Tag Archives: welterweight champion
Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson (Boxing. Born, Detroit, MI, May 3, 1920; died, Culver City, CA, Apr. 12, 1989.) Born Walker Smith, Jr., Sugar Ray Robinson became perhaps the most famous of all non-heavyweight champions with his handsome looks and his flashy style both in and out of the ring. He was the welterweight champion once and […]
Benny (Kid) Paret
Benny (Kid) Paret (Boxing. Born, Santa Clara, Las Villas, Cuba, Mar. 14, 1937; died, New York, NY, Apr. 3, 1962.) Twice world welterweight champion (1960-61 and 1961-62), Benny Paret died as the result of injuries suffered in a bout with Emile Griffith Mar. 24, 1962, at the Garden. It was Paret’s third bout with Griffith. He […]
Emile Griffith
Emile Griffith (Boxing. Born, St. Thomas, V.I., Feb. 3, 1938.) Emile Alphonse Griffith never sought a boxing career and had it started for him by his employer in a hat factory when his boss entered him in the Daily News Golden Gloves. But he turned out to be one of the most active and proficient […]
Ralph Giordano
Ralph Giordano (Boxing. Born, Naples, Italy, May 22, 1905; died, Fresno, CA, July 20, 1993.) During his 21-year career in the ring (1919-40), Ralph Capabianca Giordano won 123 of 151 bouts and reigned as world welterweight champion for 96 days in 1933. Basically a West Coast fighter, Giordano fought as “Young Corbett III” during much […]
Kid Gavilan
Kid Gavilan (Boxing. Born, Camaguey, Cuba, Jan. 6, 1926; died, Miami, FL, Feb. 13, 2003.) At age 17, Kid Gavilan began a professional boxing career in Havana in 1943 that would lead him eventually to New York and the world welterweight championship. Gavilan’s first New York fight came after the second World War ended and […]
Red Cochran
Red Cochran (Boxing. Born, Elizabeth, NJ, May 6, 1915; died, Lyons, NJ, Jan. 16, 1993.) A popular New Jersey fighter, Frederick J. Cochran held the welterweight title from 1941-46. Over a pro career that started in 1933, Cochran fought 117 times, winning 82. He won the world welter crown with a 15-round decision over Fritzie […]
Henry Armstrong
Henry Armstrong (Boxing. Born, Columbus, MS, Dec. 12, 1912; died, Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 24, 1988.) Henry Armstrong (whose real name was Henry Jackson) was the first man to hold three world boxing championships at the same time. Armstrong won the featherweight, welterweight, and lightweight crowns in the span of fewer than ten months in […]