Description

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Benny Leonard was arguably the greatest lightweight champion of all time. With superb boxing skills and potent punching power, he fought over 200 times and suffered just five defeats. He spent his boyhood in a crime-ridden ghetto in Manhattan's Lower East Side and was the greatest of a long line of Jewish boxers to emerge from the slums. Leonard was still only 19 when he knocked out Freddie Welsh to become world lightweight king in 1917. He defended the title eight times and retired as undefeated champion in 1925, to please the only woman he loved, his mother. But the 1929 Wall Street Crash wiped out his fortune and he was forced to make a comeback at 35. Leonard fought the best of his era: Johnny Dundee, Johnny Kilbane, Rocky Kansas, Jack Britton, Ted Kid Lewis, and Lew Tendler among them. Apart from being a sublime boxer, Benny was a first-class showman who helped to put boxing on a higher plane. He died as he lived - in the ring - while refereeing a fight at age 51. This is the definitive account of his remarkable life and career.

About the Author

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John Jarrett is the author of ten boxing books including The Sugar Ray Robinson Story: Boxing's Comeback King, Rocky Marciano: The Brockton Blockbuster, Max Baer: Clown Prince ofBoxing, and Dempsey and the Wild Bull. He has written about the sport since 1951 for publications such as Boxing News, International Boxing, and Boxing Pictorial. He was Northern Area secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control for 40 years.