Cocoa Kid
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Cocoa Kid
Herbert Lewis Hardwick Arroyo (May 2, 1914 – December 27, 1966), also known as "Cocoa Kid", was a Puerto Rican boxer of African descent who fought primarily as a welterweight but also in the middleweight division. Hardwick won the World Colored Championships in both divisions. He was a member of boxing's " Black Murderers' Row" and fought the best boxers of his time. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012. Early years Hardwick was born in the City of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico to Maria Arroyo, a native of Puerto Rico, and Lewis Hardwick, an African American Merchant Marine. In 1913, his father was on leave and left the island without knowing that Maria was pregnant with his child. It was only upon his return several months later, that he found out that he was a father. The Hardwick family moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was still a child and his father renamed him "Herbert Lewis Hardwick." Tragedy struck the family when his father and the rest of the ...
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Charley Burley
Charley Burley (September 6, 1917 – October 16, 1992) was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950. Archie Moore, the light-heavyweight champion who was defeated by Burley in a 1944 middleweight bout, was one of several fighters who called Burley the greatest fighter ever. Burley was the penultimate holder of both the World Colored Welterweight Championship and the World Colored Middleweight Championship. Early life He was born Charles Duane Burley in Bessemer, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1917 to a mixed-race couple: his father was a black coal miner and his mother a white Irish immigrant from County Cork. Raised in Bessemer, the only son of seven children, the family moved to Pittsburgh when his father was killed in an industrial accident in 1925. He began boxing at the age of 12 at a Boys Club and, as a lightweight, won city, state and national junior boxing titles and a Golden Gloves junior title. As a welterweight, he won a Gold ...
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Young Peter Jackson (boxer Born 1912)
Young Peter Jackson (April 15, 1912 – April 9, 1979) was an African American boxer active from 1929 to 1939. Born Peter Martin in Los Angeles, California, he renamed himself in honor of the great colored heavyweight champ Peter Jackson and the welterweight contender Peter Jackson. The 5'7" Jackson fought as a lightweight, making his professional debut on August 14, 1929 at the Wilmington Bowl in Wilmington, California, when he knocked out Herb Yales via a knock out in the first round of a scheduled four-round bout. Jackson won the USA California State lightweight title on January 12, 1932, defeating Young Manuel (Manuel Villa I), then won the vacant Pacific Coast Lightweight title on July 25, 1933 by defeating Ah Wing Lee. He held and defended both titles and added the Mexican Lightweight title by defeating Young Manuel on March 31, 1935. On 26 July 1936, he met Herbert Lewis Hardwick ("The Cocoa Kid") at Heinemann Park in New Orleans, Louisiana for the new World Colored Welter ...
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World Colored Welterweight Championship
The World Colored Welterweight Championship was a title that existed during the time of the color bar in professional boxing. On 26 July 1936, Herbert Lewis Hardwick ("The Cocoa Kid") met Young Peter Jackson at Heinemann Park in New Orleans, Louisiana in a 10-round title bout referred by Harry Wills, the former three-time World Colored Heavyweight Champ. The Cocoa Kid won via a technical knock-out in the second round. He made four defenses of the title. On September 22 of that year at the same venue, he defeated Jackie Elverillo on points in 10 rounds. On 11 June 1937, at the Coliseum Arena in New Orleans, The Kid fought his old nemesis Holman Williams, prevailing in a close fight, winning a decision in the 12-rounder. ''Ring Magazine'' had donated a championship belt for the bout. The Kid successfully defended his title against Black Canadian boxer Sonny Jones at the Valley Arena in Holyoke, Massachusetts on 15 November 1937, in a bout refereed by former world heavyweight ch ...
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Henry Armstrong
Henry Jackson Jr. (December 12, 1912 – October 24, 1988) was an American professional boxer and a world boxing champion who fought under the name Henry Armstrong. Armstrong was one of the few fighters to win in three or more different divisions: featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight. He defended his welterweight title a total of nineteen times. ''The Ring'' magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1937. The Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) named him Fighter of the Year in 1940. He is currently ranked by BoxRec as the 12th greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time. In 2007, ''The Ring'' ranked Armstrong as the second-greatest fighter of the last 80 years. Historian Bert Sugar also ranked Armstrong as the second-greatest fighter of all time. ESPN ranked Armstrong as number 3 on their list of the 50 greatest boxers of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990. In 2019, the International ...
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Lou Ambers
Luigi Giuseppe d'Ambrosio (November 8, 1913 – April 25, 1995), a.k.a. Lou Ambers, was an American World Lightweight boxing champion who fought from 1932 to 1941. Ambers fought many other boxing greats, such as Henry Armstrong and Tony Canzoneri. Early life and career Born Luigi Giuseppe d'Ambrosio on November 8, 1913 in Herkimer, Ambers started out in a large Italian family, struggling to find an identity. Luigi took a ring name because he was afraid his Italian mother would find out that he was a fighter. He defeated future world junior welterweight champion Johnny Jadick in a ten round unanimous decision on March 19, 1934, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Ambers defeated former world junior welterweight claimant Sammy Fuller on March 1, 1935 in a fifteen round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden, New York City. Before a crowd of 10,000, Ambers was stunned by a left from Fuller in the third round, but had his way with his opponent much of the remainder of the bout, taki ...
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Kid Kaplan
Louis "Kid" Kaplan (born October 15, 1901 in Kyiv, Ukraine – October 26, 1970) was a professional boxer and a 1925 world featherweight champion. Early life Kaplan and his family emigrated to the United States from the Kyiv when he was five years old and settled in Meriden, Connecticut. While selling fruit for five cents a day, he began boxing as a teenager at the Lenox Athletic Club in Meriden, and turned professional in 1919. Professional career Kaplan began his boxing career in the Connecticut State circuit. At the time, Meriden was an epicenter of boxing in the Northeastern United States. Early in his career, Kaplan fought the popular local favorite and former New York State champion Charlie Pilkington. Though they never boxed a professional match together, their early rivalry and Pilkington's role as a mentor and sparring partner had much to do with launching Kaplan's very successful boxing career. A busy fighter, he engaged in over 50 bouts in his first four year ...
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Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels ''What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' his Academy Award-winning screenplay for ''On the Waterfront'', and his screenplay for '' A Face in the Crowd''. Early life and education Schulberg was raised in a Jewish familyHollywood Reporter: "Hollywood's Hottest $150 Million Project Is an 83-Year-Old ...
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Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Viceroyalty, viceroyalties formerly part of the Spanish Empire following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, parts of the Spanish East Indies, Asia-Pacific region and Hispanic Africa , Africa. Outside of Spain, the Spanish language is a predominant or official language in the countries of Hispanic America and Equatorial Guinea. Further, the cultures of these countries were influenced by Spain to different degrees, combined with the local pre-Hispanic culture or other foreign influences. Former Spanish colonies elsewhere, namely the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines, Marianas, etc.) and Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara), were also influenced by Spanish culture, however Spanish is not a predominant language in these regions. Hispanic cul ...
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Eddie Booker
Hilton Edward Booker (November 5, 1917 – January 26, 1975) was an American boxer who was active during the 1930s and 1940s. Booker was one of the famous " Murderers Row" group of black boxers, along with the likes of Charley Burley, Holman Williams and Jack Chase, avoided by other elite fighters of the era because of their ability and their skin colour. Booker compiled a record of 66-5-8, which included a (1-1-1) record vs. Holman Williams, (0-1) record vs. Jack Chase, (1-0) vs. Lloyd Marshall, (0-1) Cocoa Kid. Other Notable Booker fights include a (1-0-2) record vs. Archie Moore (being the first to knock him out) a win over Harry Matthews, a loss to Fritzie Zivic and a (2-1-1) record vs Shorty Hogue. Like all black murderer's row fighters, he never got an opportunity to fight for a world title. Booker was forced to retire prematurely due to an eye injury. He was a 2017 inductee of the International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), ...
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Aaron Wade
Aaron "Little Tiger" Wade (March 17, 1916 – February 15, 1985) was an American Middleweight boxer who fought from 1935 to 1950. Wade was a member of the famed Black Murderer's Row. Early life Born in Trenton Tennessee Wade became the first African American golden gloves champion in Peoria, Illinois and reportedly had 600 or more amateur fights. Aarons older brother Bruce "Big Tiger" Wade was also a professional boxer, albeit a less successful one than his younger brother. Aaron stood a hair above 5 feet 5 inches and began his career at 140 lbs before moving up and competing at welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight Career Aaron Wade's fights with other members of black murderer's row are 3 losses to Charley Burley, 1 win over Herbert Lewis "Cocoa Kid" Hardwick, 2 losses and 1 draw to Jack Chase, and a win over Bert Lytell. Other notable fights of Wade's career include a win over Archie Moore, a win against Sam Baroudi, 3 wins against Oakland Billy Smith, a ...
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Bert Lytell (boxer)
Calvin Coolidge Lytle (January 24, 1924 – January 26, 1990), better known by his professional names Bert Lytell and Chocolate Kid, was an American boxer and middleweight contender in the 1940s and early 1950s. Recognized as a member of the famous Murderers' Row, the 5'8" Lytell fought (and often won) against other top black middleweights of his time, including Charley Burley, Herbert "Cocoa Kid" Lewis Hardwick, Holman Williams, and Charley Doc Williams, as well as other notable fighters including Archie Moore and Sam Baroudi. Like many of his contemporaries, Bert Lytell was denied a chance to fight for a world title largely due to his race. Lytell was born in Victoria, Texas. He enlisted in the Naval reserves in 1942 in San Antonio, Texas, and was discharged in 1944. He resided in New York City for most of his career, later moving to Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast o ...
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