The Greatest Jewish Boxer You've Never Heard Of

But have you heard of any Jewish boxers? Did you know that almost 30% of professional boxers in the 20s and 30s were Jewish? As for Jewish athletes, you may have heard of Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, but why not Barney Ross, one of the few boxers ever to clinch a championship in three weight classes (lightweight, junior welterweight, and welterweight)? 

After retiring from a boxing career of 71 wins -- 22 by knockouts --, Ross applied for an age waiver to join the Marines in 1942, killed twenty-two Japanese single-handedly in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and returned home a war hero -- as well as a drug addict from the morphine given to him for pain and malaria. He would have fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which secured the new State of Israel, but the State Department shut that initiative down, so he had to content himself with smuggling guns stateside.

Doug Century, author of the only full-length biography of Barney Ross, recounts his life in this Shoga Speaks podcast using anecdotes and contextualizing Jewish details. 

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