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Chapter 5
Setting Up Joe
“Somebody else” was at ringside the night Lucky Jim won the title. He even dropped off to sleep between rounds, so dull an affair was it. But then Joe Louis was always an unusually relaxed and patient man.
Not a lot moved him, save a big left hook when he wasn't watching, or a disapproving glance from his first wife, Marva, after he'd been caught out yet again. Joe, for all his physical and athletic strength, was a prisoner of forces beyond his control. He sometimes would say, in expectation and hope, “God is on our side.” A simple phrase, which became something of a slogan for GIs during World War II, it not only described Joe's fatalism but identified a peculiar strand of benign righteousness in America. It was a sentiment that would be the bedrock of his career. It made him acceptable, a good American. That night back in 1935, meanwhile, Joe was content to let his Lord anoint James J. Braddock the winner—and make him a prime candidate for the chop further up the road.