Henry Melody Jackson Jr. or Henry Armstrong, the owner of the nicknames “Homicide Hank” and “Hurricane Henry”, was a world boxing champion. He was the only boxer who held three world championships at the same time (World Featherweight, World Lightweight and World Welterweight Champion) he won boxing championships in three or more different divisions (back then there were these many weight divisions like the present day.)
Six years ago in 2002, Ring Magazine ranked Armstrong as the 2nd greatest fighter of the last 80 years. The first was Sugar Ray Robinson and the third was the great Muhammad Ali.
Armstrong developed his boxing skills since he was little and started as a pro when he was 19. He didn’t start out just like many great boxers. Years by years he got improved. A former world champion like Juan Zurita and former champ Mike Belloside also lost to Armstrong not many years after he started the career.
In 1937 he did almost 30 KO winnings and became world Featherweight Champion by defeating Petey Sarron and made about 30 more KOs in 1938. He, 126, won over Barney Ross, 147 by unanimous decision, adding the world Welterweight Championship to his Featherweight belt. After that he decided he couldn’t make the Featherweight division anymore and left the crown vacant and started the welterweight a couple years later.
In 1945 he decided to end the boxing career. His registered record was 150 wins, 21 losses and 9 draws with 100 KO wins. However, his exact record isn’t really known because it is believed he fought some pay fights under the nickname of Melody Jackson.
He got to become a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
You can check out his official website for a full biography and photos or Henry Armstrong at www.henryarmstrong.net , a dedicated site to him by his family.