Baby Arizmendi - school me about him

i've only heard of him being a henry armstrong opponent

 

Well there's some dispute over what age he turned pro for starters. I've never seen conclusive proof over the claims he turned pro at 10, but that might very well be possible. He's officially listed as having turned pro at 13 years and 208 days old.

Style wise, I found it difficult to gauge him from the only footage knowingly ready available (which is his 5th fight with Armstrong, on YT in full courteousy of our very own TheGreatA). He looks to be essentially a brawler, happy to fight inside with a two fisted attack and a lot of body work.

But then again, he's in against one of the greatest swarmers of all-time so might have been dragged into a brawl, although he didn't seem to utilize the ring much, although he backed off more often than Armstrong but I guess that's just down to Armstrong having largely got the better of him inside and being the stronger of the two.

By all accounts, it does seem like his style was that of a your typical inside-fighting brawler. Intangible wise, he looks to have decent physical strength, a good chin, a good base of body work, he lets his punches go with both hands inside with aggression and tenacity. His signature punch to me looked to be a lead left-hook, he also lunged in with a left uppercut a lot aswell when Armstrong was leaning in, but whatever he through, there always seemed to be the other hand coming in behind it.

But yeah like I said, the Armstrong V fight is up on YT. If you want a simple summary of it - from what I saw - Arizmendi really struggled with the physical strength of Armstrong and therefore allowed himself to get pushed back alot, while allowing Armstrong to throw in typical volume and get his punches off first and just outwork him.

That's about all I have. As you can probably tell, not exactly the most clued up on him myself.

I'll try and find some more on him. I'm pretty sure his 4th fight with Armstrong was filmed aswell so I'll try and find that if I can.

Here's a few links to newspaper articles about a few fights with Armstrong, Angott and Ambers.

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Anyone know if there's any more footage of him about?

 

Hello! Alberto Baby Arizmendi is one of the most forgotten and underrated Latin American boxers in boxing history, it's as if "historians" were not interested in him.


In my opinion, he along with Kid Gavilan are the best Latin American boxers of boxing's golden era and both deserve a higher place in the lists of historical Latin American boxers.

If both had been in an era of 15 divisions and 3 or 4 belts, it was very certain that they would have been champions.


And I will tell you the reasons, many are surprised when Duran and Pacquiao could fight in many divisions but they were not the only ones; guys like Arizmendi,Jimmy Slattery,Jimmy McLarnin and many others.. fought in more than 6 divisions but they don't tell you that.


Answering your question:


Alberto baby Arizmendi, half 5′ 4½″ started from Light Flyweight, flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and junior welterweight i.e. he fought in 9 divisions in boxing today.
Oh man! A guy of 5′ 4½″
fighting up to welterweight is impressive for the time.

He is the youngest Latin American boxer to debut, in 1924, as a 10 year old boy, he was already fighting for money, although his first recorded fight was on October 11, 1927, at the age of 13 years, six. months and 20 days, making him one of the youngest international boxers to debut, along with Nipper Pat Daly.


He faced true monsters like Henry Armstrong, Tony Canzoneri, Lou Ambers, Sammy Angott, Fidel LaBarba, Tommy Paul, Speedy Dado, Newsboy Brown, Freedie Miller, Chalky Wright, Mike Belloise, Davey Day, Eddie Shea, Young Tommy, Battling Shaw, Rodolfo Casanova, Pablo Dano, Tiger Kid Walker, the underrated, California Jackie Wilson and Earl Tunner, the latter two being ahead of him in height and physically, but already in the twilight of his career he faced them.

California Jackie Wilson was almost 10 years younger than him. Arizmendi threw him and was winning by points but because of the bleeding eyebrow they stopped the fight.

Arizmendi had one of the toughest chins.


He beat 5 hall of famers and it would have been 6 if they hadn't helped Sammy Angott in the two fights they had.

In his first fight with Angott, Arizmendi threw him and was never counted out, and during the fight Arizmendi looked superior.

In the second fight Arizmendi knocked him down in the 4th round and unbalanced him on several occasions, everyone assured the victory even the American journalists, but the judges gave the draw.


No other Latin American with the exception of Carlos Ortiz has defeated 5 members of the hall of fame.


With Henry he fought 5 times won 2 and could never be knocked out by Armstrong and we all know here who was the great Armstrong, the first fight with Armstrong he won with an injured hand, that was one of his best performances.


Freddie Miller didn't want to give him a third fight.

He broke Henry Armstrong's streak of 27 consecutive KOs.


Arizmendi never received a KO, he only lost 3 fights by technical KO these by a bleeding eyebrow, but already in the twilight of his career.

He was a much younger champion than Salvador Sanchez with a more complicated competition.


Henry Armstrong said of him: "Only someone as crazy as me would have dared to face an opponent like Baby five times. I had 150 fights, and few were as tough as those. He's a tireless, incredible fighter, and he was two. centimeters smaller than me."


Now, if we compare this data in the 70's with all the media machinery, he would be a better known boxer and would have better recognition, the same as Jimmy Mclarnin or California Jackie Wilson and so many others who are forgotten.

Did they avoid him? I think some did.

Was he an ATG? For me yes, for you?


Greetings

 

Welcome aboard! Very nice post.

 

Well first of all, he wasn’t a baby.

I mean, he was at one time, but not when he was boxing. Everybody was a baby at the start.

But he wasn’t an infant when he was fighting. Boxing was rough and unruly in those days, but he didn’t come to the ring in a stroller pushed by his mum.

Same goes for Anthony “Baby” Jones, Baby Jake Malala and others.

I did a thread some time ago to try to get a comprehensive list of boxing’s babies. Arizmendi was mentioned (as the best baby of all the boxing babies in fact). Here’s the link if anyone is interested:

[url]https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/boxing-babies.655239/[/url]

 

Posts like these are the reason I am on these boards. Thank you, JhonOrt

 

Really good post.

 

I actually just checked out the thread. How did I forget Baby Casanova? One of the best contenders to never win the title.

 

Well add him to it, which will bump the thread. We may rediscover a nursery full of forgotten boxing babies!

 

Muchísimas gracias
Me alegro de que te haya gustado

 

Muchísimas gracias

Me alegro de que te haya gustado

 

Thank you very much

Glad you liked it