In 1930, he moved up a weight class and challenged Maxie Rosenbloom for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World in Madison Square Garden, though he lost the bout.

In May 1930, Bain was still ranked seventh in the world among Middleweights by Ring Magazine and stayed in the top ten from May to October of that year.

Actor Anthony Quinn patterned the raspy voice and mannerisms of his character Mountain Rivera in Columbia Pictures' 1962 movie Requiem for a Heavyweight on Bain who worked on the production as an adviser.

Perhaps wary of the political climate of the period, he gave Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived as a child, as his birthplace during his boxing career in the 1930s.

He fought highly ranked middleweight contender "KO" Phil Kaplan, losing to him in a fifth-round knockout on February 27, 1928, in Philadelphia.

On March 28, 1930, Bain defeated Brooklyn based Middleweight boxer Pal Silvers in ten rounds in one of his first fights in Madison Square Garden.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Light Heavyweight Class did not have a large supply of competitors skillful enough to face Rosenbloom at the time and Bain had little experience moving up from Middleweight.

"[7][8] He was again an unsuccessful contender for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World against Dave Maier on January 15, 1932, in Chicago Stadium, when he was TKO'd in the first round.

He fought future World Heavyweight contender Tony Galento, in Dreamland Park on September 30, 1931, losing in a fourth-round TKO.

[12] In Columbia Pictures' 1962 Requiem for a Heavyweight, Anthony Quinn told the press that he modeled his character Mountain Rivera on Bain using the same rough voice and mannerisms.

His daughter Babette Bain(Born 7 December 1946) was an actress and singer best known for the role of young Miriam in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956, The Ten Commandments when she was 9.5 years old.