Did Barney Ross hold championships in 3 weight classes at the same time?

Funny enough, I was just planning on looking into this very question myself and getting back here with the results.

There seems to be a notion today that Ross vacated his lightweight title soon after defending it vs. Canzoneri (thus meaning he didn't hold 3 titles simultaneously), but I've seen a few contemporary reports that say he didn't technically vacate the title until mid '35, as the link you showed also states.

I'll look into it more today and get back with what I find.

 

Of course Terry McGovern effectivley did it apart from the obscure rules of the period.

 

I just looked through a string of news reports in '34 and '35 that still note Ross as being the lightweight champion. In early '35, Ross was suspended by the NY commission for failing to defend his LW title against #1 contender Lou Ambers. A NY Times report on the upcoming Canzoneri-Ambers fight for the vacant title, dated May 2, 1935, states: "When Ross vacated the title last month, on the plea that he could no longer make the lightweight limit, the New York State Athletic Commission consented to recognize the winner of a bout between Canzoneri and Ambers as champion."

 

Apparently, Ross' failure to defend his LW title in the span of more than a year caused a lot of agitation with the NY commission (and understandably so I suppose). Ross was twice mandated to defend his title, but managed to get the mandates postponed so he could fight McLarnin at 147 each time. In early '35, the commission put its foot down and said he would be suspended if he fought anyone other than Ambers in a LW title defense; and furthermore, that any fighter who elected to fight Ross in that interim would be suspended as well. The commission even considered stripping Ross, but preferred not to do so; but instead told him "Either **** or get off the pot."

So in a nutshell: yes, Ross very much held the LW title at that time.

Which then raises the question of why is Armstrong widely credited today as the first and only fighter to hold three titles simultaneously. Well, as I read through the reports (mostly from NY papers), I noticed that Ross was repeatedly denoted as the LW champ, but no mention was made of his jr. welter title; which leads me to believe that perhaps the 140-pound division was not universally recognized at this time. Thus, perhaps in the mind of many people, maybe Ross was only viewed as a two-division champion? :think That's just a surmise though.

I'd be very interested in any light anyone here can shed on this.

 

As far as i knew that the 140lbs division wasnt that well regarded at the time. I remember hearing a story about i think Kid Berg where the Lord Londale or the Marquis of Queensberry declared the LWW division didnt exist and Berg wasnt champion. That was in the 30s.

 

McGovern was the first to do it, and probably in more impressive fashion than any other, KO'ing the Bantam, Feather, and Lightweight champions all in a span of 10 months. Even if Ross did do it, he did it in two original weight class and one junior weight class. Both McGovern and Armstrong did it in the original weights.

 

Yes I've read that he did, in the Guiness Book of Records of all places

 

Pea wasnt McGoverns KO of Gans regarded as a dive? so would you still include it?

I seen it and i thought it looked on the level.

 

The Gans KO was definitely a dive. I was talking about his KO of Frank Erne, who'd just taken out Gans prior in legitimate fashion (to my knowledge anyway).

 

I thought it looked a fair enough stoppage. Why are you so sure?

dont know too much about McGovern sounds like a real geat fighter

 

I wasn't saying the fight wouldn't have been stopped under those circumstances, I'm saying that the circumstance in itself was very fishy. Gans was going down pretty much at will with whatever hit him. It just didn't look on the level to me at all. Not to mention all of the speculation surrounding it.

 

fair enough , i just thought McGovern caught him with a good one and kept him hurt and Gans was abit disorientated and hurt and got hit and went down afew more times

 

That fight was at a catchweight was it not and not actually for the lightweight title?

 

It wasn't officially for the title, as Janitor spoke on briefly. I'm not sure it was a catchweight bout though. Either way McGovern KO'd all 3 champs, regardless of whether or not they were all title fights.