Thanks for the recommendations.

How about carmine basilio gene fulmer. and kid gavalan

What, only one Italian in there? What about Rocky Graziano? Or Carmine Vingo?!*

*-not a middleweight.

Any of you fellow afficionados heard of a fighter named Joey Barnum? Most notable opponents were Johnny Bratton and Art Aragon.

Jack Johnson. There's a Ken Burns documentary about him called "Unforgiveable Blackness." It's very interesting.
One of the notions about why he was so dominant is that he was one of the first athletes to take up weight training. The legendary strongman Arthur Saxon writes of this in one of his strength training manuals, from either 1902 or 1904 I think it was.
There's also an old biopic about Johnson called "The Great White Hope" starring Darth Vader's voice.
Johnson was, in my opinion, the best boxer of his era.

Johnson was probably the best heavyweight of his era. The only plausible exception would be James Jeffries (the original "Great White Hope"), whom Johnson knocked out in 15. But Jeffries had retired undefeated, and lost the Johnson fight at the age of 35, after a 6-year retirement, ten pounds over his best fighting weight. A prime Jeffries, in shape, would have had a decent shot. Other than Jeffries, no heavyweight champion was in Johnson's class until you get to the Dempsey/Tunney era.

Johnson's flamboyant lifestyle set black boxers back quite a bit for many years, though. The public wasn't going to stand for another Jack Johnson. After Johnson lost the title, it was more than 20 years before a black heavyweight got a title shot, in the mid-late 30's, when the two standout contenders for Jimmy Braddock's title were Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. The shot should have gone to Schmeling, who had beaten Louis in their one fight. But Louis caught a little break in the era and Schmeling's nationality. Because in 1937, it was better to be black and American than white and German. So Louis got his shot, and won, and the rest was history, as he kept the title for more than a decade and made 25 defenses.

To Louis's credit, one of his first defenses was against Schmeling.

Wasn't Adolf Hitler present whe Louis knocked out Schmeling?

I don't think he was actually there. He saw Jesse Owens crush the Aryan runners at the 1936 Olympics, but they were in Germany. In Louis's autobiography, he says that he heard Hitler cut the media feeds to Germany because he didn't want Germans to hear how Schmeling was getting his head kicked in. Not sure I believe that one, though...the fight was almost over before it started (just a shade over 2 minutes).

Yes it was Jesse Owens when he left the stadium early. Was Hitler there when Schmeling beat Louis in Germany?

No, but there really was an "Irish Bob Cassidy" who, I believe, was from Philly. I have an old poster of him on my wall.

Good thoughts,

Bob Cassidy

Both of the Louis-Schmeling fights were at Yankee Stadium.

Irish Bob Cassidy sounds familiar.
Johnson is a key figure one of my favorite eras in general. He was fighting his best fights during the height of the strongman era and used the weight training that the strongmen like Sandow and Saxon were popularizing. I see him as a link between the history of strength sports (even though it was more entertainment than sport yet) and the history of combat sports.