On This Day - 1938 - Joe Louis Knocks Out Max Schmeling

Joe Louis avenged the first loss of his career with a first round knockout of German Max Schmeling in a fight billed as a battle between America and Nazi Germany.

The “Brown Bomber” Is Victorious

Joe Louis, a 22-year-old son of Alabama sharecroppers, had won his first 23 career fights when he stepped into the ring against 30-year-old German Max Schmeling on June 19, 1936. Schmeling was the clear underdog, but he had detected a flaw in Louis’ form while studying film: Louis tended to drop his left hand after a left jab, a weakness that Schmeling exploited in a shocking 12-round knockout victory. Schmeling was greeted as a hero in Germany and portrayed by the Nazi regime as a symbol of Aryan superiority. “Schmeling's victory was not only sport,” wrote a Nazi journal. “It was a question of prestige for our race.” Louis, meanwhile, was humiliated. Though he went on to win the heavyweight title when he beat James Braddock in 1937, he said, “I don't want nobody to call me champ until I beat Schmeling.” Louis got his chance a year later, when he faced Schmeling in a rematch at Yankee Stadium. The fight took on a fiercely political tone; Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler had each openly visited his respective countryman before the fight, and a worldwide audience viewed the bout as a symbolic battle between America and Nazi Germany. Read More