Here is the second of the three meetings between Canzoneri and Berg, which I've just added to my Youtube Channel: [yt]dmK5eas2nHs[/yt] At this time, Berg was sort of the bogeyman of the lightweight division. A succession of LW champs had avoided defending against him. He wasn't a particularly skilled, flashy, or polished fighter, but he was a tough, relentless, swarming infighter. He had come to the US and racked up a string of exciting wins over the top American fighters, including Canzoneri, Kid Chocolate, Billy Petrolle, and Mushy Callahan, among others. A second win over Callahan earned him the jr. welterweight title, but that division was not universally recognized and so Berg was still focused on winning the LW title. Eventually, Canzoneri won the title and agreed to make his first defense against Berg. Canzoneri had experienced some ups and downs over the prior few years of his career. He had been considered something of a prodigy after winning the featherweight title as a teenager, but he lost it on a shocking upset to Andre Routus, who was thought to be past his prime. Since then he had fallen short in several key fights, which included losses to Berg, Petrolle, and Mandell(for the LW title) and a draw with Al Singer. However, he ended up getting a shot at Singer's LW title, and scored a shocking upset when he blasted him out in 1 round. However, despite being the more widely recognized titlist, he was still the underdog going into his rematch with Berg. In their first fight, Berg had managed to get inside of Canzoneri and swarm his way to a close but clear decision. This time, Canzoneri had a well-developed gameplan for foiling Berg's efforts to get in close and keeping him at a distance. As Berg would come charging in, Canzoneri would duck and sidestep out of the way, and then fire back with counters. IMO his style looked like a precursor of James Toney's. For two rounds, he outboxed Berg and completely frustrated him. By the 3rd round, Berg was becoming visibly anxious and over-eager, and that ended up playing right into Canzoneri's hands. As he came in wide-open looking to land a shot, Canzoneri nailed him with an excellent sneak right hand and knocked him flat onto his face, out cold. It was a shock to the whole boxing world, which had previously thought of Berg as "unknockoutable". The fight was essentially the Mosley-Margarito of its day. POST-SCRIPT: After the fight, there was a dispute over who still held the jr. welterweight title. Canzoneri claimed the title on the basis that both men had weighed below 140, while Berg argued that his title had never intended to be on the line. Many boxing writers and authorities would recognize Canzoneri as the champion, but The Ring upheld Berg's claim. This fight marked a sharp turning point in Berg's career. The two fought a rematch, and although Berg performed better, Canzoneri outclassed him again and won a wide decision. Shortly after that Berg lost to Sammy Fuller (which ended any claims he had to the jr. welterweight title), and although he had enough left to beat a similarly faded Kid Chocolate in a rematch, he returned to England and basically faded away. Canzoneri lost his own jr. welterweight claim on an surprising upset to Jackie Jadick, regained it against Jadick's successor Battling Shaw, and then lost it altogether (along with his LW title) to the Barney Ross. Ross then settled the jr. welterweight dispute when he beat fellow title claimant Fuller to become the undisputed champ.
Ross also held the jr title, Welterweight and lightweight all at once, a good 4 years before Armstrong.
in 1931 berg defended his tittle against goldie hess during the bulid up to this fight he had been plagued by an injury to his shoulder which was exacerbated by rheumatism and after this fight he was uncharacteristically howling in pain. a very short time later i think a week he was defending his tittle against herman perlick, during this time also berg had bought his parents to the states with him to meet his soon to be fiance and her parents. berg's parents were poor but his fiance's father was a millionaire and their was tention between both sets of parents which berg had to deal with at this time. in the build up to the second canzoneri fight berg went to miami to begin preparations as the heat was thought beneficial the eventual training camp was also a health farm called moore's bath house which used special earth which was put on paitents bodies straight from the ground it was supposed to be especially beneficial for those with rheumatic pain.also berg had one of the longest breaks in fights thus far in his career two and a half months it was also reported in boxing,racing and football he will go into the ring without his strength and so he will have nothing with which to fight......and berg does not know how to stall.he has only his own way of fighting and he must have all his strength and nervous energy to do that .and as he cannot have those assets at 9st 9lb he will get beaten.and badly beaten. also berg liked to play, ray arcel during bergs career used a private eye to help keep berg's night time activities in check and had hotel exits guarded berg loved the ladies and night life in new york . canzoneri himself had not had a great time either dropping a decision to to an up and coming lightweight sammy fuller so when berg and canzoneri steppted into the ring for thier rematch berg was a very slight favourite .i feel injury,s and lifestyle had caught up with berg although still relatively young his style of fighting probably required a more monk like lifestyle to have any chance suppoting a long career.berg continued fighting at a reasonable level but as said in the original post never an elite world fighter again. when he finally hung up his gloves in may 1945 he went on to work in films as a stunt-man,i guess he must of liked things that gave him an adrenalin rush:bbb
Berg was fantastic for a short while. Beating three different hall of famers in one year, how many British fighters can say that?
