| Date | June 22, 1937 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | NYSAC, NBA, and The Ring undisputed heavyweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Louis won via 8th-round KO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
James J. Braddock vs. Joe Louis was a professional boxing match contested on June 22, 1937, for the undisputed heavyweight championship. [1] The fight took place at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois.
Braddock had won the title by defeating Max Baer. Baer was supposed to have a rematch, but the fight never occurred. Baer instead fought Joe Louis. Louis defeated Baer, paving the way for Louis to fight Braddock for the title (although between the Baer fight and this title fight, Louis lost to Max Schmeling). [2] This was Braddock's first and only defense and occurred over two years after winning the title. [3]
During a close range exchange of punches during the first round, Louis was knocked down by an uppercut, but quickly recovered and went on to ultimately dominate the rest of the fight.
By the seventh round, Braddock was hurt and his face was bloodied and swollen. Joe Gould, Braddock's manager wanted to end the fight but the champion convinced him to continue. Shortly after, a powerful left-right combination from Louis send the champion to the ground, and Louis won the fight by way of knockout in the eighth round, and was the new world heavyweight champion. [4]
This fight began an unprecedented reign by Louis that included a 12-year continuous run as champion where he defeated 25 challengers, both records that still stand. [5]
While the bout was the end of Braddock as a major boxing force, fighting only once after this fight, part of his contract with Louis was to gain a portion of Louis' earnings over the next decade. [6]
Confirmed bouts: [7]
Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural events because of their national associations. Schmeling is the only boxer to win the world heavyweight championship on a foul.
Joseph Louis Barrow was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 until his temporary retirement in 1949. He was victorious in 25 consecutive title defenses, a record for all weight classes. Louis had the longest single reign as champion of any boxer in history.
Primo Carnera, nicknamed the Ambling Alp, was an Italian professional boxer and wrestler who reigned as the boxing World Heavyweight Champion from 29 June 1933 to 14 June 1934. He won more fights by knockout than any other heavyweight champion in boxing history.
Thomas Patrick Loughran was an American professional boxer and the former World Light Heavyweight Champion. Statistical boxing website BoxRec lists Loughran as the #7 ranked light heavyweight of all time, while The Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer placed him at #4. The International Boxing Research Organization rates Loughran as the 6th best light heavyweight ever. Loughran was named the Ring Magazine's Fighter of the Year twice, first in 1929 and again 1931. He was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1956 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.
Maximilian Adelbert Baer was an American professional boxer and the world heavyweight champion from June 14, 1934, to June 13, 1935. He was known in his time as the Livermore Larupper and Madcap Maxie. Two of his fights were rated Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine. Baer was also a boxing referee, and had occasional roles in film and television. He was the brother of heavyweight boxing contender Buddy Baer and father of actor Max Baer Jr. Baer is rated #22 on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
Boxing in the 1940s in many ways reflected worldwide events that affected other endeavors as well.
James Walter Braddock was an American boxer who was the world heavyweight champion from 1935 to 1937.
Thomas George Farr was a Welsh boxer from Clydach Vale, Rhondda, nicknamed "The Tonypandy Terror". Prior to 1936, Farr boxed in the light heavyweight division, in which he was the Welsh champion. He became British and Empire heavyweight champion on 15 March 1937. Farr is considered to be one of the greatest British heavyweight fighters ever, and was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling refers to either of two separate fights between the two boxers which are among boxing's most famous bouts. Schmeling won the first match in 1936 by a knockout in round 12 and Louis won the second bout in 1938 with a knockout in the first round.
King Levinsky, also known as Kingfish Levinsky, was an American heavyweight boxer who fought during the 1930s. He was born as Harris Kraków and was a member of the Kraków fish-selling family of Maxwell Street, in Chicago's old Jewish ghetto.
George Godfrey (II) The Leiperville Shadow was the ring name of Feab Smith Williams, a heavyweight boxer from the state of Alabama who fought from 1919 to 1937. He named himself after George "Old Chocolate" Godfrey, a Black Canadian boxer from the bare-knuckle boxing days who had been a top name during the John L. Sullivan era. Old Chocolate had been the fourth fighter to reign as World Colored Heavyweight Champion while the second George Godfrey was the 20th fighter to hold the colored heavyweight title.
Joe Gould was an American boxing manager best known for representing boxer James J. Braddock, dubbed "The Cinderella Man," who in 1935 upset Max Baer to become the world heavyweight champion. He also managed lightweight contender Ray Miller from 1930–1933.
Gerald Ambrose "Tuffy" Griffiths was an American boxer. He fought as a heavyweight and occasionally as a light heavyweight under the name Tuffy Griffiths.
Whitey Bimstein would be remembered for his exceptional career as a boxing trainer and cutman to world champions. Though his cutwork was usually confined to only forty seconds between rounds, it amazed doctors for its thoroughness and professionalism.
Arthur Lakofsky, also known as Art Lasky, was a heavyweight professional boxer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Michael Strauss Jacobs was a boxing promoter, arguably the most powerful in the sport from the mid-1930s until his effective retirement in 1946. He was posthumously elected to the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1982, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
For the judge who shares the same birth-name, see Clarence H. Burns.
The White Heavyweight Championship was a title in pretense created when the "White Hopes" of the time that African-American Jack Johnson was the world heavyweight champion had failed to wrest the title from him after four and one-half years. The first of the Great White Hopes, former world heavyweight champ James J. Jeffries had failed to vanquish Johnson in 1910, leading to an elimination tournament of "White Hopes" in New York City in 1911.
Bob Pastor born Robert E. Pasternak, was a prominent American boxer. He was a top-ranked heavyweight of the 1940s who once challenged for the world title, losing to Joe Louis in 1939.
