Davey Day fought Henry Armstrong and gave him his toughest fight in his prime, and he was one of the highest ranked among lightweights and welterweights of his era. Is there any footage?
@ron davis is the forum’s Davey Day advocate. Hopefully he’ll come along and drop some knowledge on you.
Good, I'll tell you how good Davey Day was, he fought Armstrong half the fight half blind and didn't have a warmup fight 3 months prior, Henry had 3 in one month. Armstrong didn't close Day's eye's ( one completely shut and other was just a squint ) with his mitts it was his elbows. The referee ignored the low blows, and allowed Armstrong to fight his kind of fight unrestricted, just as long as he wins. Hitting Day low in several rounds. He was penalized for just 2 rounds, It was Davey's fight up until the 10th as Henry lost his lead. Coming out for the 11th round, Henry hit Day 5 times below the belt, losing this rd. on a foul. Did you know the referee actually stopped the fight in the 8th round as Day sliced open a deep gash over Henry's eye lid, and called the boxing commission doctor into the ring to have a look, naturally he allowed the fight to continue. Davey should of won the fight when the ref. stop it. The ref. stopped the fight at 2:49 of the 12th round, when Day was rising from a punch to his blind side, he couldn't see. The ref. looked at Henry's bloody face and said, 'you can rest now.' Day was given the #1 welterweight Pedro Montanez in an elimination match for the winner to fight Armstrong for his weltweht title. Montanez 144 1/2 lbs. Day 137 . Davey ripped out Pedro's eyeball in the 8th rd. winning on a tko. Armstrong wasn't matched with Day, instead he fought the loser Montanez, wanting no part of Mr. Day. Google Davey Day or go to EBay and read the description of the way it was in the Golden Age of Boxing. Oh, by the way Armstrong was offered $35,000 guarantee to fight Day in a rematch and turned it down. Same thing with Lou Ambers $25,000 for a rematch. Davey nearly knock out Ambers in their 1st non titled match in 1937, Day was robbed in that one too. Ambers wouldn't want to ight Day ever. In fact in 1941 the NBA stripped Ambers of his title for not meeting Day, as he was the #1 challenger. Mike Jacobs who ran all the Boxing matches in NY and his promoter Caplin, who was also manager of Lew Jenkins, who wasn't even in the top 10 ranked fighters to fight Ambers for the Ltweight Title. Armstrong took a bad beating from that skinny Jewish kid from Chicago. Davey sent him to the Hospital, with a broken left hand to get a caste, four stitches to his left eye, badly bruised right hand and face. Day went home with a sore red eye to Chicago. Armstrong remarked, "don't let anybody tell you that Day can't hit, he's a better boxer than Ross and Ambers, and is always dangerous."