He gets a to fight for, and win, the vacant Junior Welterweight title, and also gets the nod over Garcia to claim the Middleweight title. Now a 5 weight champion, would he be the consensus No. 1 for all time?
In seriousness...maybe. I used to rate him #1 and then reverted back to SRR. Armstrong Along with Langford Greb Charles and maybe your boy Fitz, I think any of them could be considered as is. Many people felt like Armstrong won that fight if memory serves? Add that on to an already impressive resume, and it might be hard not to. Edit: sorry I misunderstood! I thought you were asking about winning the MW championship? Or do you already consider him to have won it? To add both, again it certainly makes it hard to decide against?
The 3/1/1940 Garcia fight was only for the California Title, and at only 10 rounds. Was not recognized by the NYSAC. The fight was recognized as a World Middleweight Title fight only by the California State Athletic Commission. Garcia was also recognized as World Middleweight Champion by the New York State Athletic Commission, but the NYSAC version of the title wasn't on the line because the fight was scheduled for ten rounds, instead of fifteen. Most ringsiders felt that Armstrong had clearly won. Garcia lost his NYSAC title 2 fights later 1940-05-23 in his next official MW Title defense: Ceferino Garcia vs. Ken Overlin (Redirected from Fight:188858) This content is protected 1940-05-23 : Ken Overlin 159 lbs beat Ceferino Garcia 154½ lbs by UD in round 15 of 15 Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA Referee: Arthur Donovan Judge: Steve Hamas Judge: George LeCron NYSAC World Middleweight Title Garcia "was a disappointment to his fans. Expected to blast his foe to the ground with his famed right hand punch, the defending champion instead allowed the challenger to dictate the procedure of warfare, then his foe proceeded to outpoint him at every turn." New York Times
Thanks Longhorn - I didn't realise that the official world title wasn't on the line. Had always assumed that Armstrong just missed out on being a 4 weight world champion because of a bad decision, not realising that he wouldn't have claimed the full title even if he had won.
I didn't realize the California Title fact either until about 2 years ago. A friend of mine who was a B-17 bomber pilot and POW during WW2, sparred with a very young Armstrong in the Los Angeles area in the early 1930's.
Since I lot of people think he deserved to win anyway, I meant he got given teh decision. I was meaning how easy he could've become a 5 weight champion. And if he had, would most people consider him the number 1 instead of Robinson?
