The Gravity of Sarah Deming's Boxing Career

About a quarter of Brown University students are Jewish, up a few percent from thirty years ago. And while there have been quite a few Jewish winners of the New York Golden Gloves, only one graduated from Brown with a BA in comparative literature.

Sarah Deming worked as a yoga instructor, a chef, and a tutor when she decided to lace up the gloves for the first time. A classy boxer, who threw smart combinations, Deming wasn't afraid to mix it up and get her nose bloody. She won the New York Golden Gloves and the New York Empire Games as a featherweight just three years after taking up the sport. During the 1999 bantamweight finals at the Golden Gloves, Deming was still finding her style. Two years later, she showed dramatic improvement during her championship run.

Deming parlayed her successful amateur career into one as a writer. Her boxing experience informed her terrific 2019 novel Gravity, a story that oozes authenticity. Gravity Delgado has a Jewish mother and a Dominican father. A 16 year old amateur boxer, Gravity takes care of her eight year old brother, goes to school, and boxes at a world class level. She's forced to grow up quickly, because their dad left the family years ago and their mother is an abusive alcoholic.

Gravity trains at NY Cops and Kids in Flatbush, where Deming trained, although it was called Atlas Cops and Kids then. Gravity's coach is the crotchety old Jefferson Thomas, based on the late trainer and heavyweight George Washington. The Bocacrew is a rival stable at the gym and is based on the Sosacrew. One of Gravity's USA Boxing teammates is Sacred Jones, a nearly unbeatable middleweight like Claressa Shields.

Gravity and Sacred are members of the 2016 US Boxing team, who qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. They are followed by my favorite character, Carmen Cruz, the blogger who has gained the respect of the fighters because she tells it like it is. Cruz travels all over the world covering the team, which is cause for extreme jealousy.

Gravity provides tremendous insight on the New York boxing scene and women's amateur boxing just when it was exploding in popularity. Teens will probably appreciate the romance scenes and the importance of social media more than us old fogies. But the boxing content and the complex relationships in the gym, told by someone who was there, can be appreciated by everyone.

In Memory of Steve Silver

Steve Silver went 5-1-1 as a pro in 1969 after an impressive amateur career in Minnesota.

Steven James Silver was born on March 24, 1944 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Alexander, was born in Russia and worked as a salesman photographer. He traveled door-to-door offering to take pictures of families and selling them portrait packages. This was a precursor to when people would go to Sears to get their family portraits taken in the latter part of last century. Steve's mother, Molly, was born in Minnesota, and had four children.

The Silvers lived in the North Side area of Minneapolis, historically a hub of Jewish life in the city. It was the largest Jewish area between Chicago and Denver. In the mid-1940s, Minneapolis was described as "the capital of antisemitism in the United States." Mayor Hubert Humphrey worked tirelessly to combat that reputation and help transform the city into a Civil Rights leader for Jews and Blacks.

Steve began competing as an amateur in 1960, representing Unity House. That year, the 15-year old lightweight made it to the finals of the Minneapolis Golden Gloves in the novice division, known as Class C. Silver was stopped in the second round of the finals against Doug MacArthur. He moved down to featherweight later that February.

Silver moved back up to lightweight for 1961 and fought in several local tournaments. By 1962, he had moved up to Class A and fought Gary Nadeau in the featured bout of one Golden Gloves preliminary show. He won the city Golden Gloves that year, decisioning Dave Christian. He was recognized as "an outstanding boxer" and "highly regarded."

Molly sometimes watched her son's fights. She stood in the back, pacing nervously. Luckily for Molly, Steve was a skillful boxer who preferred to counterpunch rather than brawl.

While attending the University of Minnesota, Steve moved to welterweight in 1964 and made the finals of the city Golden Gloves, falling to southpaw Ron Lyke. Lyke would go on to win the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves championship.

Two years later, Silver won the city Golden Gloves welterweight title by defeating Rafael Rodriguez in the finals. He made it to the semifinals of the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves. Rodriguez, who got in as an alternate, won the title. Nevertheless, Steve was elected the tournament's "Best Sportsman." In a rematch between Silver and Rodriguez a week later designed to help Rodriguez prepare for the National Golden Gloves, Silver won by split decision. Steve was named as Minneapolis's best Jewish athlete in 1966, earning him the Hy Truman Memorial Award.

In 1967, Silver moved over to the East Side Gym. He faced Rodriguez again in the city Golden Gloves final, this time at junior welterweight. Silver landed left hooks to the body, but the judges preferred Rodriguez's "showy head shots." Nicknamed "The Rifle," Rodriguez won the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves again that year, repeated in 1968, and won the welterweight tournament in 1970. He went on to have a long pro career, facing several champions: Billy Backus, Hedgemon Lewis, Bruce Curry, a win over Denny Moyer, and went the distance against "Sugar" Ray Leonard in Baltimore.

The next year, Silver fell in the city finals again, this time to Gary Kemling. He moved up to middleweight before the end of the year but decided to turn pro. He won his debut on February 26, 1969, a three-round stoppage victory against Bobby Crawford.

Two weeks later, Steve faced Frank Jimenez. Despite a 1-1-1 record, Jimenez had achieved a similar level of amateur success, was the naturally bigger man, and outweighed Silver by five pounds. Jimenez won by decision. Two weeks after that, Steve beat 3-0 Simon Maestros by split decision.

Silver then got a new team, including manager Gene Fesenmaier and trainer Floyd Joyner. Joyner was a recently retired heavyweight who had fought professionally for 14 years. He fought Bobby Hill in June. Silver and Hill had both worked as sparring partners for veteran Duane Horsman. Silver won the battle of the sparring partners by decision. Minnesota Twins pitcher Dean Chance was reportedly in Silver's corner for the fight.

Tom Anderson, a local promoter getting back in the game after several years away, said, "Good Jewish boxers have always done well in Minneapolis, and Steve Silver can be brought along." Things were looking up.

Two days later, Silver out-pointed late substitute Tom Heisler. After a draw in July, Silver got the opportunity to spar with Emile Griffith. 

On October 6, Silver won a snooze-fest against fellow counterpuncher Chuck Lewis on a show promoted by Anderson. That turned out to be Silver's last pro fight. He finished with a record of 5-1-1 with one KO.

After his career, he moved to California. Marriages to Arlene and Roxine ended in divorce. When he died on October 25, 2025 at the age of 81, he was survived by his two daughters Alondra and Dawn, three grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

Sources

Connor, Jack. "Golden Gloves 'Families' Do Well in Tournament." The Minneapolis Star. Feb. 19, 1966. Pg. 12.

Cullum, Dick. "Boswell Upset by Morgan in Golden Gloves." The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Feb. 12, 1967. Pg. 47.

Cullum, Dick. "Dick Cullum." The Minneapolis Star Tribune. May 6, 1969. Pg. 23.

Hengen, Bill. "Roaming Around." Minneapolis Star. Sep. 16, 1966. Pg. 31.

"Minnesota Edges Rochester for Golden Gloves Team Championship." The Austin Daily Herald. Feb. 22, 1966. Pg. 8.

"Silver, Harmon Finish Workouts." The Minnesota Star Tribune. Jun. 22, 1969. Pg. 54.

"Steven James Silver Obituary." The Minnesota Star Tribune. 

Stone King, Dan. "Chance Makes Pitch - Boxing, not Baseball." The Minneapolis Star Tribune. June 18, 1969. Pg. 57.

Weber, Laura. "From Exclusion to Integration: The Story of Jews in Minnesota." Minnesota Historical Society. Sep. 14, 2015.

A Golden Mensch: Marty Pomerantz

A true mensch, Marty Pomerantz won the 1935 New York Golden Gloves in the lightweight division before embarking on a professional career as a club fighter.

Meyer Pomerantz was born on June 15, 1915, the second son of David and Lena. David, a dressmaker, was born in New York to immigrants from Prague. Lena immigrated to the U.S. as a child from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The family lived on Washington Avenue in the Bronx until the Depression when they moved to the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. They didn't have much money even though David owned a toy store and a movie theater in addition to his work as a dressmaker. "My father went to synagogue, not on a steady basis. He wasn't too religious," Pomerantz later remembered. "But most of the Jews went to synagogue in those days. And I did also." Meyer often went by Martin, Marty for short.

A former amateur boxer and instructor, Irving Cohen spotted Pomerantz playing handball at the Bensonhurst Jewish Community House (JCH) in Brooklyn. An excellent player, Pomerantz's skills figured to transfer to boxing, or so mused Cohen. He then watched a young Pomerantz train as a boxer, and after some time, the small shy man finally said, "Marty, you're a good fighter, but not as good as you think." An angered Pomerantz was ready to explode on Cohen, but decided to hear out his would-be mentor. The result would be eventually be a Golden Gloves title.

"I had no thought of being a boxer," said Pomerantz. Instead, he had dreamed of becoming a ballplayer as early as junior high, but his admiration for Cohen convinced him to box. Marty quickly saw the benefits of the sport. "Your body was in shape. Your mind was in shape. You ran, you ate well, you slept well. You had good discipline, you weren't dissipated. You didn't run around. We were part of the morals, the values of our family, and by and large those were good values."

Cohen turned the natural southpaw into an orthodox fighter. Marty's amateur career began in April of 1933, fighting for the Crescent-Hamilton Athletic Club. He applied to fight in the New York Golden Gloves, but a heart murmur discovered during the physical examination prevented him from doing so. It was just as well; his parents didn't want him to box.

"My mother didn't know I was boxing. She would have been very upset about it," Marty said. "And my father wasn't happy about it, but he did know about it." Unbeknownst to Lena, Marty snuck out the window to go train and fight.

His career took a huge leap in 1934. That year, with the heart murmur no longer detected, he won the Kings County featherweight title and made it to the semifinals of the New York Golden Gloves, representing the Politan Athletic Club. "He punches like a trip hammer," crooned the Brooklyn Times Union. He had knocked out half of his sixty opponents in the amateur ranks.

By 1935, Pomerantz moved up to lightweight and over to the First Avenue Boys' Club. With brown eyes and black hair, swarthy Marty stood five feet and five and a half inches. He won the Jewish Olympics representing the JCH that year. During the New York Golden Gloves, he clipped Charles Diaz and beat Sedgwick Harvey in the final to win the lightweight crown.

Pomerantz was slated to join the New York Golden Gloves team to fight the Chicago squad and then travel to Tel Aviv for the Maccabiah Games. But Marty and others asked for expense money and the team was subsequently disbanded as amateurs were not allowed to receive payment.

Despite being a top amateur, Marty worked as a shoecutter for much of his boxing career. He figured he should supplement his salary with purses from prizefights, but his coach, Irving Cohen, initially refused to join him. "You're becoming a pro, and I'm going back to the hosiery business," Cohen told Marty. Marty responded, "I'm with you Irving. If you're not my manager, then forget about it. I quit, too."

The 19-year-old Pomerantz turned pro on April 8, 1935 with Cohen in his corner. Marty earned a second round TKO victory at St. Nick's Arena with ex-Jewish boxer Young Otto serving as referee.

Cohen would later become the mentor of Hall of Fame matchmaker Teddy Brenner and manage Rocky Graziano. Irving, who owned a little hairless dog, had baby blue eyes and rosy cheeks. "Irving Cohen was a dead honest guy," Brenner recalled. He looked out of place in the mobster-infested world of boxing. After dealing with a particularly shady character, Cohen once lamented, "What a rotten game this is."

Just a kid, Brenner's first boxing job was working for Marty. "He used to get into the fights by carrying my bag," Pomerantz said in 1992. "I don't know if he'd remember that or admit to that today."

Pomerantz was busy during the spring of 1935. On April 14, the JCH held "Marty Pomerantz Night." On May 6, the House presented Marty with a silver glove in honor of his achievements.

"The lad can punch as well as take - and is a smart ring general," Lou E. Cohen wrote of Pomerantz. "His clever footwork, and his ability to follow instructions given to him by his handlers constitute the chief reasons for his being rated as a good prospect in ring warfare."

That summer, he trained in the Catskill Mountains, chopping wood in White Lake, New York. He loved to dance and even moonlit as a vaudeville actor while upstate.

Pomerantz won his first eight pro bouts and thirteen of his first fourteen, but his career didn't match the heights his amateur success suggested it would reach. His best wins came against former amateur opponents Johnny Horstmann on June 18, 1935 and Johnny LoBianco on May 5, 1936. LoBianco would later become a longtime referee.

In a rematch against Horstmann a month after their first clash, Pomerantz lost when he entered the fight with a sprained right hand. Marty won the rubber match four months later.

Pomerantz was Irving Cohen's first fighter and the manager had no connections. One night, Marty had a meeting with his dad, Cohen, and Frankie Carbo at the Paradise Night Club. "Carbo wanted to buy my contract," Marty said. But his dad talked him out of it. "Listen, you started with Cohen, you make it, you'll be with Cohen," advised David Pomerantz. "We shook hands and Carbo left. I had no problem with it," Marty recalled. "I think I would have made a lot more money with him, and I would have gotten more fights and maybe I would have gotten a shot at the championship. I don't know."

Marty had a hit-and-don't get hit style. "Benny Leonard once told me, 'He who hits and runs away lives to box another day.'" Taking that advice to heart, Marty notched only five knockouts in 37 pro fights but was only stopped three times.

Pomerantz finished his pro career in 1938 with a  record of 25-10-2. "I wasn't going anywhere as a fighter," he lamented. He got an opportunity to go back into the shoe business and seized the chance. "It was the depression times and the money wasn't even that good [in boxing]. So when there was a chance to go into business, I took it."

But his daughter, Dr. Diane Pomerantz, told The Jewish Boxing Blog of another reason he retired from the ring. "My mother didn't want him to fight."

During World War II, Pomerantz joined the Air Force. He was an intensely likeable man and his commanding officer wouldn't allow him to leave Miami Beach and his cushy position as physical education instructor for the Airmen. He took part in intra-squad boxing matches, quite possibly without the knowledge of his wife, Rita.

His daughter described him as "a very sociable person." In addition to his shoe business, he also owned taxis and drove one from time to time because he enjoyed talking with people. He like being independent. "He was someone people would come to for advice," she said. He was the type of guy who drove strangers all the way out to Long Island at 2am just to make things easier for them.

One time, Marty and Rita were dining at a restaurant on Ocean Parkway when Marty was given a jacket that didn't belong to him. He checked the wallet located in the jacket pocket for ID and saw that it belonged to Marty Pomerantz, but the photo was different. As it turned out, there was another Marty Pomerantz dining at the same restaurant at the same time. Even more coincidental, the other Marty's wife was also named Rita!

Marty, the former boxer that is, was well-read and politically liberal. As the years went on, he increasingly distanced himself from his former profession. When Allen Bodner interviewed Marty for his book When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport, Marty didn't tell anyone in his family about the project.

He moved down to Baltimore, Maryland to live with his daughter for the last six years of his life where he was active in the community. He passed away on August 19, 2000. "His funeral was packed," recalled his daughter. "It wasn't filled with my friends. These were people he had touched during his short time living in Maryland. It was packed with people. I think that really says something about him." It certainly does.

Though Marty preferred not to dwell on his boxing exploits, they are still remembered and honored by  his family. His daughter has kept his old boxing trunks with the Jewish star on them. When her son had his bar mitzvah, he was gifted a golden boxing glove as an ode to his grandfather's remarkable Golden Gloves championship. Over twenty years later, Marty Pomerantz's grandson still cherishes that glove and what it represents.

Sources

Bodner, Allen. When Boxing was a Jewish Sport. 1997.

Brenner, Teddy. Only the Ring was Square. 1981.

Cohen, Haskell. "From Nylon to Socks." The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. Apr. 19, 1946. Pg. 15.

Cohen, Lou E. "Sport Chats." Brooklyn Eagle. May 29, 1935. Pg. 38.

"Honor Marty Pomerantz." Brooklyn Times Union. May 6, 1935. Pg. 5.

"Marty Pomerantz Mixes Acting with Training for Ring Career." Brooklyn Eagle. Jul 25, 1935. Pg. 19.

"Marty Pomerantz Night a Big Success." Brooklyn Times Union. Apr. 15, 1935. Pg. 13.

"Maulie Injured, Pomerantz Loses." Brooklyn Times Union. Jul 10, 1935. Pg. 12.

"Pomerantz Ranks High as an Amateur." Brooklyn Times Union. Aug. 27, 1934. Pg. 13.

Special thank you to Dr. Diane Pomerantz for sharing her memories of her dad.

All Hail King David

Born David Nahon in Casablanca, Morocco on October 27, 1940, the fighter who would be known as "King David" was one of nine children. "He was a tough little Jew running the streets of Casablanca, where a Jew had better be tough or able to run, and preferably both," wrote Larry Merchant of the Philadelphia Daily News. Nahon grew up in a ghetto to a father who was a poor tailor.

The Casablanca Mellah traditionally housed the Jewish population, which numbered 100,000 throughout the city as late as the 1950s. Situated in the southern portion the old city, the mellah was a hub of merchants and artisans, but overcrowding and crumbling infrastructure made life difficult for David during his first decade.

As an eight year old, young David saw an Arab merchant selling a single boxing glove. He scrounged together a few centimes to buy it and then made a second glove himself. At the age of ten, David was shipped to Israel while his family remained in Morocco. He wouldn't see his parents, five sisters, or three brothers again for many years. He couldn't even contact them until he arrived in the United States because there was no mail service between Morocco and Israel.

In Israel, he grew up on a kibbutz. He eventually became a welder, but David always had a desire to box. He fought in amateur bouts, but two and half years in the air force interrupted his progress.

"Jack [Sheldovski], who is the only boxing promoter in Israel, sent David to the U.S. and his old friend Sammy Schiff, a lightweight of the '20s who is David's co-manager and trainer," wrote Lew Eskin in The Ring. A southpaw from New York, Schiff's career lasted from 1918-1928 when he faced good fighters such as Harry "Kid" Brown, Benny Pascal, and Joe Tiplitz. The other co-manager, George Sheppard, was the mouthpiece of the operation.

Sheppard had fought in Canada in the 1920s before moving to New York. After a particularly rough fight in which he received two black eyes, Sheppard asked his new manager how much the fellow typically made to guide his fighters. It was enough to convince Sheppard to stop fighting and start managing. He guided the career of Baltimore southpaw Jack Portney, and once punched famed Baltimore manager Heine Blaustein four times after Portney fought dirty against Sylvan Bass. Blaustein retaliated by launching a milk bottle at Sheppard's head. The two ornery managers later shook hands. Working as a matchmaker a decade later, Sheppard, the eventual 1958 manager of the year, was socked in the face by a fighter after not putting him on a show in New Haven and had to go to the dentist.

Sheppard came up with the moniker "King David" for Nahon. The two attended Congregation Darchei Noam in New York together. David observed Shabbat every week. "If we have to have a Jewish fighter, it's nice to have a good clean boy like that," said Rabbi Arthur Neulander of Darchei Noam.

With bronze skin and black olive eyes, King David had arrived at Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in October of 1963 to start his campaign for the welterweight title. Facially, he resembled the late middleweight world champion Marcel Cerdan, but The Ring described his skills as that of "a novice." He debuted the next month with a stoppage victory a little more than a minute after the fight began.

He rattled off sixteen consecutive victories in the eighteen months since his arrival from Israel. The opponents were those you'd expect to face a well-managed fighter with limited experience. Robert Lipsyte described King David's win over Alfred St. George on January 6, 1964 as "the grossest mismatch of the evening."

Weigh-ins took place the day of the fight in those days and if that day was a Saturday, King David needed an allowance to weigh-in later in the evening. It meant he didn't have as much time to refuel as his opponents had.

On April 26, 1965 at the Arena in Philadelphia, King David lost to the unheralded Roger Evans, who notched his first pro win by decision. Two weeks later at the same venue, King David avenged his first defeat. That summer he tried to get into Sheppard's home country of Canada, but was denied entry.

King David's last fight was in the main event against Ulysses Jimenez at the Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. The former three-division world champion and World War II hero Barney Ross was in his corner. But Jimenez outboxed King David to win by decision.

Nahon finished his career 19-2 with 4 KOs. In an era of few Jewish fighters, King David provided a brief hope of a return to Jewish boxing prominence.

Sources

Courtney, Gene. "This King Must Work Hard for His Crown." The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mar. 16, 1964. Pg. 25.

Eskin, Lew. "Three Youngsters on the Way." The Ring. Jul. 1964. Pg. 31.

"Fighter Clips Matchmaker Below Nose." The Washington Post. Jan. 27, 1948. Pg. 12.

Gobetz, Gary. "Israel Boxer a 'Smash' in New York." The National Jewish Post and Opinion. Jan. 17, 1964.

Goldstein, Alan. "Boxing Pilot Pulls First." The Baltimore Sun. Apr. 16, 1961. Pg. 14D.

Lipsyte, Robert. "Irish Bob Tells All the Boxing World's Not His Oyster." New York Times. Jan 7, 1964. Pg. 27.

Merchant, Larry. "Jewish Youth Who Came to Fight." Philadelphia Daily News. Mar. 11, 1964. Pg. 59.

Alan Blyweiss - The Inspirational Sparring Partner

"I was set to be the heavyweight champion of the world," Alan Blyweiss said ruefully. "The first Jewish heavyweight champion."

Instead, Blyweiss made a living sparring the likes of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe. After a small fire had broken out in his house earlier in the day and under the threat of a tornado warning, Blyweiss spoke with The Jewish Boxing Blog about his harrowing life. Alan believes he threw away his opportunity to achieve more in boxing, but the difficulties he endured have allowed him to pass on his hard-earned wisdom to the next generation of fighters.

A self-described "heroin baby," Alan Joel Blyweiss was born on March 14, 1969. Born less than a year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the subsequent riots, he was adopted by Lithuanian Jewish parents and raised in the Southeast D.C. community of Barry Farm, an almost exclusively Black neighborhood. "There's nothing white beyond the White House except the Blyweisses," a catchy area saying went.

Alan's father Harold was a mensch, but his mother was "mean and abusive." The unrelenting physical and emotional abuse shaped Alan's entire life. An angry kid, he began boxing at seven years old. By nine, he was the first Jewish white kid jumped into the Bloods. "I stayed in that life far too long," he admitted. In Barry Farm, crime increased exponentially during the 1970s and by the 1980s, it was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. At the age of 13, Alan and his family moved north to Columbia, Maryland.

Shortly after his Bar Mitzvah at Beth Shalom, Blyweiss was sent to juvenile detention for two years after holding his abusive mother at knifepoint for 16 hours. He wasn't going to kill her, but he wanted her to feel something akin to what she had put him through. When he got out of juvie, he showed promise as a high school soccer player. Alan hated to run, but his dad felt soccer would force him to get in shape for boxing. But Alan was never far from trouble. He was kicked out of Atholton High School and didn't last much longer at Mount Hebron.

After getting in trouble, a school official told Harold that his boy needed some tough love. Harold strongly disagreed, but the official quickly discovered the importance of listening Mr. Blyweiss the hard way. As the bloody official expelled Alan for good, Harold quipped, "I did warn you."

At 15 years old Alan was sent to Cus D'Amato in Catskill, New York. He sparred a few rounds with Tyson when he was the heavyweight champion of the world. Throughout his career, Blyweiss learned from other such luminaries as Emanuel Steward, Kevin Rooney, Eddie Futch, and Angelo Dundee.

He said he had over 100 amateur fights although different sources give varying numbers as is customary with records in the unpaid ranks. He said he rose to be the third ranked amateur heavyweight in the country. He took on Tommy Morrison in Kansas in the final of a big tournament. He fought smokers at the Hillcrest Heights Boxing Gym.

Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank showed interest in Blyweiss and gave him a $125,000 signing bonus. Alan blew through the money in three months. Instead of training, he partied and used cocaine. "I was given everything, and I blew it," he said.

Trained by Vardell McCann and sporting the nickname "The Rock," Blyweiss had his pro debut on April 18, 1990 against Gus Linver at the Pikesville Armory. Even in the amateurs Blyweiss suffered from anxiety, but it came to a head in his debut. His mother's constant criticism contributed to his crisis in confidence. The anxiety would build as the fight approached. "I felt anxiety because I knew I hadn't trained properly," Blyweiss said.

Pikesville, Maryland was a hub of Jewish life at the time. Alan and his dad used to go to Pikesville on Sundays to get bagels and herring. He came to the ring wearing a tallis and a yarmulke. About 800 Jewish fans packed the armory, roaring for Blyweiss. "The crowd was awesome. I was ready to take care of business. Except I wasn't." He was stopped in the second round.

After a first round stoppage loss to George Harris in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on November 15, 1991, Blyweiss says Arum froze his contract for six years, effectively ending his pro career. He then became a full time sparring partner.

Blyweiss had been a southpaw, but an elbow injury forced him to switched to an orthodox stance. He sparred Terry Ray under the watchful eyes of Kevin Rooney. As a small speedy heavyweight, Blyweiss fought in the style of Evander Holyfield. "I hit like a mule, and I could take a punch," he recalled. "Against big heavyweights, I boxed their ears off."

Jerry Rabinowitz, a cantor from Pikesville who loved boxing, gave Alan a salary of $850 a week and he also made $100 a round to spar. He was often used as a sparring partner for Holyfield's opponents, including for Riddick Bowe during his trilogy with the cruiserweight and heavyweight champ. Blyweiss said he traveled for three years with Lennox Lewis working with him.

At one point, Blyweiss was offered another $600 a week and a hundred a round to travel up to Philadelphia and spar with James Thunder. "He had muscles on top of muscles," Alan said of Thunder. "I looked at him and said to myself, 'I'm not too sure about this.' I sparred six rounds with him and then I told them that my beeper went off. When I came back, I said my grandmother had just died. I had to go home."

She hadn't. "Over the years, I've had a lot of grandmothers die," he deadpanned.

In 2000, Alan was near death himself. While staying in Boston, he was shot and stabbed. In the hospital, he was induced into a coma. He needed eleven abdominal surgeries. His dad was told to come up to Boston and say his last goodbyes.

Alan survived, but health problems persisted. His boxing career was done. He trained fighters, but bad luck stuck to him like velcro. In 2017, he was diagnosed with probable CTE and Parkinson's Disease. That year a card near Baltimore called "Punches and Prayers for Alan Blyweiss" was promoted to help Alan with mounting medical bills.

Despite many health challenges, things are looking up. Alan and his wife have remarried after previously divorcing. He works at 5 Stones Fight Club in the Hershey, Pennsylvania area. There his Jewish, Muslim, and Christian pupils have an opportunity to safely talk about their differences and similarities. The world, hopelessly divided, needs more of what Alan is giving his charges.

In addition to his boxers' recent success at the Central PA Golden Gloves, he advises popular MMA star Natan Levy, an Israeli who is recovering from knee surgery. Alan reports the plan is to get Levy back into the UFC or the PFL. In the meantime, Levy is on tour speaking out against the rising wave of anti-Semitism.

Alan's life has been a struggle since the beginning. Some of it has been self-inflicted and some the result of inexplicable misfortune. Those difficulties have provided the necessary experiences to help the next generation of fighters learn from his mistakes.

Sidney Jackson: The Father of Uzbek Boxing

Uzbekistan has become one of the premier boxing nations in the world, dominating amateur tournaments and boasting world champions in the professional ranks. That success can be traced back to one Jewish guy from the Bronx named Sidney Jackson.

Jackson was born on April 14, 1886 in the Bronx, New York. The family lived at 1310 Brooke Avenue. His father, Louis, a worker in a chemical plant, died of tuberculosis when Sid was just six years old. His mother then took up work in the garment district. Sid and his brothers split time between attending school and scraping out a living. He spent a stint working as a tailor's apprentice.

One day, a friend showed Sid a magazine featuring pictures of boxers. Sid instantly understood his calling in life. He began boxing at the age of 11. A report from 1943 claims Jackson first fought as a 13 year old in Cleveland representing the Bronx Club and won by knockout. Most sources claim he turned pro at the age of 18. There was a Sidney Jackson who fought in Hawaii as a middleweight along side his brother Nigel beginning in 1903, but our Jackson campaigned as a bantamweight and a featherweight. Contemporary accounts of his pro career have been hard to come by.

In 1914, Jackson joined a a group of American boxers on an overseas tour. While in Glasgow, Jackson injured his thumb and was unable to fight. He, along with fellow boxer and friend Frank Gill, left Scotland to travel throughout Europe. It was an unfortunate time to traverse the continent. On June 28, Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, and his wife. A month later, war broke out. Jackson and Gill were already in Russia "to see the bears walking down the streets."

No bears in sight, the duo kept traveling east at the suggestion of the American Consulate in St. Petersburg. They ran out of money in Tashkent. Both sent telegrams back home to the States, but only Gill received his money and left; Jackson did not.

Boxing was virtually unknown in what was then called Turkestan, so Jackson worked as a tailor at the Yaushev Garment Making Firm. At first, he knew no one. He lived those early years in a one-room mud hut with a roommate. In 1917, revolution swept Russia and its surrounding areas. When the Basmachi movement threatened the Bolshevik takeover, Jackson volunteered and fought the anti-communist rebels with a brigade that included a mishmash of ethnicities and nationalities. He served for four years and was wounded twice in battle.

After the war, Jackson settled down back in a rapidly industrializing Tashkent, which was then the largest city in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He got a job as a sports instructor at the former Romanov Palace, a relic of the czar era built in 1891 for the grandson of Nicolas I. From there, Jackson began teaching boxing, but it wasn't so simple.

The club didn't have any boxing equipment and no way to get some. So as one writer explained, "Sidney made sport equipment for classes with his own hands from improvised materials. He made a makeshift ring from [an] old ship's tarpaulin, hemmed three pairs of old gloves, and sewed several new pairs of leather and horsehair from a local slaughterhouse. The trainer made punching bags from the canvas bags here as well." He stuffed seaweed in one of the old gloves to serve as padding.

Jackson didn't just coach boxing, but introduced track and field, basketball, and swimming to the area. He advertised the sporting association by posting flyers on fences and trees throughout the city of Tashkent.

In 1922, he finally received his exit papers from the United States, but by that time he had made a life in Tashkent. He soon gained Soviet citizenship. In the mid-1920s, the USSR banned boxing, but the sport was soon reinstated with only amateur rules permitted. At the age of 43, Sidney married a Russian Jewish woman named Bertha. They had two kids, a son named Leo and a daughter named Paina. Leo started boxing at 11 and rose to become a top amateur in the country. After fighting, Leo became a respected surgeon while officiating boxing bouts on the side.

In the 1930s, Sidney Jackson decided to go to school. In his 50s, he earned a degree in English and served as a professor at the Tashkent Institute of Foreign Languages. He assumed the name Sidney Lvovich Jackson.

When the Soviets entered World War II, several of Jackson's pupils made worldwide headlines. One was Leonid Mesh, who knocked out cold a German soldier with an uppercut and then took him prisoner. Another, Ivan Treyakov, put together a left uppercut-right hook combination that destroyed another German soldier.

After the war, Jackson continued to teach boxing at the Palace of Pioneers where he always rode his bicycle to work. One of his prized post-war proteges was Valeri Popenchenko, who not only won Olympic gold in the middleweight division at the 1964 Olympics, but also captured the Val Barker trophy as the most outstanding boxer at the Games.

Throughout his career, but particularly as he aged, Jackson basked in the unwavering success of his pupils. "My father was both very kind and very tough," recalled his daughter Paina. "He loved people. That was one of his main features. And people reciprocated. He had that kind of aura.

"One of his students wrote that he is one of the sites of Tashkent," said his daughter. The residents of the city could tell time by his actions. "Jackson's going to work. That means it's almost seven o'clock," she remembered hearing in the streets. Jackson was so respected, a heavyweight boxer took his girlfriend to ask for the coach's blessing even before introducing her to his parents.

Another decorated disciple, Rinat Yusupov, began training with Jackson in 1964. "I thank my lucky stars. He made a man of me," he said.

Jackson taught Jewish boxers Vladimir Agaronov, Iosif Budman, and Eli and Gershon Luxembourg, among many others. The Luxembourgs moved to Israel and their gym in Jerusalem featured a prominent portrait of Jackson. "Jackson passed on to us that attitude to respect other people and other nationalities," Gershon  explained. "Among the boys there [at Jackson's gym], there were lots of Uzbek kids training, lots of Jewish kids, lots of Russians, Tatars, everyone. We were all together in that melting pot... We all felt the same love and care from that man."

World champion and Olympic silver medalist Rufat Riskiyev said that Jackson taught him his "stance, the right way to punch, footwork, good breathing." Jackson focused on a boxer's breathing as a way to increase their stamina.

"Among his students were heroes of the Soviet Union, PhDs, candidates of science," said Uzbek champ and coach Mirsalikh Sagatov. "He used to say,  'Boxing is a mental form of sport. In the ring you have to think.' And this attitude of his, his words, passed into those people for their whole lives."

Sidney died on January 5, 1966 at the age of 79. He was buried at the Botkin Street Cemetery in Tashkent.

Uzbeks consider their teacher to be equal to their father, and Sidney Jackson was the father of Uzbek boxing. Over one hundred years after his arrival, Jackson's legacy, not limited to boxing, endures throughout the country.

Sources

"A Guy from the Bronx and His Contribution to Uzbekistan's Boxing Gold." The Times of Central Asia. Aug. 14, 2024.

Babayev, Boris. "The Phenomenon of Sidney Jackson." 2002.

"Old Time American Fighter Teaches Soviet Kids the Art." The Daily Worker. Jun. 24, 1943. Pg. 6.

Piklicka-Wilczewska, Agnieszka. "In Uzbekistan's Corner, Muscle and Pride." Eurasianet. May 1, 2020.

Riordan, Jim. "Sidney Jackson: An American in Russia's Boxing Hall of Fame. Journal of Sport History. Spring 1993. Pgs. 49-56.

"Sidney Jackson - An American Boxer in Uzbekistan." Uzbek Journeys. Jan. 27, 2016.

"Sidney Jackson - The Grandfather of Uzbek Boxing." Asian Boxing.

"Uzbek Story of American Boxer." Uzbek Travel.

Noah Shneidman: Holocaust Survivor

A professor of Russian literature, N. N. Shneidman was a skilled amateur boxer in his youth. His burgeoning boxing career was cut short by the Nazi invasion of his hometown, Vilnius.

Noah Norman Shneidman was born on September 24, 1924 in Wilno, Poland. Wilno is now widely know as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. When Noah was born, it was part of Poland and a hub for Jews, whose presence in the city dates back to 1326. Many lived within the old city although the Shneidman family stayed just outside.

Noah attended Tarbut for high school with its secular Zionist bent. Students at Tarbut learned to primarily speak in Hebrew and were schooled in the importance of physical activity. Noah joined one of the many Jewish sports clubs in the city. He became a member of the Jordan club junior basketball team. The Jordan team practiced in the Tarbut gym, where the club's boxers also trained. A group of the ball players showed up early one day to see what boxing was all about. The other players didn't take to boxing, but Noah became enamored with the sport.

Boxing was a popular sport in Poland. A bantamweight, Noah was initially trained by a Jewish heavyweight from Warsaw named Igo Blium. Shneidman started off his amateur career beating most of his opponents who were from rival Jewish clubs. The 14 year old then stepped up to face older, stronger opponents, many who were gentiles. While facing his gentile foes, Noah often heard vociferous cries of "biy Zhida!" meaning "hit the Jew." Though Jewish fans looked up to Jewish boxers, they usually remained quiet during the fights for their own safety.

In the spring of 1939, Shneidman faced Stanisław Lendzion, the runner-up at Poland nationals that year at flyweight. A 22 year old, Lendzion was an all-round athlete, competing in track and field, swimming, and skiing. In an upset for Noah, the referee called the bout a draw.

In August, Shneidman was invited to a training camp for prospects. A month later, Lithuania annexed Vilnius. Basketball was the national sport of Noah's new country as boxing was not nearly as popular as it had been in Poland. Consequently, Shneidman's Lithuanian opponents were not as tough as his Polish foes had been. In April of 1940, he fought in the Lithuanian nationals at bantamweight. Along the way to the final, Noah beat J. Žemaitis, who had grabbed silver in 1937 and gold in 1938. In the final, he faced Lendzion in a rematch. Though Shneidman's technique was superior, Lendzion's strength advantage carried the bout. Shneidman came away with silver at just 15 years old.

As a result of the earlier Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Vilnius was swallowed by the USSR in October of 1940. Jewish life, including schools and clubs, were erased. Still, Noah looked forward to graduating from high school and, as the champion of Vilnius, improving his skills enough to join the Soviet boxing team.

It was not to be. On June 22, 1940, the Nazis invaded Vilnius. The Jews inside the old city were rounded up and killed. The Jews who lived just outside, including Noah and his family, were forced into old city, which was walled off and turned into the Vilnius ghetto. Ghetto life was miserable. Noah tried desperately to get work that would keep him inside during the frigid Lithuanian winters. The stress of ghetto life eventually took his 48-year-old father. In retrospect, his father may have been lucky to avoid the hell to come.

Jewish leaders of the ghetto would occasionally stage sporting events for visiting German officials. Noah participated in a basketball game for which he was paid a pound of sugar. On May 18, 1943, he fought a Jewish refugee from Poland named Kos. Kos was older, bigger, and stronger, but Noah had better technique. Still, Noah came up short. The loss to Kos was the 18 year old's twentieth fight, so he was gifted a medal created by a Jewish craftsman commemorating the fight. His mother and sister appreciated the pound of butter he earned for the fight, but Noah was excited and grateful to have received the medal. It signified a link to his pre-ghetto life and hope for what life could become again.

Shneidman (left)

Shneidman was involved in resistance activities and hid a gun in his family's apartment. At one point, he was arrested and put in jail. Many Jews who were jailed were executed, even if they were held only for a short time. Shneidman believed his popularity as a boxer contributed to his safe and timely release. In September of 1943, Nazis came in the ghetto to round up a group of Jews in order to deport them to the camps. Shneidman was part of the armed resistance. The Jewish fight resulted in two consequences: fewer German soldiers guarding the perimeter and the liquidation of the ghetto. Noah escaped into the forest.

Shneidman joined a partisan group in the fight against the Nazis. His mother perished in the camps, but his sister survived and moved to Poland. After the war, Noah became a Soviet soldier. He boxed a captain in the army and felt he deserved the win. Instead, the captain was granted the decision. Lower-ranking soldiers vehemently protested and an immediate rematch was ordered. Both fighters were exhausted, but Noah won the return bout. His reward was a lengthy furlough, which he used to return to Vilnius in hopes of finding his sister and recovering his belongings. A gentile family had taken over his ghetto residence and wouldn't let him in.

Noah continued to box until about 1949. He was a member of the Lithuanian national boxing team and the club Zaligis. He missed an opportunity to regain Polish citizenship, so he was stuck in the Soviet Union for another decade. In the meantime, he gained a PhD in sport education and coached boxing. In 1958, a window reopened to repatriate to Poland and he, his wife, and young child immigrated. They soon moved to Canada where Noah reunited with his sister. He became a professor of Russian literature at Toronto University and wrote several well-regarded books about the Vilnius ghetto and sports in the Soviet Union.

In 2006, two guys with medal detectors were scrounging around a farm in Lithuania when they heard a beeping sound. One had found something. They dug until they uncovered a small medal with unfamiliar writing. They showed friends and family the medal until one recognized the language as Yiddish. A college student studying Yiddish revealed that the medal belonged to a boxer named Noah Shneidman.

Bureaucratic squabbles prevented the medal from being returned to Noah immediately. The Jewish museum of Vilnius wanted to keep the medal. After much effort, Shneidman eventually received his medal after nearly 65 years.

Shneidman (right)

On December 30, 2016, Noah died at the age of 92 in Toronto, Canada. His life was a testament to the perseverance of the Jewish people. Even in the face of unspeakable hardship, we eventually thrive.

Sources

Bertašius, S.A. "Lietuvos Sporto Žinyas." 1999. Pg. 36.

Noah Shneidman Obituary. The Globe and Mail. 
Osmólski, Piotr. Leksykon boksu. 1989.

Shneidman, N.N. The Boxing Medal. 2015.

Harry Wallach: Conqueror of Jackie Fields

Dominant amateur Harry Wallach made the 1924 U.S. Olympic team as a featherweight, but never got the chance to compete in Paris. After the disappointment of the Games, Wallach turned pro and stitched together a noteworthy nine-year career as a contender.

Harry Wallach was born on March 20, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York. Or maybe he was born on May 17 that year, as his 1924 immigration form states. Either way, he lived on 462 Bradford Street in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. Harry was introduced to boxing by his uncle Dr. Louis Wallach, a well-known dentist. Uncle Louis was well-known because he was also a future Hall of Fame boxer who fought from 1905-1921. Nicknamed "The Fighting Dentist" and using the pseudonym Leach Cross, he was idolized by the Jewish boys of New York, including the great Benny Leonard.

Leach's nephew Harry trained in a local gym in East New York. Beecher's Gymnasium was run by a fellow Jew, ex-boxer Willie Beecher, whose brother Charlie joined him in running the enterprise. Wallach first appeared in the newspapers early in 1923 when he won an amateur tournament at 118 pounds. Amateur opponents couldn't deal with the power-punching southpaw. Wallach later swept through the competition at Madison Square Garden to win the New York state featherweight title.

Harry was so dominant as an amateur, he not only beat all of his opponents, he also knocked out most of them. Only the flu could stop Wallach, who doctors deemed medically unable to fight in a local qualifier to make the Olympic trials in 1924. Because of his impressive amateur record, he was given an opportunity to fight in the national championships in Boston two weeks later in late May.

Wallach made it to the semifinals of the featherweight tournament when he faced the hottest rising star in amateur boxing: Jackie Fields. Wallach posed two problems for young Fields: Fields had re-broken his right hand and Wallach was a southpaw. "I never fought a southpaw before," Fields recalled. "He walked out and I said, 'Hey, turn around. You're fighting wrong.'"

Wallach beat Fields by decision and went on to face Fields's best friend, Joe Salas, in the finals. Harry came up short, but in 1924 countries were allowed to send two boxers in each weight class. As a runner-up at nationals, which also served as the Olympic trials, Wallach was all but assured of a spot on the Olympic team.

The coach of the U.S. boxing team, Spike Webb, made the strange decision to take four featherweights aboard the USS America, bound for Paris, France. Wallach, Fields, Salas, and Patsy Ruffalo set sail on June 16, 1924. On the ship. Fields beat Ruffalo, who would experience internal injuries and was rushed to a French hospital upon arrival in Europe. That left three featherweights: two competitors and one alternate. Joe Salas had won the national title, so he made the team. It seemed as if Wallach would be the second featherweight entry and Fields the alternate.

Once in Paris, the U.S. team trained at Raquencourt. Fields remembered, "I fooled around, not training diligently, because I didn’t think I was going to fight." Assistant coach Al Lacey alerted Fields that Webb was going to pit Fields and Wallach against each other for the right to make the team. Salas helped Fields with how to fight a lefty. After their sparring, Webb picked Fields. Wallach, 17 years old at the time, must have been crushed.

Fields went on to beat Salas in the Olympic final, the youngest boxer ever to win gold. He received glory and fame; Wallach, who had beaten Fields two months earlier at the trials, could only watch. He never got the chance to fight at the Olympics, though he did battle in an exhibition in Paris. The papers would later report he didn't fight because he came down with an illness as a way so he could save face.  Wallach arrived back home with the rest of the team on August 6, 1924 via the USS America.

Harry turned pro on September 10 against Arnold Ryan. Wallach looped a left in the second round to score a knockdown and carried the fight the rest of the six rounds. He then fought seven times in two months beginning on November 3. His only loss in the stretch came to the experienced Sid Rabin. Wallach then won ten fights in a row over the next six months.

Frank Churchill managed Wallach. Churchill conjured up a headshot of his charge with the title "conqueror of Jackie Fields" written on top. Churchill was an associate of feared mobster Owney Madden, a major bootlegger. Churchill and Madden collaborated to guide the farcical career of future heavyweight champion Primo Carnera.

In the summer of 1925, Churchill took Wallach on a west coach swing. He was in tough against Billy Wallace and Tod Morgan, Wallach's two losses on the trip. Churchill tried to arrange a blockbuster rematch against Fields, but the Olympic gold medalist was a sought-after man. It would've been a natural fight for Wallach, but not so much for Fields, who was chasing a popular young fighter named Jimmy McLarnin. Fields would go on to win the welterweight world championship twice and become a Hall of Famer.

Though Churchill was undoubtedly tied to gangsters, it didn't necessarily mean Wallach's fights were fixed. Boxers needed deep-pocketed backers, and gangsters were obvious choices. Welterweight contender Ruby Goldstein explained that all top boxers had mob sponsors in those days.

Wallach worked his way to Madison Square Garden during the summer of 1926. He fought there twice and both resulted in disappointing knockout losses. Against Harry Cook, Wallach put on a clinic before a thumb caught his eye and forced him to pull out in the seventh. Hilario Martinez blasted the New York southpaw out of the Garden for good in the second round of their September 30 fight. Harry lingered at lightweight for a few more fights before he moved up to 140 pounds by 1927.

The Ring rated Wallach as the eighth best junior welterweight in its 1929 February edition, but Harry couldn't quite get past the other top contenders. Bruce Flowers, Tommy Cello, Andy DiVodi, and Baby Joe Gans all bested him in the late 1920s. In 1928, he stopped Joey Silvers in the seventh round in a rematch. The two had faced off four years earlier, not in the ring but on the billiards table.

As a welterweight, Wallach dropped two decisions to Manuel Quintero in 1930. Harry won his share of fights, but not against top opponents. He moved up to middleweight by 1932 and was stopped by former welterweight world champion Tommy Freeman. Wallach retired from the ring in 1933. BoxRec lists his record as 55-21-4, including newspaper decisions. Though he was a puncher as an amateur, his power didn't transfer to the pro game. He stopped 13 foes and was halted six times. His southpaw stance, often treated like a case of the Spanish flu during his career, and his inability to get a signature win in the pro game, prevented his prizefighting career from reaching the heights that would've avenged his Olympic snub.

Wallach lived until the age of 62, passing away on January 30, 1970 in Los Angeles. In the last decades of his life, he was remembered as the conqueror of Jackie Fields, slighted from competing at the Olympics.

Sources
Acevedo, Carlos. "The Duke of the West Side: Owney 'Killer' Madden." Hannibal. 2019.

"Baker Stops Ryder; Wallach Wins Award Over Ryan." The Brooklyn Standard Union. Sep. 11, 1924. Pg. 14.

"Harry Wallach in Pro Debut at the Ridgewood." The Brooklyn Citizen. October 26, 1924. Pg. 16.

"Harry Wallach Picked to Win Olympic Title." Brooklyn Eagle. Jul. 10, 1924. Pg. 24.

Heller, Peter. "...In This Corner." 1994.

The Ring. February 1929.

"Wallach and Silvers in Billiards Match." The Brooklyn Standard Union. Oct. 3, 1924. Pg. 17.

"Wallach, Stopped by a Thumb, Will Return to Ring Soon." Brooklyn Eagle. Aug/ 1, 1926. Pg. 38.

The Jewish Jolter: Ronnie Cohen

Jewish fighters are often stereotyped as intelligent, crafty boxers. Southpaws are typically slick cuties. When you combine the two, you get Ronnie Cohen, a wild-swinging power puncher who rose out of a dysfunctional childhood to become an exciting brawler during his brief professional boxing career.

Ronald Cowell was born to Richard and Rosalie née Klein in 1937. Ronald was the middle of three children and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. His dad made a $1,000 a year working for the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal government agency. But Richard, who left high school after ninth grade, was unemployed when he was drafted into the military in October of 1940.

By the time Ronnie was 13, his family had dissolved. His mother was serving time in prison, and his parents had divorced. His father started a new family with a waitress named Susan. Richard supported his new wife and the couple's young son, Ronnie's half-brother, by working part time loading newspapers onto trucks before delivery.

Ronnie, along with his older brother Richard and his sister Lillian, survived together at Leake and Watts Children's Home, an orphanage in Yonkers. The children yearned for their mother, Rosalie, who had been immured at the Women's House of Detention, a prison of deplorable condition which such assorted women as Mae West, Ethel Rosenberg, and Angela Davis once reluctantly called home. The prison was reserved for rebels, lesbians, and Jezebels in addition to those who may have done something illegal.

Upon her release, Rosalie volunteered extensively for the American Legion beginning in 1952 to honor her father, a veteran of World War I. She encouraged her sons to enter the military.

Ronnie took up his mother's suggestion. An athlete who allegedly once got a tryout with the New York Yankees, he learned to box while in the military. He decided to change his name for his newfound profession. "Cohen sounds like a fighting name," he reasoned.

On February 10, 1959, Cohen fought veteran Chuck Bloss to a split draw in six rounds of scintillating, show-stealing action.  After two decision wins, Cohen fought Leroy Howard in April. Their fight was the highlight of the night as Cohen floored Howard in the first with a looping left to the body. The same punch to the head, knocked out Howard in the second. 

Cohen fought Bloss in a rematch on June 28. This time, he stopped Bloss in the sixth round, but there was an unfortunate downside to the victory. Fewer than 500 fans showed up to watch the fight at the Kingston Armory in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The silver lining was the crowd was three times bigger than the promoter Gus Shorts's previous show.

The win over Bloss in the rematch started a streak of twelve consecutive knockouts and fourteen straight victories for Cohen over the course of a year. Ronnie was on such a streak that Madison Square Garden's legendary matchmaker Teddy Brenner placed him alongside Emile Griffin, Florentino Fernandez, and Jose Fernandez when listing the current crop of elite welterweights.

Irving Cohen, the manager of former middleweight world champion Rocky Graziano claimed, "Pound-for-pound, Ronnie hits harder than Rocky."

Ronnie's manager Scoop Gallello brought him to Charley Goldman, the legendary trainer of Rocky Marciano and a former bantamweight. "So far as being a boxer, you can throw that idea out the window," Goldman told Gallello. "Just teach him a little defense and how to bob and weave a bit so he doesn't catch too many punches. His wallop will take care of the rest."

Alan Goldstein of the Baltimore Morning Sun once wrote, "Cohen, a wild swinging southpaw with a tremendous wallop in either fist, had about as much chance of developing into a Fancy Dan boxer as Primo Carnera."

Throughout 1960, writers debated Cohen's Jewishness. Ultimately, it was uncovered that his mother Rosalie was born Jewish, while his father Richard was not. The curly-haired Cohen identified as Jewish throughout his career.

Steve Ward leans on Ronnie

Midway through 1960, Cohen's win streak snapped when Gale Kerwin knocked him down three times in the second round on August 8 at Madison Square Garden. A win over Kerwin would have earned him a shot at Benny Paret's welterweight championship. It would be the closest he'd come to a title shot. Ronnie won two of his next three, all at St. Nicholas Arena and all ending in stoppages. He then finished his career with six straight losses, showing that power without the requisite skill can only get a fighter so far.

Cohen's last win came on December 12, 1960 against Eddie Antonetti, a fighter with a losing record. Cohen stopped him in the eighth and final round, but at a cost. "I think I see birds," he said aloud in the locker room after the fight. "They're not supposed to come out until day time, but I think I see them." A doctor came into the room and asked, "How do you feel, Ronnie?"

"I feel fine," he replied. "Got an aspirin?"

On December 11, 1961, Cohen officially retired from the ring. In 33 action-packed fights, he finished with a record of 20-11-2 with 16 KOs and he was stopped five times. The state athletic commission recommended the retirement based on the wars he had fought. "Cohen made a stir a few years ago," Larry Merchant wrote in 1964. But "he was easy to hit."

Cohen fought in charity exhibitions throughout the 1970s. Chico Vejar, who initiated many of the charity events, was a common opponent. In 1978, he was honored along with Frank Sinatra, Jack Dempsey, Cat Davis, and another Jewish boxer named Bobby Halpern by the Westchester County Veteran Boxers Association. Cohen was the lone boxer inducted into the county's boxing Hall of Fame that year.

Ronnie Cohen died on February 4, 2007. The southpaw slugger provided hope for Jewish fans in America at a time when fewer and fewer f their fellow tribesmen were lacing up the gloves.

Sources
Apmann, Sarah Bean. The Women's House of Detention. Off the Grid. Jan. 29, 2018.

Burke, Billy. "Old Timer's Scrapbook. Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. May 23, 1960. Pg. 19.

"Cohen TKOs Bloss." Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. Jun. 29, 1959. Pg. 19.

"Cohen's Ring Career Ends." The Standard-Star. Jan. 15, 1962. Pg. 16.

"Dempsey, Sinatra to be feted at boxing dinner." The Herald Statesman. Jun. 22, 1978. Pg. 42.

Diaz, Joey. "Rosalie Cowell, 81, American Legion Volunteer." The Miami Herald. May 9, 1997. Pg. 260.

"Getting Punchy." Fremont Times. Jan. 6, 1961. Pg. 10.

Merchant, Larry. "Jewish Youth Who Came to Fight." 

Mullins, Eddie. "Charity Games Coming." The Amarillo Globe-Times. Jan. 30, 1961. Pg. 10.

Sparse Crowd Sees Sugar Hart Drop Foe in First Round." Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. Apr. 29, 1959. Pg. 37.

U.S. Censuses from 1940 and 1950. 

The Brief Career of Dino "Casino" Berkowitz

Dean Allan Watt was born on January 20, 1957 in Mount Holly, New Jersey to Raymond Watt and Beryl Berkowitz Watt. Dean came from a big family with five siblings. In his early twenties, he became a barber and hairstylist. He worked hard and eventually owned multiple salons.

Around this time, Watt added boxing to his busy schedule. He was trained by Joe Tete, a decorated bodybuilder and boxing coach. They worked out of the Moorsetown Gym in New Jersey, a hotbed for fighters in the area at the time. Watt assumed his mother's maiden name, Berkowitz, for his boxing career. Dean was an avid gambler and loved to make the hour drive southeast to Atlantic City, so his nom de box was Dino "Casino" Berkowitz.

"He just wanted to be a fighter," Coach Tete told The Jewish Boxing Blog. "He never had any amateur fights, just a lot of guts and some training."

Berkowitz turned pro on June 26, 1983 at the age of 27. Fighting just above the lightweight limit, he faced fellow debutant Joey Whitfield at the Cherry Hill Inn in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. A writer at the Courier-Post was unimpressed. "Believe it or not," the scribe wrote, "a Mount Holly hairdresser named Dean Allan Watt will make his pro debut on the bill, fighting under the moniker Dino 'Casino' Berkowitz. C'mon, give me a break." Whitfield didn't give Berkowitz a break and stopped him in the third round.

Casino Berkowitz next fought on October 9, 1984 on a card promoted by Don Elbaum. He took on Charlie Briscoe of Philadelphia at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Berkowitz knocked out Briscoe at the end of the first round. He was in tough in his next fight on November 20 at the same venue. Casino's opponent was Johnny Bizzarro Jr. of Youngstown, Ohio. Bizzarro was only 1-1 at the time but would go on to have a very good career. He stopped Berkowitz fifty seconds into the second round.

Berkowitz floored by Bizzarro

Berkowitz retired from the ring with a record of 1-2, all three fights ending early. "I love that guy. He was a real character," Coach Tete remembered. "He was a tough guy, a good guy, and had a great following." Dino loved the beach and was always spotted with a tan. He lived in Florida for a time, but moved back to New Jersey where he always made it a point to visit the casinos in Atlantic City.

On November 20, 1995 Dean Watt died under tragic circumstances. He was just 38 years old.

Sources

Interview with Joe Tete.

Marder, Phill. "Rossman Readies for 'step two' in his attempt to regain the title." Courier-Post. Jun. 11, 1983. Pg. 9.

Snyder, Craig. The Boxers of Youngstown, Ohio. 2018.

Watt, David. "Dean Allan Watt." Find a Grave.

The Human Sponge: Alf Ros

Few fighters fit the mold of a true road warrior as well as Alf Ros. From 1921 until 1939, Ros fought on four continents against countless good and great opponents. He battled Jackie Fields, Ben Jeby, Vince Dundee, Tommy Freeman, Young Corbett III, and Lou Brouillard: all current, or future world champions when Ros faced them.

Jewish boxers from North Africa have a tradition of success. Victor "Young" Perez, Alphonse Halimi and Robert Cohen are the best remembered, but there were many quality Jewish boxers coming out of Algerian, Tunisian, and Morocco. Ros was the first to make a name for himself.

Alfred Ros was born on January 20, 1903 in Oran, Algeria to a Spanish mother and an Algerian father. France had taken control of Algeria in 1830 and incorporated the country into France in 1848. Algerian Jews were given French citizenship in 1870 as part of France's strategy to divide and conquer. Though considered part of France, Oran had a significant Spanish influence with much of the city's large European population hailing from Spain.

Ros started his professional career in Morocco in 1921. He fought under the first names Alf or Fred and his surname was sometimes spelled "Ross." After several fights in Morocco, he began campaigning in France the following year against good competition. Following a fight in Italy, he made his homecoming on March 3, 1923 when he fought Pedro Sáez, a notable boxer from Spain.

Sáez was recovering from a devastating low blow in sparring and began the bout firmly in survival mode. In the seventh round, Ros butted Sáez, who was knocked to the ground. The referee gave Sáez a minute's rest to recover, but Sáez was unable to continue and the fight was ruled a TKO victory for Ros. Later than night, Sáez saw the referee at a concert of Bizet's "Carmen" and futilely confronted him about his ruling, believing he should have won by disqualification. It was the only time Sáez was ever stopped in his career.

Ros fought a few more times in Oran, then several times back in Casablanca, before relocating to France and sneaking in a fight in Belgium. He was based in Bois-Colombes, a suburb northwest of Paris. One of his best wins came against Arthur Schaekels on September 2, 1925 in France's capital city. Ros won the ten-rounder by decision. A famed denizen of the city took notice. The following January, Ernest Hemingway wrote to a friend that Schaekels's dominance in Mexico immediately after the Ros fight - even winning the Mexican welterweight title - showed just how tough Ros was (pg. 3).

In 1926, Ros married Hélène, a French woman a year older than himself. That year, he beat future French welterweight champ Yvan Laffineur and drew with the current champ Emile Romerio before traveling to London. Ros was constantly in the ring, learning veteran tricks along the way. On January 11, 1927 Ros lost a rematch for the French title against Romerio, but picked up a big win twenty days later in London when he avenged a loss to Joe Rolfe with a 13th round knockout.

Alf Ros

Back in Paris, Ros went on a rampage in the ring. On September 7, 1927 Ros stopped French welterweight champion Alfred Pegazzano in the seventh round, but Ros was overweight so the title didn't change hands. Despite multiple efforts, he never would win the coveted French crown.

On November 20 and 21, 1927 Ros fought in back-to-back fifteen rounders in London. He lost to veteran Billy Bird and then drew with Billy Adair. Alf only fought twice in 1928 before setting sail for the new world. He received his visa to travel to the United Sates on August 23. Boarding the Rochambeau at Havre, France on October 31, Ros arrived in New York ten days later. He worked in two fights in Puerto Rico before the end of the year, traveling with fellow a Wahrani boxer named Antoine Ascencio.

On February 22, 1929 Ros fought in the continental United States for the first time. The venue happened to be the center of boxing: Madison Square Garden. Ros upset veteran Billy Adler, battering him around the ring for nine rounds before the fight was stopped. Ros was "the real hit of the night" and described as "a pocket-edition of Tom Sharkey."

On March 11 at MSG, Ros couldn't get inside against the much taller future welterweight world champion Tommy Freeman. He then lost to quality fighters like Nick Testo, Canada Lee, and My Sullivan. His biggest win in New York came against future middleweight world champion Ben Jeby, but he lost the rematch in October. Still, Ros was "hailed as one of the hardest hitting European welterweights."

In New York, Ros was a stablemate of the Spanish heavyweight Paulino Uzcundun, known as "The Basque Woodchopper." Alf lived on 111th Street in Manhattan with his wife, who arrived on May 28, 1929 and Americanized her name to Elaine. Fellow fighter Gaston LeCadre, "The Fighting Apache of Paris," lived two doors down.

On January 6, 1930 Ros fought the welterweight world champion Jackie Fields in a nontitle affair. The two fighters thrilled the Philadelphia crowd with their constant exchanges. Fields typically boxed, but against the shorter Ros, he was forced to fight, and it made for an exciting showing. Alf's stock rose.

He lost to future middleweight world champion Vince Dundee and future welterweight world champion Young Corbett III in successive months. Ros went down in the fourth and ninth rounds against Corbett, a tricky southpaw. He came back to decision Abe Attell's nephew, Gilbert on June 25.

Described as "a human sponge" because he could absorb so much punishment, Ros was something of an enigma to the American press. They called the short, stout fighter with the hairy chest "swarthy." They alternately labeled him as Spanish, Moroccan, Belgian, South African, Armenian, French, Algerian, and Hebrew.

One scribe declared, "Ros is heralded around New York as the greatest club fighter of all time." During his ten year career and likely over a hundred fights to that point, Alf had never been stopped.

On February 6, 1931 Alf fought future two-division world champion Lou Brouillard. In the sixth of an eight-rounder at Boston Garden, Ros was finally stopped. It would be the first of only two times he lost by knockout.

After a few more losses, Ros traveled to Mexico and fought there for a year, including a draw against the popular Mexican-American Bert Colima. He spent the next year and a half toiling in Costa Rica. In October of 1933 Ros faced an old nemesis, Arthur Schaekels, in Chile of all places. They fought to a draw. The next year, Ros stopped Felix "Kid" Thomas, the Nicaraguan welterweight titlist, in the fourth round in Managua. Ros then relocated to Peru, where he fought until 1936, with one comeback fight in 1939.

According to BoxRec, Ros's record was 57-37-16 with 24 KOs, but due to the itinerant nature of his career, he surely fought more. Alf's legacy extends beyond his own personal accomplishments, though. He laid the foundation for generations of North African Jewish boxers who were able to build upon Ros's labor and create championship careers.

Sources

Eckersall, Walter. "Mandell Meets Vicentini at Stadium Tonight." Chicago Daily Tribune. Sep. 6, 1929. Pg. 21.

"Fast Bouts Await Fans Who Attend Moose Hall Bouts." Shamokin News-Dispatch. Apr. 22, 1931. Pg. 6.

Hughes, Ed. "Paulino's Slugging Too Big a Puzzle for Christner to Solve." Brooklyn Eagle. Feb. 23, 1929. Pg. 10.

Vackner, Charles. "Braddock Demonstrates Punching Prowess Stopping Slattery." The Brooklyn Daily Times. Mar. 12, 1929. Pg. 23.

Immigration records, New York City, 1928, 1929.

U.S. Census, 1930.