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Long Shot Champ

© Earl Rickard

Boxer Max Baer, a wisecracking playboy, trained in a half-hearted manner with a devil-may-care attitude. When New York's Boxing Commissioner, Bill Brown, visited "Madcap Maxie's" training camp prior to the boxer's heavyweight title fight against champion Primo Carnera, he left in disgust telling Baer, "You're a bum."

On the night of June 14, 1934, at the Long Island City Bowl, Baer knocked Carnera down twice in the first round. On the second knockdown Carnera pulled Baer down with him and they started wrestling on the canvas. Baer shouted in Carnera's ear "last one up's a sissy." The crowd of 56,000 saw Baer knock the champion down ten more times. After the last one, in the eleventh round, referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight and raised Baer's hand into the air. The new World's Champion yelled to Commissioner Brown at ringside " Well, what do you think of me now?"

"You're still a bum," Brown roared back, "but Carnera's a bigger one."

Watching the fight from ringside was a 28-year-old fighter, who had unexpectedly won the preliminary bout -- James J. Braddock. Within exactly one year this down-and-out pug would turn into what writer Damon Runyon called "The Cinderella Man."

Born in New York City's toughest neighborhood -- Hell's Kitchen -- in 1906, teenager Braddock hung out in boxing gyms becoming a sparing partner for pros and eventually going professional himself in 1926. He started out well winning his first 18 decisions, 15 by knockouts. But at Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1929, Tommy Loughran, one the Jazz Era's best fighters, beat Braddock for the World's Light Heavyweight Title. From then on Braddock became a spotty fighter, losing more fights than he won. But after Braddock broke both hands in a September 25, 1933 bout with Abe Feldman, his career seemed over.

Braddock had a wife and three children to support in the midst of the Great Depression. He found some work on the New Jersey docks, but eventually signed up for relief money. For that generation of Americans taking relief was shameful, but Braddock had to provide for his family.

In early 1934, promoters of the Baer-Carnera heavyweight title fight needed a preliminary bout to go on just before the main event. They had an up-and-coming young fighter named John "Corn" Griffin and needed a sacrificial victim for this new star. Although Braddock's ring career lay in shambles, his old manager Joe Gould offered him the spot. All went as expected in the first round when Griffin floored Braddock, but the down-and-out fighter suddenly found the magic that would propel him to boxing greatness -- He KO'd Griffin in the third round.