Whitey Bimstein

Who was Whitey Bimstein?

Whitey Bimstein was a boxing trainer and cutman. He boxed pro and after 70 fights, he hung up his gloves, and joined the U.S. Navy during World War I as a boxing instructor. When he left the Navy, he decided to become a full time trainer. He formed a partnership with Ray Arcel in 1925 and together they had some great champions. Their partnership ended in 1934 due to economic times, but Bimstein was still very much in demand, by the fighters that wanted to work with him, and the managers who would only trust their fighters to him, and the promoters who trusted him to deliver a well trained conditioned boxer. He handled the boxers that were the best of their times like Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Harry Greb, Georges Carpentier, Jackie Berg, Benny Leonard, Lou Ambers, Barney Ross, Fred Apostoli, James "Cinderella Man" Braddock, Rocky Marciano and Rocky Graziano. At one point in the 1930s, EVERY recognized champion, was one of his fighters. He later partnered with Freddy Brown, and they had great success with their boxers from the 1950s until Whitey's forced retirement in 1969. His 1959 highlight was Ingemar Johansson, winning the heavyweight crown. His last heavyweight championship was handling George Chuvalo for his fight with Muhammed Ali. Whitey was a product of New York's lower East Side, but he lived most of his life in the Bronx. Whitey's one strange claim to fame may be that his obituary in "Time" magazine was probably seen by more people than any other. Of course he had help that it was in the same issue as the moon landing in 1969. His passing was news worthy worldwide. As his obituary is the NY Times stated, "Second to champions, and second to none".