Bill Cayton's PRIME TIME BOXING
Presents:
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling
June 19, 1936 and June 22, 1938
We journey back to 1936. Jimmy Braddock holds the world’s heavyweight title, but the real champ, the undisputed number one contender, is the great Joe Louis of Detroit
An outstanding amateur from 1932 to 1934, Joe Louis was a top contender after less than six months as a pro.
On June 25, 1935, Louis made his New York debut versus former world’s champ Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium, slaughtering the 260-pound Carnera in six one-sided rounds. Joe Louis’s four-round knockout over ex-champion Max Baer three months later made him the number one contender, the de facto champ, and possibly, said many, the greatest heavyweight the world had ever seen.
Max Schmeling, nine years older than Louis, had held the European light heavyweight title before invading the U.S. in 1928. Possessed of a great right hand, superb ring generalship, and all-around athletic skill, Schmeling won the vacant world heavyweight title in 1930 and successfully defended the crown against young Stribling.
Still, no active fighter seemed to have a chance against Louis, certainly not the veteran ex-champion, Max Schmeling. Louis was the most devastating combination puncher boxing had ever seen. His left jab was harder than the average heavyweight’s a right hand. Louis was an eight-to-one favorite.
But Schmeling had seen Louis knock out Uzcudun in New York. “I see somezing,” Schmeling told his manager, Joe Jacobs. What he saw would lead to one of boxing’s all-time greatest upsets.
The date is June 19, 1936. Your ringside analyst is Edwin C. Hill, host of radio’s Human Side of the News. Your blow-by-blow commentator is Clem McCarthy, well known boxing and racing commentator whose distinctive voice helps make this fight a radio classic. Schmeling weighed in at 192, Louis at 196. The referee is Arthur Donovan. Neither Louis nor Schmeling is the reigning world champion, but the fight is slated, nonetheless, for 15 rounds.
Max Schmeling certainly had “seen somezing” plenty when he saw Joe Louis knock out Paolino Uzcudun in Madison Square Garden on December 14, 1935. Louis dropped his left after throwing his sensational short left hooks, often in rapid succession.
“It was, said Schmeling, “a barely noticeable, unconscious reaction, detectable only if one studied the boxer with the thorough, systematic observation of a scientist.”
And Joe Louis, the invincible Brown Bomber, would be knocked out by the ex-champ, Max Schmeling. It remains one of boxing’s all-time greatest upsets.
There would be a rematch, a rematch anticipated by the whole world. In 1938, Max Schmeling represented Nazi Germany, whose government preached that Negroes, like Jews, were inferior, sub-human beings.
It would be up to Joe Louis to reverse his knockout loss to Schmeling and become the first American black man to assume the role of a national hero.
The winner of the first Louis-Schmeling bout was supposed to face World Champion Jim Braddock for the title. Schmeling vs. Braddock was scheduled for June 3, 1937 at Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City, New York. But Schmeling showed up for the weigh-in. Braddock did not, and the stage was set for the rematch in Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938.
Braddock's no-show was the work of the promoter, Mike Jacobs, who feared the Nazi government would freeze the title in Germany if Schmeling faced Braddock and won.
If Schmeling would fight anyone for the world title, Jacobs vowed, it would be Joe Louis.
Emotions ran extremely high for this bout. Nazi Minister of Propoganda Josef Goebels had exploited Schmeling’s knockout of Louis two years earlier, and planned to make greater use of Schmeling if he beat Louis again and brought the world title back to Germany.
Boxing reached its peak, say many, on that night of June 22, 1938.
Your blow-by-blow commentator is again the dramatic Clem McCarthy. The governors of Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are at ringside, as are New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, financial wizard Bernard Baruch, U.S. Postmaster General James Farley, film star Robert Taylor, and Bill Terry, manager of baseball’s New York Giant’s.
About PRIME TIME BOXING
Programming that cannot be duplicated or found anywhere else, PRIME TIME BOXING features the legendary Don Dunphy, the all-time most dynamic and knowledgeable boxing commentator describing the most exciting and memorable fights of Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and all the other great champions.
Through the incredible magic of the original radio broadcasts listeners will be able to "see" the fights for the first time - in the theater of their mind! A magical replay of exciting sports history presented on audio CD, PRIME TIME BOXING includes the greatest fights ever, including many that have never been filmed or broadcast on TV..
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