Featherweight Joe Bernstein was one of the first great boxers to emerge from New York's Lower East Side. He fought for the featherweight championship three times, but lost all three bouts, often in close matches. Nicknamed "The Pride of the Ghetto" in the 1890s, his championship fights endeared him to newly arriving Jewish immigrants.

George Dixon was a Canadian professional boxer. After winning the bantamweight title in 1892, he became the first ever black athlete to win a world championship in any sport; he was also the first Canadian-born boxing champion. Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer ranked Dixon as the #1 featherweight of all-time. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1956 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame as a first-class inductee in 1990. In 2018 he was named one of the greatest 15 athletes in Nova Scotia's history, ranking sixth.