Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

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The fight with Baer was, in truth, a one-off for Braddock. It has been dressed up over time as the greatest upset in the history of heavyweight boxing up to that point when, in fact, it was an honest, workmanlike performance. The fight itself was dull. When Max threw punches, they rocked Jim; trouble was, he hardly threw any—and Braddock just pecked away and survived. Every fighter has a story, often a good one, and this was Jim's. But the reality was Braddock fought the right fight on the right night against a champion who clowned about once too often.

Max, who might have had a long and lucrative reign, was consigned to boxing's second division without fuss. Had he gone with Madden, that might not have happened. Instead, Joe Louis—now part of the action at the summit of the fight game thanks to the encouragement of Mike Jacobs—gave him a memorable four-round beating in his next fight. Thereafter, over the next two years, Max belted out a decent living against other hopefuls, twenty-nine of them, but he would never get another shot at the title, even though he deserved one.