A Polish-born Jew who turned pro in the US and made waves at bantamweight during the period that his homeland was invaded and occupied, he went 2-1 in a trilogy with Manuel Ortiz, with the loss being his only world title challenge. With one additional bout reported but unconfirmed, he may have even been 3-1 against Ortiz (which actually puts him in a class by himself - Maes and Salas were both 2-1 against Ortiz, and a couple like Pep and Eddie Chavez were undefeated against him, but nobody else had three wins and he generally got the better of his multi-fight rivals). The two confirmed bouts from 1938 were early in the year and only 4 rounds each, but if the third one did in fact take place in November then Benny proved himself the better man on the night over a full ten rounds after Ortiz had attained some measure of meaningful experience with the likes of Richie Lemos and David Kui Kong Young. He was inducted into the World Boxing HOF in 1994 with the following written about him: Does anybody know if there is any existing/surviving footage of Mr. Goldberg? Especially of interest would be the loss to Ortiz in the title challenge, his immediate subsequent points loss to Billy Miller in his own adopted home of Detroit, or either of the two wins over Luis Castillo at Legion Stadium in Hollywood, CA. If anyone is hoarding some please upload it (or state what you want for it). This content is protected
Interestingly, I remember that in the past Benny Goldberg was listed on BoxRec under Polish nationality; but then his nationality changed to that of the USA; he fought in the U.S. for his entire amateur and pro careers. Is it possible to check what country Goldberg was officially listed under in 1943 when he challenged Manuel Ortiz for the bantamweight crown? Boxing is not like the Olympics, where every athlete has one flag assigned to him. Wouldn't that be much simpler?! Can we count Goldberg as a Pole when evaluating all of the great Poles such as Adamek and Michalczewski? Adam Kownacki also came to America when he was a child and spent his whole amateur and pro campaigns stateside yet BoxRec has him listed under Poland’s flag...
but what flag did they put Benny under when he challenged for a world title in '43 -- Polish or U.S.?
