I really don't think Pacquiao should be mentioned in the same sentence as Armstrong yet, unless it contains the phrase 'lesser version of.'

 

Correct. He didn't have to "drop back down" to lightweight because he was literally already there.

 

Armstrong had to drink pints of water to get above the minimum weight for a welterweight title fight.