A deeper dive on Henry Armstrong's greatness.

Henry Armstrong is one of those fighters who really had to work their way through the title, he didn't have a lenghty amateur career, much less an Olympic medal, in fact his amateur career was almost nonexistent.

It was evident. He lost 4 of his first 5 fights, and would lose and draw fights with several fighters like Kid Moro, Baby Manuel and Perfecto Lopez. Although, in 1934, after managing to avenge those draws and defeats against all of them, he also managed to defeat the longtime multi-division contender Davey Abad, who had even managed to defeat a green Tony Canzoneri. Armstrong was now in the map, and the #1 rated Featherweight and future Featherweight Champion, as well as Hall of Famer, Baby Arizmendi, took notice. Unfortunately for Armstrong, Arizmendi would win every round in their match, despite suffering a broken left wrist, showing just how far Armstrong still was from becoming a truly great fighter. He would experience some pretty hard losses after that.

They would rematch almost immediately, but the result would be just about the same. He would also lose to the former top Bantamweight contender, Rodolfo Casanova by DQ, who would be #6 rated at Featherweight by the end of the year, as well as his rematch against Davey Abad. He then defeated future Featherweight contender Frankie Covelli, Davey Abad in their 3rd fight, and fringe contender Varias Milling. Then he would beat the brilliant former Flyweight Champion, Midget Wolgast, who was #4 rated at Featherweight, and unfortunately in a weight division he certainly didn't belong to.

After dropping two decisions against the unremarkable Joe Conde and Richie Fontaine, nothing would be able to stop him. He would defeat fringe contender Bobby Leynas. And a few months later, he would finally be able to overcome his former two time conqueror, Baby Arizmendi, who would lose every single round and would be beaten like a dog. It's around this time that Armstrong would really become ''Homicide Hank'', ''Hurricane Hank'' or ''Hammerin' Hank'', whatever nickname you would like to refer to him as.

Only a mere two weeks later, the excellent Juan Zurita, who would become the Lightweight Champion in the future, would only last 4 rounds against Henry. The NYSAC Featherweight Champion and #2 rated Featherweight in the world, Mike Belloise, would be legally assaulted to a decision. The #6 rated Featherweight, Tony Chavez, would be incredibly fortunate to win against him due to a DQ.

This is where Armstrong would have arguably the single greatest run in all of Boxing. Both Tony Chavez and Rodolfo Casanova had wins over Henry by DQ. Both of them would be knocked out within the first 3 weeks of Januray 1937. Fringe contender Moon Mullins would be stopped in 2, former victim Varias Milling would fall in 4. Then Armstrong would rematch Mike Belloise, and 4 rounds were as far as he would go too. The #7 rated Lightweight Aldo Spoldi and the #10 featherweight Pete Degrasse would be destroyed as well. Former Junior Welterweight Champion and top Lightweight contender Frankie Klick's limit would also be 4 rounds.

Former Lightweight contender Lew Massey would also fall in 4. To absolutely no one's surprise, former Junior Lightweight Champion Benny Pass, would be knocked out in the 4th, making him hear the first count he would ever hear. I'm starting to think Armstrong is the real reason why the number 4 is feared in eastern asian cultures. Armstrong would then finally become the Featherweight king by showering Petey Sarron with a blizzard of red leather, making him also suffer his first and only stoppage in his career during the 6th.

The #4 rated Lightweight Billy Beauchild would go down in 5, the #5 rated Featherweight Tony Chavez would be stopped in the first, Enrico Venturi, who was one of the top Lightweight contenders when Armstrong was destroying men just a year ago, would only last 6. Future Featherweight Champion and Hall of Famer, Chalky Wright, would be destroyed in a mere 3 rounds. Fringe Lightweight contenders Everett Rightmire and Lew Feldman would only last 8 rounds combined, and Baby Arizmendi would lose a very wide decision in-between Henry's fights with the former two. Then, Welterweight King and P4P great Barney Ross, who managed to defeat men such as Tony Canzoneri and Jimmy McLarnin, would be utterly thrashed and crushed in 15 rounds, thus Armstrong became the Welterweight Champion of the world. Armstrong was below the Lightweight limit for the fight, so there was no reason not to also get the Lightweight title from the fantastic Lou Ambers. And so he did, in a fight that showed his indominable will and heart. In a time span less than a full year, Armstrong became the Featherweight, Lightweight and Welterweight Champion of the world. But it was the Welterweight title he would go on to defend 19 times.

The #1 rated Welterweight Caferino Garcia would provide a good test, but Armstrong would successfuly defeat him. #4 rated Lightweight Baby Arizmendi would only win 1 round in their 5th and final meeting, and would end the fight with cuts over both his eyes. Long gone were the times when Armstrong could barely win a round against him. Contenders Bobby Pacho and former victim Lew Feldman would only last 5 rounds combined, and the #3 Lightweight David Day would get stopped in the 12th. The #4 rated Ernie Roderick who outweidged him by 11 lbs would give a good account of himself, but would fall short. Armstrong would then be unfortunate to lose his Lightweight title against the man he took it from, Lou Ambers, in a fight in which he was penalized 5 points for low blows. According to some, this was a major injustice.

Armstrong would carry on however. The declining former Lightweight contender, Joe Ghounly, would fall in 5, Pedro Montanez who was the #2 rated Lightweight only a year prior would only go 9, and Henry was very unfortunate to only get a draw against the NYSAC Middleweight Champion Caferino Garcia for the Championship. Contender Paul Junior's total efforts in 2 fights would make him last only 10 rounds, Ralph Zanneli would only go 5, and future Lightweight Champion Lew Jenkins would be stopped in the 6th.

Then, the invincible Armstrong would start looking mortal again, when he lost his title against the #1 rated Welterweight contender, arguably the single dirtiest fighter who ever lived, the great Fritzie Zivic. He would face his second and last stoppage loss in his career in the rematch, the only one other one being from his first ever fight. Armstrong would then defeat the #10 rated Welterweight Sheik Rangel, former victim Aldo Spoldi, former Featherweight strap holder Leo Rodack, the #5 rated Welterweigth Earl Turner, the #5 rated Lightweight and former victim Juan Zurita, who would become Lightweight Champion in 2 years, the #3 rated Welterweight Fritzie Zivic in their third fight, as well as former victim and former Lightweight Champion Lew Jenkins. He would also defeat a future top 5 Welterweight contender in Jimmy McDaniels. However, he was clearly past his mercurial peak by now.

Then he would fall a bit short of winning against the excellent #5 rated Lightweight Willie Joyce. But a flash of his former self appeared again for a small time period when he destroyed the top Lightweight and Welterweight contender, as well as future Junior Welterweight Champion, Tippy Larkin, in only 2 rounds. He would then of course clearly lose against the great Lightweight Champion and first ballot Hall of Famer, Beau Jack. But he did manage to defeat 2 Ray Robinson victims after this, the Lightweight contender Maxie Shapiro by 7th round stoppage, and the great Lightweight Champion, Sammy Angott. As well as the #5 rated Willie Joyce in their rematch, for good measure. But despite all that sucess, he still couldn't come anywhere close to winning against the consensus greatest of all time, the #1 rated Welterweight, Sugar Ray Robinson.

He would then beat some former victims, which were as past their prime as he was, like Aldo Spoldi and Ralph Zannelli twice, and surprisingly he even managed to beat the #5 rated Lightweight, John Thomas, prior to losing to him and to Willie Joyce again in their respective rematches. But he also managed to knockout the Welterweight contender Al Bummy Davis in 2 rounds between those rematches. He would then have a draw with Luther ''Slugger'' White, who was a top 5 Lightweight contender only 2 years prior. And he even managed to even the series with Willie Joyce and make it 2-2 in their 4th and final fight. And he would even manage to have a last 4th round KO win over former Featherweight rival, the still active Mike Belloise.

What a monstrous and legendary fighter.