On June 13th, 1935, James J
Braddock beat Max Baer in a 15-round
decision for the heavyweight
championship of the world. Reaction to
the outcome of the fight by the media
and in most boxing circles was described
as, “The greatest fistic upset since the
defeat of John L Sullivan by Jim
Corbett.”
The smaller less experienced Jim
Braddock went into the fight that day as
a 10 to 1 underdog. At that point in
Braddock’s career he fought the majority
of his fights as a light heavyweight
with average success. Then, without any
indication things could go wrong, his
career and his whole life took a turn
for the worst. Braddock lost a 15 round
decision in a bid for the light
heavyweight title against Hall-of-Fame
fighter Tommy Loughran on July 18th,
1929. Losing the title fight along with
the stock market crash of 1929 added to
the every day struggle Braddock dealt
with raising his family. In the five
years following the stock market crash
of 29’ Braddock struggled in the ring
with losses to hall-of-famer Maxie
Rosenbloom along with top contenders Leo
Lomski, Yale Okun, Babe Hunt, Ernie
Schaaf, Al Gainer, Tony Shucco and a
knockout loss to Lou Scozza.
After his run of bad luck Jim turned to
the public relief system, occasionally
finding work on the docks at the ship
yards in his hometown of Hoboken, New
Jersey. In 1934 Braddock’s luck finally
began to change; it started with a 3rd
round stoppage of John “Corn” Griffin on
the undercard of the Baer-Carnera fight.
In his next fight five months later he
won a 10 round decision over future
hall-of-fame light heavyweight John
Henry Lewis. With those two wins Jim
Braddock was now in a position for a
title shot against heavyweight champion
Max Baer.
Max Baer was known to posses the most
devastating right hand in heavyweight
boxing history. Having turned pro in
1929 Baer won 22 of his first 24 fights,
9 by way of a first round knockout. In
1930 Baer was charged with manslaughter
when, after knocking out a fighter by
the name of Frankie Campbell, that
fighter later died as a result of the
beating he took leading to the knockout.
Baer was later cleared of the charges
but was suspended from boxing in his
home state of California for one year.
In August of 1932 Baer fought Ernie
Schaaf, who he beat in a 10 round
decision. Schaaf fought Primo Carnera in
February of 1933 and was KOed in 13
rounds, not long after the fight Schaaf
died. The death was attributed to the
beating he took in the Baer fight.
In 1934 Primo Carnera was heavyweight
champion of the world; June 14th
Max Baer challenged the Italian giant
for the title. Baer was outweighed in
the fight by over 50 pounds. The bout
was staged in the Madison Square Garden
Bowl. The fight between Max Baer and
Primo Carnera was dubbed the “Comedy
Battle” because there were so many knock
downs and tumbles. In front of a crowd
of 50,000 fans, Baer knocked Carnera
down 11 times in 11 rounds to win the
heavyweight championship.
At the time there was a shortage of
heavyweights for Baer to fight so Jim
Braddock with the help of his manager
Joe Gould, was able to position himself
in line for a title shot with the
champion. As a way of promoting the
fight there was talk that the boxing
commission was trying to discourage
Braddock from taking the fight, given
the reputation of Baer’s devastating
punching power plus the fact that some
credited the death of 2 fighters to
Baer. The way it was reported in the
papers the boxing commission was giving
Braddock fair warning of what could
happen if Baer was to connect with a
devastating right hand.
Braddock never took the warnings
seriously but they did make for big last
minute headlines to help hype up the
fight.
In early spring of 1935 the papers were
reporting on how well Braddock’s
training had been going. In May, five
weeks before the fight, Braddock weighed
in at 220 pounds, having gained nearly
40 pounds since he fought Art Lasky six
weeks earlier.
During the last few weeks of Braddock’s
training camp the former trainer of Max
Baer, Mike Cantwell who earlier had a
falling out with Baer decided to join
the Braddock camp where he provided
inside information on the champ.
Braddock was eager to gain any
information that might give him an edge
in the fight.
Cantwell encouraged Braddock to focus
his attention to work on Baer’s
midsection. “Carry the fight to Baer’s
body” he told the challenger.
Cantwell became the camp expert on how
to fight Baer and was being sought out
by the writers even more than the
challenger himself.
As fight day grew closer Gould decided
the way to defeat Baer was to focus on
wearing Baer down with body punches and
not go for the knockout. The strategy
was to be prepared to go the full 15
rounds. Gould figured Baer would go for
the early knockout and not be prepared
to go the distance.
Going with that strategy, Gould
assembled several of the biggest and
toughest sparing partners he could find
for Braddock.
The day of the fight Braddock weighed in
at 191.75 pounds, Baer weighed 209.5
pounds.
The evening of the fight 30,000 fans
filed in to the Madison Square Garden
Bowl expecting a lopsided victory for
the champ.
There were movie stars and politicians,
gangsters and athletes. The paper
reported, “It was a crowd that presented
a cross-section of American life.”
At just after 10PM June 13th,
the fighters with their seconds walked
to the center of the ring to receive
final instructions from referee Johnny
McAvoy. After the ref had his say he
asked both men if they had any
questions, they touched gloves and went
to their corners.
Jim Braddock knew he was in for a long
night if he didn’t keep his head and box
his opponent smartly, to engage in a
slugfest with Baer is the last thing he
needed to do; take his time, walk him
down and work the body was the game
plain.
At the opening bell Braddock went
straight for the champ landing a left
hook to the jaw and a right to the body.
Baer wasn’t fazed\ at all as he answered
with a hard body shot that rocked
Braddock; Jim told himself he wasn’t
hurt but it gave him an idea of what he
was in for if he didn’t stick to his
game plain. The two men traded shots
testing each other for the rest of the
round.
Back in Braddock’s corner after the
first round Gould yelled at his fighter,
“That’s the heavyweight champ? He’s a
bum! This is gonna be an easy night Jim,
we can take this guy!” Braddock knew
better, that body shot got Jims
attention and respect. He knew if he
didn’t stick to the game plain and got
within range of that right hand the
fight could be over fast.
In Baer’s corner his mind already began
drifting, gazing out over the crowd for
a familiar face; Max loved to make eye
contact with the ladies in the crowd.
Hoffman said with a calm tone of voice,
“Max this is no joke, you need to fight
this guy, don’t let him walk you down,
this is your fight, it’s your title, now
go out there and take this guy!”
As the fight progressed Braddock stuck
to the plain; he used his jab, cut off
the ring when Baer sidestepped and
eventually had the champ moving
backwards. The short bursts of punches
became fewer and fewer and soon all the
punches exchanged between the two ended
with clinches. As quickly as the referee
pushed the two apart Baer would grab his
opponent and clinch; it became apparent
the champion was becoming tired by the
middle rounds and Braddock was building
up points on the score cards.
In the last rounds of the fight Baer was
exhausted, he knew he was behind on the
score cards and needed a knockout. The
knockout never came, both men fought
hard until the last bell ended the
fight. At the sound of the final bell
Gould climbed under the ropes and lifted
his fighter on his shoulders. The crowd
was frantic as Al Frazin, the ring
announcer grabbed the mike that was
dangling from the lights and announced
the result of the fight; his voice was
drowned out by the cheers from the
crowd. A new heavyweight world champion
was crowd. Jim Braddock was the
undisputed heavyweight champion of the
world.
