By Peter Marinelo: Like Pacquiao, Villa’s out of the ring presence would earn him love from fans of boxing. Villa had a love of life and was known to throw parties that would last for days where he would play the Ukulele.
It was a combination of his skill and charisma that would make him popular among fans just like Manny Pacquiao. Villa’s popularity was such that he was chosen to fight Jimmy Wilde despite losing to Frankie Genaro on the basis that Villa was the bigger draw. More people would watch Villa, win or lose, than they would Genaro even if he was winning.
There is nothing that can be said about Henry Armstrong that hasn’t been said already. A great among greats, Henry Armstrong is the only man in history to hold three world titles at the same time. He would also go on to defend his welterweight title more than any man in the history of boxing.
Boxing historian Bert Sugar says this about the great Armstrong, “One hundred fifty-one times Armstrong imposed his will on his opponents, suffocating them in his swarming style, firing off punches and then running over them, much like a runaway locomotive, with a ten-ton truck rumbling over their remains for good measure.”
Born Henry Jackson Jr. on Dec 12th, 1912 in Columbus, Mississippi Armstrong, as he would later change his name to, fought 181 professional bouts. He would win 151 of those fights, 101 by knock out, lose 21 with 9 fights ending in a draw before retiring in 1945. It is worth noting that greatness didn’t come quickly for Armstrong as he lost his first two professional fights. At one point is his career, the man who would go on to be known as one of the greatest fighters ever was 1-3 as a professional.
Things didn’t exactly get better for Armstrong from that point. Before 1937, Armstrong was a struggling featherweight with a resume of names that would only be known to the opponent’s own parents. Fortunately Armstrong fought like a natural disaster with a near infinite well of stamina. Armstrong attributed this great ability on an abnormal heart beat. It would take the fighter nearly two hours to warm up for a 15 round fight. Still this great man would probably have suffered the same fate as Burley and other greats who fell into obscurity if not for a brilliant move by his management team.