This was one of the great eras for the lightweight division along with the Benny Leonard years of the mid/late teens and early 20s and the 1940s of Ike Williams, Beau Jack and Bob Montgomery fame (among significant others). In the 1930s you had four colossuses of the ring, any of whom could be possible top 10 all time 135 pounders depending on your criteria: Tony Canzoneri Barney Ross Lou Ambers Henry Armstrong You can define 'greatest' here how you see fit but which one of them would you place at the top and why?
I like Armstrong because he has the impressive record and beat Ross, who would be his main rival for this honor.
Really tough, since all 4 have their pros and cons. Armstrong was the best H2H, but only really had a short stay there. Canzoneri has a résumé as deep as the ocean, but plenty of losses. Amber's has a thinner résumé, but it's very top heavy. After all, getting the better of Armstrong and (an aging) Canzoneri H2H is massive. Ross, at 140, is clearly the worst imo, since he didn't do much aside from the Canzoneri fights. My rankings (at 135, non-H2H) would be: #1. Tony Canzoneri #2. Lou Ambers #3. Barney Ross #4. Henry Armstrong Having Armstrong last really doesn't sit right with me, but he did come off worse against the #2 whilst Ross came off best against the #1. That's what split it for me, but I reckon both were better in other divisions. Ross at 140, and Armstrong at 'welterweight'. Although Armstrong is my #2 H2H ever at 135. Since the '20s is one of the deepest era's ever, then so is 30s and then the 40s is the 2nd best era EVER imo. Just after the 40s MW-LHW era.
Look how well Ambers did against Armstrong. Ambers was Canzoneri's sparring partner and wasnt anywhere near as good as Tony (despite Ambers being a great great fighter). When they fought when Canzoneri was still in or near his prime he clowned Ambers. Made him look ordinary. Ambers was like a poor mans Tony Canzoneri. Tony would have been a nightmare for Armstrong at 135. Canzoneri loved for guys to come at him and while Armstrong's level of activity would have kept him competitive, I think Tony's skill, counterpunching, and level of relaxation would have been too much for Armstrong. Canzoneri typically had more trouble with guys who held off and made him come to them. Armstrong wouldnt have done that. In a series Armstrong would at least win one but Id favor Canzoneri at 135 head to head.
I think Armstrong and Canzoneri were both so good that they'd have to make a series of it, and the fights would probably come out with some different outcomes.
I'd like this rationale, but I believe the reason for Amber's overwhelming success is that Armstrong couldn't keep his punches up. Across two fights Ambers was awarded 8 rounds, without them Armstrong would've been 2-0 over Lou. Not saying Canzoneri wouldn't beat Armstrong BTW - I like Tony enough to cosign it. I think his positioning and countering would give Armstrong the toughest fight of his career, but I feel that Hank's too physical in this one, he wouldn't let Tony stay set, and would keep him on the ropes. Although yeah, Tony is awesome. Armstrong and Durán are the only pressure fighters at 135 I'd pick to beat him.
This is a popular fallacy but has no bearing in reality. The fact is that Armstrong fought extremely dirty fights against Ambers because he wasnt fighting to win on points. He knew, via the rules of the NYSAC, that he couldnt be DQd for fouls. He knowingly gave up rounds in an attempt to wear Ambers down with every means necessary which meant headbutts, low blows, elbows, shoulders, forearms, etc. Had he actually been forced to fight within the rules or risk a DQ would he have had the same success? I doubt it because he had his hands full in both bouts. His victory in the first bout was booed and he came away with a severely cut lip and a badly damaged eye. In fact the first fight was decided on one round. The old line that Ambers only won because Armstrong had so many rounds taken away ignores the fact that those rounds were taken away justifiably and does a great disservice to the hellacious fight Ambers put up. I would defy anyone to watch that fight and tell me Armstrong wasnt lucky the rule in NY at the time prevented anyone from losing a fight on a DQ. When Armstrong signed to fight Ambers in the rematch he had a clause put into the contract that he couldnt lose his WW title if he lost to Ambers. This shows you that he knew Ambers was a tough competitor with a good shot at winning. If Armstrong couldnt control Ambers in the corners or out he wasnt going to control Canzoneri there either. Ambers himself said Canzoneri hit harder than Armstrong.
