Al Capone smokes a cigar on the train carrying him to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta where he will start serving an eleven-year sentence. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS" width="190" height="252" /> 04 May 1932 — Infamous gangster Al Capone smokes a cigar on the train carrying him to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta where he will start serving an eleven-year sentence. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
Barney Ross, Boxer Who Worked For Gangster Al Capone
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Even when you work for Al Capone……………….No Man Stands Alone.
Besides that line being the title of his autobiography, Barney Ross was much more than a boxing champion. He was the solid chin boxer in the era before Hector Camacho Jr., who could never be stopped or knocked down, who fought his all with everything he had to the bitter end. A world champion in three weight divisions, and a celebrated decorated Marine veteran in World War II, his professional boxing career had a strange start.
Barney Ross was born Dov-Ber Beryl Rosofsky in 1909. His father was a Talmudic scholar who emigrated from Belarus after surviving a pogrom. The rabbi emigrated to New York and then moved to Chicago with his family, where he ran a small grocery store until he was murdered resisting a robbery. His mother had a nervous breakdown, and Barney and his three siblings wound up in an orphanage.
Ross became a street brawler, thief and money runner for Chicago gangster Al Capone, and went on to become the Intercity Golden Gloves champion, and the Chicago Golden Gloves champion. He represented the concept of Jews fighting back against Adolf Hitler, and he did it in the boxing ring. Known as a great fighter with heart and stamina, Ross had a record of 72 wins, four losses, three draws, and two no decisions as a pro boxer. His best friend and original trainer was his street friend Jack Ruby, best known for killing JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
The winner of The Silver Star and recipient of a Presidential Citation for bravery in battle, Ross emerged from World War II. Addicted to pharmaceutical cocaine taken for his injuries, he had to fight back and beat his addiction, chronicled in the 1957 movie Monkey on My Back starring actor Cameron Mitchell as Barney Ross. Sadly, Ross died of throat cancer in his native Chicago in 1967.
Rarely, Ross also refereed 35 bouts, including a bout with Billy Conn in 1941, two bouts with Rocky Graziano in 1947, a Canadian heavyweight bout with George Chuvalo in 1965, two WBA-WBC World Bantamweight title bouts in 1964 and 1965 in Columbia and Japan, the Canadian Middleweight title bout in 1959, the World Super Featherweight title bout in the Philippines in 1960, and the World Featherweight title bout in 1962 in Finland.
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