Past Heavyweight Champions

World Heavyweight Champions of the Past

Over the years of boxing there has been great world heavyweight champions such as John L. Sullivan, James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, James J. Jeffries, Marvin Hart, Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson, Jess Willard, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, Max Baer, James J. Braddock, Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, Ingemar Johansson, Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and the robotic Englishman Frank Bruno. But of all the world heavyweight champions of the past, three boxers were outstanding fighters in their time. Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and more recently Muhammad Ali. Joe Louis successfully defended his heavyweight title 25 times which is still an unbroken record today, and in the process scoring 21 knockouts. Jack Johnson was undefeated in a long run of ten years, and Muhammad Ali took on some of the greatest fighters of his time, he beat them all and they were great heavyweight champions.

Joe Louis Became the National Hero of the Whole United States of America

Round one was as Louis had predicted. The great "white hope" of Hitler's Germany was deflated in the ring. The knockout by Louis was as if the United States had wiped out all the Nazis and Germany. Overnight Joe Louis became the national hero of the whole United States of America and it didn't matter whether you were black or white. All America became united and integrated as one. In their first fight 1936 Schmeling knocked the hell out of Louis in the 12th round, and scores of white Americans celebrated the Max Schmeling victory over the impregnable Black American boxer. Max Schmeling said to be a dutiful Nazi at the time. Joe Louis however, picked himself up off the canvas, dust away the defeat by Max Schmeling from his being and went on his way carried on fighting against other appointments that led to him winning the world heavyweight boxing championship a year later on the 22nd of June 1937. Joe Louis had defeated Jim Braddock in the eighth round of their championship fight with a knockout punch to win the world heavyweight boxing title.

Joe Louis Predicted a Round One Knockout For the German Max Schmeling

After Max Schmeling had knockout Louis in the 12th round of their first clash in 1936. The following year, Joe Louis won the world heavyweight championship. Then came 1938, and the whole world shuddered on the brink of World War II. The Louis-Schmeling rematch had become a metaphor of that coming war. Never in the history of boxing has any fight carried more symbolic and emblematic weight than the Louis-Schmeling upcoming fight on the 22nd of June, 1938. The night before the fight, Joe Louis sat with his sportswriter friend Jimmy Cannon. Jimmy, make a pick which round? said Louis. Jimmy Cannon said; round six. No, Louis said. Joe Louis held up one finger and said, no not at all, it goes in one. The long awaited boxing match was over in round one. True to his word on the night of 22nd June 1938 Joe Louis, the world heavyweight champion knocked out Max Schmeling in two minutes, four seconds of round one.

Joe Louis Got His Revenge Over Max Schmeling in Round One

Exactly a year after Joe Louis had won the world heavyweight title a contract was signed for him to defend his title against Schmeling on the 22nd of June 1938. The German Max Schmeling in their first non title clash, had annihilated Joe Louis by knocking him out in the 12th round in 1936. Now the stage was set for the dramatic rematch event to take place at the Yankee Stadium in New York, USA. By the summer of 1938, Adolph Hitler was on the rampage and threatening to wipe out all Europe. A majority of the white Americans who rooted for Max Schmeling in the previous fight of 1936, took a round about turn  in their loyalties, they were now firmly in favour of Joe Louis. Max Schmeling, was held up as a symbol of the Nazi oppression. In the opening seconds of the first round of their championship clash, Joe Louis wasted no time in getting down the serious business of the fight. In just two minutes and four seconds of the first round Joe Louis defeat the German Pinup boy by knocking him out to retain his Championship title belt.

Had Schmeling Beaten Louis in The Rematch. He Would Be the Toast of the Third Reich

In his autobiography, Memories Max Schmeling wrote of his loss to Joe Louis Every defeat has its good side. A victory over Joe Louis would perhaps have made me into the toast of the Third Reich. But Joe Louis win had dealt quite a devastating blow to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. It is said that History remembers Max Schmeling as a Nazi devotee and an Adolph Hitler's image of Aryan supremacy. But it was found that Max Schmeling had reluctantly accepted his role as a propaganda tool. While some have criticised him for not distancing himself from Adolph Hitler. It should be noted that Max Schmeling's manager for all 14 of his fights in the United States was an American Jew named Joe Jacobs. In 1946 the British military authorities cleared Max Schmeling of any kind of involvement in Nazi's war crimes. In 1935, Louis turned pro and won his first eight fights, losing only to Max Schmeling. When Joe Louis won the Heavyweight Championship of the World after beating James Braddock. He said, ;I don’t want nobody to call me champ until I beat Schmeling.

What Would it Be Like if Joe Louis Hadn't Won?

Before the Max Schmeling rematch in 1938 Joe Louis was already a great hero of African Americans everywhere in the US, and was hailed as a hero by all America including the whites, but the whites were only in favour of Joe Louis in the latter stages before the rematch clash with Schmeling as they had feared Nazi Germany and Hitler. During his subsequent world boxing championship reign, still on record as the longest in the history of the championship heavyweight division. When Louis returned from the army, he defended his title right up until 1949, when he retired as an undefeated champion, but then he returned to ring to be knockout by Rocky Marciano.

Past Heavyweight Champions