Search results for ""Author John Jarrett""
Pitch Publishing Ltd Henry Armstrong: Boxing's Super Champ
Henry Armstrong: Boxing's Super Champ is the story of arguably the most incredible fighter in the history of boxing - told by one of the few surviving writers to have been around during Armstrong's unique world championship reign. When Henry had his arm raised on 17 August 1938, after winning a blood-spattered 15-round decision over Lou Ambers, he became the first boxer to simultaneously hold world titles at three different weights - and somehow he managed the feat in an era of just eight weight classes, with no 'junior' or 'super' divisions. He had entered Madison Square Garden as the reigning world feather and welterweight champion, and left with the world lightweight belt strapped around his waist. Now in his 90s, veteran boxing journalist and author John Jarrett looks back on the life and career of this ring hero of his youth: a 5ft 51/2in buzzsaw they nicknamed 'Homicide Hank'. In the 85 years that have passed since then, nobody has matched Armstrong's amazing triple-championship feat. It's likely no one ever will.
£20.78
Pitch Publishing Ltd The Great Benny Leonard: Mama'S Boy to World Champ
Benny Leonard was arguably the greatest lightweight champion of all time. With superb boxing skills and potent punching power, he fought over 200 times and suffered just five defeats. He spent his boyhood in a crime-ridden ghetto in Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was the greatest of a long line of Jewish boxers to emerge from the slums. Leonard was still only 19 when he knocked out Freddie Welsh to become world lightweight king in 1917. He defended the title eight times and retired as undefeated champion in 1925, to please the only woman he loved, his mother. But the 1929 Wall Street Crash wiped out his fortune and he was forced to make a comeback at 35. Leonard fought the best of his era: Johnny Dundee, Johnny Kilbane, Rocky Kansas, Jack Britton, Ted Kid Lewis and Lew Tendler among them. Apart from being a sublime boxer, Benny was a first-class showman who helped to put boxing on a higher plane. He died as he lived - in the ring - while refereeing a fight at age 51. This is the definitive account of his remarkable life and career.
£17.33
Pitch Publishing Ltd Max Baer: Clown Prince of Boxing
They called Max Baer the 'Clown Prince of Boxing', but trainer Ray Arcel remembered a night in 1933 when he worked Baer's corner in what was probably Max's greatest triumph, the night he smashed Max Schmeling to defeat in ten brutal rounds. That was no clown. A year later, Baer was heavyweight champion of the world. New York loved the handsome Californian. Broadway was his playground and he was never short of playmates; his manager Ancil Hoffman often settling some breach-of-promise suit brought by a leggy blonde showgirl. A natural for Hollywood. Radio and vaudeville engagements brought in $250,000. From a $4 a day foundry worker, Baer's rise was rapid. He bought so many suits he couldn't keep track of them; wore a new hat every week; bought a house like a hotel. Arcel cried like a baby when he read in the New York Times that Max had died from a heart attack in November 1959. Baer was just 50 years old. This is the fascinating story of an iconic boxing figure who achieved so much in a life too short.
£15.26
