Pete Latzo was the boxing world welterweight

Welterweight

Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...

 champion from 1926 to 1927. Latzo fought all the top welterweights of his era and won the title from hall of famer Mickey Walker on May 20, 1926. He lost the crown to Joe Dundee

Joe Dundee

Salvatore Lazzara, better known by his boxing alias Joe Dundee, was an American boxer. His career began with two straight losses in four-round bouts. Nevertheless, Dundee continued boxing....

 on June 3, 1927.

After losing the welter crown Latzo invaded the heavier ranks. For the duration of his career he fought middleweights, challenged for the world light heavyweight title and even fought heavyweights. Latzo fought many great fighters in his career, including future heavyweight champion Jim Braddock

James J. Braddock

James Walter "The Cinderella Man" Braddock was an American boxer who was the world heavyweight champion from 1935 to 1937....

, Light heavyweight king Tommy Loughran

Tommy Loughran

Thomas Patrick Loughran was the light heavyweight boxing champion of the world.Loughran's effective use of coordinated foot work, sound defense and swift, accurate counter punching is now regarded as a precursor to the techniques practiced in modern boxing...

, and middleweight champion Tiger Flowers

Tiger Flowers

Theodore Flowers became the first African-American middleweight boxing champion, defeating Harry Greb in 1926. Known as "Tiger", he began boxing professionally in 1918 at the age of 23 while working at a Philadelphia shipbuilding plant...

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Inspiration for Joe Palooka

Cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

 Ham Fisher

Ham Fisher

Hammond Edward Fisher was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist who signed his work Ham Fisher...

 met Latzo outside a pool hall and, impressed by his personality, sportsmanship, and physique, was inspired to create his popular character Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers....

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