Been on a little Ross binge lately, and really enjoying watching his style. A true all-time great, champion in three divisions when it was a fairly difficult feat (to say the least), and a very impressive list of scalps along the way. Here he is against another great, Tony Canzoneri, when they were both still young and with glories ahead of them: This content is protected Ross may not have had a lot of power but his jab is tremendous, his stamina and durability are first-rate, and his feet are awesome. He controls the distance against Canzi here all the way, with Tony left swatting at air or left off balance almost constantly. His personal story is also fascinating, enlisting in the marines in World War 2, winning medals for valor and wounds suffered against the Japanese, showing at least as much courage in real battle as he did in the ring. In the process of recovering from his war wounds, he became addicted to pain killers and went through hell kicking the habit. This backstory is shown in the 1957 feature film "****** On My Back." I know this thread is a bit out of place here as this has seemingly become the Olyksandr Usyk Forum now, but thought this little diversion might be good.
As the story goes, McFarland helped develop Ross early on and often .... before Packey joined the ISAC .. from one great to another As stated above .. controlling the distance and the fight with that ATG jab, along with his toughness .. Ross would be dominant in any era Ross is a lock in any p4p top 20 ATG list @robert ungurean must be licking his chops for this thread .. I know he is a big fan
I love this fight. One of the best 30s fights on film, good quality and you get to see most of every round.
Indeed my friend! Huge Ross fan for so many reasons. Incredible skills as well as toughness and durability. A gentleman in every sense of the word as well as being a USMC combat war hero in WW2
His war story is probably more impressive than his boxing career ,, if thats even possible A true Hero
No doubt! I'm halfway through my McLarnin book then I'm going to start the Ross autobiography. I was able to find one cheap after doing some digging. 2 classy gentleman as well as true P4P all time greats who sadly get massively overlooked today.
No doubt! I'm halfway through my McLarnin book then I'm going to start the Ross autobiography. I was able to find one cheap after doing some digging. 2 classy gen Great thread about a great man who's record is amazing and yes the Usyk threads are ridiculous at this point and this is coming from a Ukrainian American
Indeed. The book I have describes him at one point throwing rocks into the nighttime jungle to keep the Japanese at bay, as he'd run out of ammunition.
Barney was a great fighter, I met him with his brother in downtown Chicago 1955, I was just a kid. This is a great thread in honor of him. He was stablemate with Davey Day and Tony Zale the other two great fighters. In fact Davey Day was the first assistant Lightweight Champion. You had to go through Davey and beat him to get a shot at Barney's title, as Davey was his escutcheon / policeman from 1934 to 1938. The great Jimmy McLarnin said, "If Davey wasn't in same stable with Ross he would of been the Champion." Barney and Davey were pals. There is a picture of Day listed on Ebay, "Davey Day vs. Henry Armstrong" and several other pic and clippings including Barney in the description ( fantastic details of 100% verified information) on the subject of the Golden Age Of Boxing the real true story. also check Google, it may show up there. Barney was a mensch, and his temper was the reason he was sent to the Pacific, I believe 32 yrs old and became a hero.
What a fantastic film! Ross was my dad's all time favorite fighter until Rocky Marciano came along. (Yes, I'm old) I can now see why. His jab is fantastic and I was really struck by how well Ross' fighting style would work now, almost 90 years later. This was really enlighening. Canzoneri was outclassed in this one but you could see he was no slouch either. Thank you very much for uploading and posting.
