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

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Louis needed the title, but he was not going to earn a night in the Garden right away. To get his shot at the Irish patsy who called himself champ, and to build his already formidable reputation, he was encouraged to bide his time with easy wins, to go with the nineteen he had registered since turning professional in 1934. He'd already detonated the myth of the Ambling Alp, Carnera. In quick order and with a coldly simple left-jab, right-cross efficiency, he went on to dispose of King Levinsky in Chicago in August, Baer the following month back in the Bronx, Paulino Uzcudun before Christmas, Charley Retzlaff in January . . . and the rumbling grew for something more meaningful from the prodigy. The strategy was working.

Then a bombshell landed. Or rather, an 8-1 German underdog landed. The contest between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium in June 1936, a year after Braddock won the title, shocked not just boxing fans and the wider world, but the guys who made things happen. This wasn't scheduled. And it was on the level. The Brown Bomber, a 10-1 on favorite (as Baer had been against Braddock), was blitzkrieged off the boxing landscape. He was outpunched and outboxed by a decent opponent who, on the biggest night of his life, got it right. Just like Braddock. For a sport that was supposed to be riddled with arranged results, the no-hopers were doing OK.