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

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With Louis's invincibility punctured, they had to put the Brown Bomber back together again. Braddock still had not laced up since the Baer fight; Joe had boxed six times.

After Schmeling, Louis would have another seven bouts before he got in the ring with the unemployed champion Braddock. When the dust settled many years later, Gould could reflect on a job well done. This was to be the long-term payoff, one worth waiting for, according to Braddock's cagey, dodgy manager—even though his client, at the first time of asking, would lose his title and give up the cachet, notionally at least, of being the best heavyweight on the scene.

Away from the headlines, Jim's manager saw in Louis the most malleable, marketable of champions—and he wanted a piece of him. Braddock, his buddy, was no more than the means to get to Louis. This was Mob strategy—skimming, as it's known in gambling and liquor circles. What Joe's connections and others then did to the man who was “a credit to his race” would be regarded as cruel in any other undertaking but professional boxing.