Joe Louis' Punches Could Paralyse An OpponentJoe Louis had a successful amateur career which he finished with winning Michigan's Golden Gloves title. Joe Louis made his pro debut on the 4th of July 1934, knocking out Jack Kracken in the first round at Chicago, Illinois. The Young Brown Bomber won a total of 12 fights that year, all of them Chicago, Illinois. Ten of those fights were by knockout. Among his victims in 1934 were Art Sykes and Stanley Poreda. It was Louis who coined two of boxing's most famous quotes of all times: "He Can Run, But He Can't Hide" and "Everyone Has a Plan Until They've Been Hit." No fighter in boxing history had an offense like Louis. One punch was all Joe needed, but he never threw them one at a time. Joe Louis was the greatest finisher that ever lived! Joe Louis would shuffled forward, always the predator, behind swift and powerful jabs. And then the fireworks would begin! His left hooks, he had the deadliest right hand ever seen, his uppercuts, all thrown in deadly combinations. Eddie Futch, who knew Joe Louis and trained with him at Brewster's gym, described the Louis power. "Joe Louis' punches could paralyse any boxer in the ring. Anywhere he hit you, you'd feel it. Even if he didn't hit you much, just blocking those shots was like being in an automobile accident. " It Was One Of The Most Devastating KOs In Heavyweight HistoryThe 23rd June, 1938 NY Times quoted Schmeling as saying he was hit with a kidney punch, a devastating right, which so shocked his nervous system, that he was dazed and his vision was blurred. He was hit so hard to the body he lost his sight for a few seconds. The defining fight of Joe Louis career was his rematch with Max Schmeling. With the world on the brink of all out war. Joe Louis faced the Nazi symbol of Aryan supremacy, who handed Louis the only loss of his prime career. Writer Bob Considine described Louis preparation, He was like a big lean copper spring, tightened and retightened through weeks of training until he was one pregnant package of coiled venom. Louis uncoiled his blazing fists upon Schmeling with raging assault never seen before in a boxing ring. With murder in his eyes, Joe floored Max Schmeling three times in succession then knocked him out in the first round. It was one of the most devastating KOs in heavyweight history. Louis had the perfect physique for a fighter with long, smooth muscles which gave him great speed and reflexes. Though overlaid with racism, one of the top sportswriters of the 30's, Grantland Rice, described Joe Louis as a brown cobra and referred to his blinding speed as the speed of the jungle and the instinctive speed of the wild. African American Boxers Reign Dominance In The Heavyweight DivisionJoe Louis was reining world heavyweight champion and some of his defense of his crown since knocking out the German Max Schmeling, leading to when Louis fought John Henry Lewis for the heavyweight championship crown. It was another Louis knock out. Knocking out the former lightweight champion in just one round. The real significance of this fight was that for the first time since the Jack Johnson era, two black men fought for the world heavyweight crown. Before this fight, there was at least one white fighter competing for a heavyweight championship and even after that fight, this trend continued for seven more years. Then came a second world championship fight in which two African Americans fight for the title that was the first of these the Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott bouts. History was made and boxing fans saw the future of the sport. After, World War II African American domination of the heavyweight division would begin in earnest. These crude free for alls were often the only venues available to black fighters and only the very best would emerged, but whatever the case might have been, it is apparent that the battle royal was not merely just another invention, but a standard draw that fell into the American criterion of boxing during that era. Joe Louis Represents the Turning Point In Black Sports HistoryBut no discussion of racism as it relates to boxing would be complete without at least mentioning the name of Joe Louis, who perhaps more than any other black American athlete contributed to the acceptance and visibility of black athletes, and their accomplishments in the ring and even in other sporting fields. Joe Louis represented the turning point in black sports history, and is perhaps the first major black American boxer who didn't have to suffer the indignity of battle royals or segregated fighting like his predecessor Jack Johnson. Nonetheless, Joe Louis encountered his fair share of racism in the ring. Early on in his career, a promoter told his manager John Roxborough I can help your boy, but you understand, he's a nigger and can't win every time that he goes into the ring. With this attitude still so commonplace in America, Joe Louis' trainers knew early on that they had to keep him from becoming another Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson was a flamboyant heavyweight boxing champion who had inflamed the white Americans with his taunting of white opponents, his cavalier lifestyle, and most of all his inkling for white women. In order to diffuse the kind of racism that had plagued Johnson all his life, Joe Louis' trainers insisted that he follow a set of rules that would make him appealing to white Americans. Never have your picture taken with a white woman never smile when you beat a white boxer, fight clean and live clean. |
Living With His Head In The Lion's MouthThese rules were to go a long way towards securing not only his position of dominance in boxing ring, but those of other black men to follow. Joe Louis was living with his head in the lion's mouth, overcoming them with yeses, undermining them with grins, agreeing with them to realms of destruction or even death. For that reason alone, some southerners was of the belief that Joe Louis was one of the good niggers, one who knew his place and where he belong in American society. Little did they realised, by playing the good nigger Louis was removing the last restrictions the blacks had to put with in American sports. Joe Louis' climb to the top was not without opposition. However, as they say, old habits die hard. Majority of whites in the south and even southern writers voiced concern over Joe Louis' lofty position. | |
