King of the Ghetto vs The Baby Faced Assassin

In 1934 Barney "King of the Ghetto" Ross had just destroyed Billy Petrole and had no reason to stay at Lightweight where he had been running the division. The main reason for this was because there was no big money fight out there in the division for him. So Barney looked to Welterweight.

The Champion Jimmy "The Baby Faced Assassin" McLarnin had been ruling the division with ferocious knockout power and by using psychological warfare. Most opponents, smaller than Jimmy, where beaten before getting in the ring with him.

But what made this match really special? The fact that Barney Ross was the most accomplished Jewish Fighter in boxing at the time (Benny Leonard was retired) and the fact that of the many nick-names McLarnin had, some dealt with his owning of Jewish fighters.

"Jew Beater" , "Jew Nemesis" and "Scourge of the Fighting Sons of Israel" were a few of them. For the reason that McLarnin had dispatched Kid Kaplan, Joe Glick, Ruby Goldstein, Al Singer, Joey Sangor, Jackie Fields, Sid Terris, and Benny Leonard, whom he retired.

While Jimmy had destroyed every jewish fighter in front him he did not take pleasure in this and felt bad for knocking Benny Leonard out cold in the 6th. This all set up for a huge match.

McLarnin tried wildly to land his big right hand, but Ross always the smooth boxer was landing 3 to 1 and always answered a McLarnin rally. McLarnin finaly knocked Barney down in the 9th only to see Barney get up before the ref could count. 20 seconds later McLarnin was on the canvas himself.It was clear who was obviously controlling the fight. Barney Ross was announced the new undisputed Welterweight Champion of the world, becoming the first man in boxing to simultaneously hold the Lightweight and Welterweight Title's.

The rematch was highly controversial as McLarnin was Irish, and all 3 judges were as well. In a match many , ok basically everybody, believe Ross won, Barney lost on points. Setting up their rubber match. This time there would be a Jewish judge to make sure things were fair, or even, Jack Dempsey was ref.

It wasnt very close as the King of the Ghetto dominated McLarnin and won on all 3 scorecards. In all reality Ross won all 3 fights and became the first Jewish fighter to beat McLarnin.

This is the greatest boxing trilogy to ever be fought in 1 years time, easily. Barney and Jimmy would become friends and McLarnin would donate money to Barney Ross as he was dieng of cancer. But no one will ever forget the time the King of the Ghetto took on The Baby Faced Assassin for national pride.

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just got back in..met an awsome prospect lol..excellent article..mclarlin was a great fighter who fought many a greats...he proves having several losses means nothing so to speak if you examine who he fought and beat and who beat him...then you have to go away saying hmmm that guys pretty darn good...ross did not have jimmys power for sure but was fast very fast with his hands and feet..great balance and threw a ton of punches at you..round after round..plenty of guts and ring savy..
it was the era as you noted of the greatest jewish fighters ever..great irish and italian ones also in the lower weight classes..at times many fought with a differnt name and a differnt etnic background then what they truly were..example a great bantam from my home town and a friend was bushy graham..bushy wasnt irish he was italian..angelo geraci..sammy mandell wasnt jewish.he also was italian..sam mandella. it was done because the fighter felt whatever etnic background would give me the most fights and paydays then my name will reflect that..excellent article..