Vintage Athletes - Part 21

Henry Armstrong

Henry Jackson, Jr. (1912-1988) was an American boxer who competed under the name Henry Armstrong.  On Jan. 12, 1938, LIFE photographer Carl Mydans photographed his fight against Enrico Venturi at Madison Square Garden.  In a previous post on naked weigh-ins, I showed this photo of Armstrong weighing in.

LIFE published that picture in the Jan. 31, 1938 issue, above, in a feature about Armstrong on the day of the fight.  In those days, even family magazines like LIFE were not prudish about rear nudity, although they didn't show frontal nudity.

My previous post also showed his opponent, Enrico Venturi, weighing in naked, above.

But the LIFE photo set included many more naked photos besides the weigh-ins.  Here's Venturi being examined by a doctor.

And here's Armstrong with the same doctor.

Here, Armstrong is taking off his shorts ...

And putting on his jockstrap before the fight.

Here's Armstrong getting a rubdown, a side view ...

And a front view.  None of these photos (except the very first one) were published in the magazine.

What happened in the fight?  Armstrong knocked out Venturi in the 6th round.  ESPN ranked Armstrong as #3 in their list of greatest boxers of all time.