Gloves, Glory and God

by Henry Armstrong

HENRY ARMSTRONG [1909-1988]: A professional boxer (1931-45), universally considered one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters, renowned for his relentless brutal style and incredible stamina; he successfully defended his World Welterweight Championship a record 18 times. In 2007, Ring Magazine ranked him the second-greatest fighter. In almost any ranking, he is selected as one of the top ten fighters in history. In 1938 he became the only fighter to simultaneously hold world boxing championships in three weight class divisions, (Featherweight-126 lbs, Lightweight-135 lbs, and Welterweight-147 lbs), at a time when there were only 8 weight class divisions and one sanctioning organization. At his likely peak in 1937-38, Armstrong won 27 straight matches by KO and from 1937 to 1940 he lost only one fight and had a record against top competition of 59-1-1 with 51 wins by KO. After his boxing career ended, Armstrong went through bad times, (because of addiction and the loss of his multi-million dollar fight earnings), but he endured, re-found his religious faith (1949) and became an ordained Baptist minister; principally working with at risk young men in East Los Angeles and St. Louis. He founded the Henry Armstrong Youth Foundation and helped to fund the foundation with earnings from his autobiography. "This seems a natural time to set down, as simply and honestly as I can, the most important things that have happened to me and through me, up to now-because my life, though not very long in years, has reached a turning point."

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uses the 3rd person and feels more like a story as a result - quite effective! For once I also found the non-boxing sections at least as interesting as the in-ring accounts