Jimmy “Babyface” McLarnin beats Chicago's Barney Ross by judges’ decision to regain the world welterweight boxing championship title at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York. The Strathcona resident, who was taught how to box by Charles “Pop” Foster and turned pro at age 15, first won the belt a year earlier after knocking out former champ Young Corbett III in only 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
He’d been defeated by Ross four months previous and lost both his belt and a final rubber match to him the following year by a narrow decision.
McLarnin retired in 1936 at age 29 with a record of 55 wins (KO 21), 11 loses and three draws.
In his book "The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time," boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar rated McLarnin 22nd overall and the second-best welterweight behind Sugar Ray Robinson. Sugar also said McLarnin was the first to be called “the best fighter pound for pound,” not Robinson, as most people believe.
He died in 2004 at age 96.
