Rocco Francis Marchegiano, better known as Rocky Marciano, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1952 to 1956, and remains the only heavyweight champion to finish his career undefeated. His six title defenses were against Jersey Joe Walcott, Roland La Starza, Ezzard Charles (twice), Don Cockell and Archie Moore.
Arnold Raymond Cream, best known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1930 to 1953. He held the NYSAC, WBA, and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1951 to 1952, and broke the record for the oldest man to win the title, at the age of 37. That record would hold for over three decades until it was eventually broken in 1994 by 45-year-old George Foreman. Despite holding the world heavyweight title for a relatively short period of time, Walcott was regarded among the best heavyweights in the world during the 1940s and 1950s.
Primo Carnera, nicknamed the Ambling Alp, was an Italian professional boxer and wrestler who reigned as the boxing World Heavyweight Champion from 29 June 1933 to 14 June 1934. He won more fights by knockout than any other heavyweight champion in boxing history.
Ezzard Mack Charles, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1959. Known as the Cincinnati Cobra, Charles was respected for his slick defense and precision, and is often regarded as the greatest light heavyweight of all time, and one of the greatest fighters pound for pound, having defeating numerous Hall of Fame fighters in three different weight classes. Charles was the world heavyweight champion from 1949 to 1951, and made eight successful title defenses in under two years.
Boxing in the 1940s in many ways reflected worldwide events that affected other endeavors as well.
Samuel Edgar Langford was a Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter Nobody Knows", by ESPN, Langford is considered by many boxing historians to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. Originally from Weymouth Falls, a small community in Nova Scotia, he was known as "the Boston Bonecrusher", "the Boston Terror", and his most famous nickname, "the Boston Tar Baby". Langford stood 5 ft 6+1⁄2 in (1.69 m) and weighed 185 lb (84 kg) in his prime. He fought from lightweight to heavyweight and defeated many world champions and legends of the time in each weight class. Considered a devastating puncher even at heavyweight, Langford was rated No. 2 by The Ring on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time". One boxing historian described Langford as "experienced as a heavyweight James Toney with the punching power of Mike Tyson".
Jack Sharkey was a Lithuanian-American boxer who held the NYSAC, NBA, and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1932 to 1933.
James Jackson Jeffries was an American professional boxer and world heavyweight champion.
Joe Walcott, also known as Barbados Joe Walcott to distinguish him from the more recent American boxer known by the same name, was a professional boxer from Barbados who reigned as the World Welterweight Champion from 1901 to 1906, becoming the first black man ever to capture the title. He was elected to The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1955 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.
Paul Berlenbach, nicknamed the Astoria Assassin was the world light heavyweight boxing champion in 1925 and 1926. Known for his punching power, he took the crown from Mike McTigue, until July 16, 1926, when he was defeated by his nemesis Jack Delaney. The Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer rated him as the #10 best light heavyweight of all time. Berlenbach was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001.
Jeremiah "Joe" Jeannette was an American boxer, considered one of the best heavyweight boxers of the early 20th century. Because he was African-American, he was not given a shot at the world heavyweight title, though he did win the World Colored Heavyweight Championship on two occasions.
Joe Baksi was an American boxer and top heavyweight contender. He defeated fighters such as Tami Mauriello, Lee Savold, Lou Nova, and Freddie Mills, while losing decisions to Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles.
William Lawrence Stribling Jr., known as Young Stribling, was an American professional boxer who fought from Featherweight to Heavyweight. His 1931 fight against Max Schmelling for Schmeling's world heavyweight championship was named Ring Magazine fight of the year. Stribling was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1965, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.
George Gardiner was a famous Irish boxer in America who was the first undisputed World Light Heavyweight Champion. He held claims to both the World Middleweight Title as well as the World Heavyweight Title. He was the second man in history to hold the World's Light Heavyweight title, defeating the first Light Heavyweight Champion, Jack Root, by KO after 12 rounds.
Arthur Lakofsky, also known as Art Lasky, was a heavyweight professional boxer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Aaron Lister Brown, known professionally as the Dixie Kid, was an American boxer. He was a controversial contender for the World Welterweight Boxing Championship in April 1904.
Kid Norfolk was an American professional boxer who fought as a light heavyweight and heavyweight from 1910 through 1926, holding wins over many notable boxers of his day including Joe Jeanette, Billy Miske, Jack Blackburn, Harry Greb, Tiger Flowers, Battling Siki, and Gunboat Smith. Norfolk was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.
Patrick McGuigan was an American boxer, promoter, entertainer, business man, and sports figure in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, he is considered one of the best fighters of the era and was a beloved figure among sports fans in the region, considered by many to be "The Pride of New Jersey." He became the New Jersey Lightweight Champion in 1890 and the Interstate New York & New Jersey Lightweight Champion in 1892. Fighting in both the bare-knuckle and gloved eras, he met virtually all of the world's top boxers in his class. At the peak of his career he traveled the country with William Muldoon's athletic carnival, "meeting all comers" in each city they visited. Once he retired from boxing professionally, he became a promoter and opened a fight club and a saloon in Harrison, NJ. He has been credited as one of the men responsible for boxing's rise to affluence in New Jersey after it was legalized in 1918 under the Hurley Law, being the first individual in the state to secure a license to legally host boxing matches. Paddy "must be chronicled as one of the greatest ringmen who ever lived," according to sportswriter Anthony Marenghi, and has been described by Hall of Fame manager Tom O'Rourke as the greatest fighter he had ever seen.
Frank Childs, "The Crafty Texan", was an African American boxer who fought professionally out of Chicago from 1892 to 1911 and twice held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Fighting at a weight of between 160 and 185 lbs., the short, stocky Childs fought middleweights, light-heavyweights and heavyweights. He had a powerful punch.
Panama Joe Gans was a black boxer who held the World Colored Middleweight Championship for four years, shortly before it was discontinued. Born Cyril Quinton Jr. on November 14, 1896, in Barbados, British West Indies and raised in the Panama Canal Zone, the 5'7" Quinton originally fought out of Panama and then New York City. He took his ringname from boxing great Joe Gans, the first black American fighter to win a world boxing title. He found his greatest fame fighting as a middleweight at between 147 and 160 lbs, but in his early career he took the Panamanian Lightweight Title and contended for the Panamanian Welterweight Title at weights roughly between 130 and 147 pounds.
