Benny Leonard

This is a good short documentary on Benny Leonard.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSxreC59N9c&feature=related[/ame]
There is not a lot of footage of Benny Leonard avaible. This is his first fight with Lew Tendler an outstanding boxer himself, maybe the best to never win a world championship. (A debate for another time?)
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbDMaV8wIyk[/ame]
If Pernell Whitaker and Floyd Mayweather Jr had a love child he'd be Benny Leonard.
In my opinion almost 80 years after Benny Leonard last laced em'up. He's the best the sport has seen. Leonard was built like Pernell Whitaker. Leonard was an inch shorter and fought out of an orthodox stance. Maybe the cloest styleisticly in modern terms is Floyd Mayweather Jr. There is a little bit of Whitaker in him too.
Known more for his defense than his overlooked offense. Could fight in any style he chose and impose his will on anyone. He was calm and cool in the ring. Leonard had the best boxing IQ of anyone in the sport.

Outside the ring I have herd nothing but great things about him as a person. Photos of people lined on the street during his furural can bare witness to that.
He was known to brag about his abillities. Often braging that his hair would not get messed up during a fight. In the first video Burt Sugar says something like Woe to the man who missed it up. His championship defene against Leo Johnson is a testment to that. Jhonson was advised to mess Leonard's hair up during the stair down. In an atpempt to get into Leonard's head. Hopefuly after Leonard knocked him out
in the first round. He thought twice about taking advise from that person.

It is unfournate that more footage of Leonard is not avaible. If there was more he'd be no worse than top 5 on everyone's pound for pound list.

 

Benny Leonard was Ray Robinson before there was Ray Robinson. In his day he along with Joe Gans were considered the greatest lightweight that ever lived. He was a master
boxer who had the best boxing mind ever. A deadly hitter with both hands, who ruled the greatest array of lightweight contenders ever. For SEVEN years he beat these great lightweights such as Johnny Dundee, Freddie Welsh, Johnny Kilbane, Charlie White,
Joe Welling, Ever Hammer, Lew Tendler, Rocky Hammer, Soldier Bartfield, and great WWs Jack Britton and Ted Kid Lewis. He was beloved by the boxing fraternity for his modesty and demeanor. Leonard fought anyone and everyone and had 212 bouts and except for his loss in his prelims at age of 16-17 and his ko loss by Jimmy McLarnin
after a 5 year RETIREMENT, Benny Leonard reigned supreme...

 

If there was such a thing as P4PH2H then the answer is Benny Leonard. People often talk of him as a master of defense and neglect the fact he stopped many of the toughest men in his era.
He was the perfect fighter is every way according to everyone i have ever read. Its hard to argue him outside of a top 10 p4p spot.

In my opinion he is the best boxer to have ever laced up gloves.

 

I made a thread ages ago but it has soon nice articles in even if they are a little hard to read.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302375

 

Gene and Ben were stablemates under Billy Gibson who himself was just a puppet/front man of gangster Arnold Rothsteen.
Freekin remarkable little Ben did so well vs Ted Kid Louis and Jack Britton,
both welterweight champs.

 

THE EIGHTH GOD OF WAR

"To be a Jew is a destiny."

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What a great piece on Benny Leonard !
To show how highly regarded Benny Leonard was in the eyes of the boxing world during the "golden age" of boxing, I would like to relate in a forum I attended in New Hampshire in the 1950s, this event...Ruby Goldstein,who was a GREAT young boxing sensation who was supposed to be the "next " Benny Leonard, and became a referee, was the guest speaker at an afternoon boxing forum. After his speech on great fighters he saw and knew,a question was posed to him. "Ruby how do you rate Barney Ross, Tony Canzoneri, Kid Chocolate, Billy Petrolle, Jimmy McLarnin, Benny Leonard " ? Ruby who was smoking a cigar,quickly took his stogie out of his mouth ,raised his hands to end the question and replied, " please sir, do not put any of us in the same sentence with Benny Leonard ". The crowd and I was hushed up by his statement. These were great fighters, who
was leagues behind the great "Bennah". My dad who saw Benny Leonard
train at MacLevy's gym and Stillmans in NYC,would relate to me that when Leonard, while he would spar in the ring, boxers stopped their activity's
and watch the master boxer show his stuff...In his prime he was like Einstein performing against Math teachers, so skilled was he...:good

 

He had an astonishingly good record, looks great on film. There isn't much doubt regarding the hype on Leonard.

 

This is one of the reasons the "oldtime great fighters" are not appreciated by some posters on ESB. We only have 2 films of Benny Leonard in his prime, both against possibly the best lightweight southpaw of alltime, Lew Tendler. By all accounts Tendler was a great fighting left hander, tough to beat. So we see this Benny Leonard only on film against the difficult Tendler, but we NEVER see the Benny Leonard knocking out 69 opponents
such as Freddie Welsh, Johnny Kilbane, Ritchie Mitchell, Charly White ,
the bullish Rocky Kansas etc. What would we THEN think of the immortal Benny Leonard ?

 

Arguably the best LW ever.....Top 5 P4P in my opinion.....

 

He didn't beat neither Jack Britton nor Ted Kid Lewis though. The opinions after the bout with Lewis were pretty evenly divided.

 

senya what pap said Ben didn't beat Britton the first time?

 

Sorry, I forgot about the other two meetings. Sometimes going from memory alone is not a good thing to do.