QUEENSBURY RULES
Chapter 2
After the Max Baer fight
was over, Jimmy Braddock signed on
with Madison Square Garden to have them promote the defense of his title.
There were two men waiting in the wings to grab the brass ring. Max Schmeling,
the son of a German sailor from Hamburg and Joe Louis Barrow, the son of an
Alabama share cropper.
Amidst protests from the union and the general public, the fight with Max
Schmeling was not to transpire. With Hitler making noise in Europe, Schmeling
was seen as a Nazi sympathizer, though history, in fact, does put him on the
opposite side of the fence. It was rumored to be Joe Gould who put a stop to
the Braddock/Schmeling bout at Madison Square Garden. The excuse was publicly
announced that Jimmy was suffering from an arthritic hand and though it be
true, Gould believed that a Schmeling victory might become Nazi propaganda.
In its stead, Gould negotiated a bout with the Brown Bomber. Louis later
disputed this fact, but it's said that Gould cornered Louis' manager, Mike
Jacobs, into committing ten percent of Joe's earnings for the next ten years
to Jimmy. In Joe Louis' memory, Gould abducted his assistant manager, John
Roxborough, one night to wheel and deal with. Gould didn't reckon Jimmy could
beat Louis because of the arthritic hand and his advancing age, but he
reckoned the fight would be a huge public draw. He wanted Louis' camp to give
Braddock fifty percent of his fighter's earnings. Roxborough bantered with
Gould until the offer was down to twenty percent, but in the long run it was
still not accepted. Roxborough left Gould sitting in the night club where they
met that night with nothing but a prayer and an order to talk to Mike Jacobs.
Joe Gould went to Mike and made him an offer for ten percent of Louis and what
Gould finally went away with was ten percent of Mike Jacobs and not Joe Louis.
The Louis/Braddock bout was signed on February 19, 1937 and it would be held
at Chicago's Comiskey Park on Tuesday, June 22, 1937 at 8:15PM. A reserved
seat in the upper stands went for six bucks. Times were tough, money was tight
but some sixty thousand people bought tickets for the match. United airlines
flew six extra flights into Chicago the day of the bout and every hotel room
in the city was booked six weeks in advance. Three quarters of those attending
were from out of town. The Cinderella Man was a draw no matter what his
afflictions were. He was an American hero without a doubt, but that didn't
slight Joe Louis' popularity any.
Mae didn't attend the Louis bout. She didn't attend any of Jimmy's fights for
one reason or another. In fact as far as she was concerned, boxing only
existed outside of their New Jersey home even though it paid the bills. James
earned around fifty grand for the Baer fight, but he'd triple the sum right
off the top with the Louis event.
"I guess it's time for me to go, baby. You gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, Jimmy. You know I'll be okay. The kids need me here. Just come home to
us in one piece. Promise."
"I promise." He took her in his arms to comfort her. "I ain't scared of Joe
Louis, Mae. If I ain't scared then I ain't gonna get hurt. We're all even up,
just like me and Baer was. Remember how you felt about that one?"
"Aw, baby. I'm always scared for you. I wish there was some other way..."
"Shh, listen to me. We'll be set for life after this one. Joe, well he got us
a deal that will keep us in the black for a decade. By then the kids will be
grown. We ain't got no worries anymore."
"I trust you Jimmy. I just don't trust Joe Gould."
"Mae, we gotta give him the benefit of the doubt. He earns off of what I earn.
You seen what he gave up to get me back in the ring. I owe him a good match."
James knew that nothing he could say would set Mae's mind to ease. She didn't
like Joe and she didn't like the sport. "You know, an opponent is an opponent.
I figure I can lick Louis just like I did ole Maxie Baer."
"What about your left hand, your arm?" she asked with a sigh.
"The doc's gonna give me something for the pain. Joe says he's gonna give me a
shot right before the fight that'll help me out. I told you, I'll be fine."
Mae lifted his left hand and he wanted to withdraw it, but he let her go. She
looked at his misshapen knuckles and the bulge of calcification on his wrist
and shook her head.
"I hate that you hurt. I can hardly bear it."
"It ain't nothing. Hurt you more to have our kids. Mae, look what you gave me.
I want you to have the best of everything. I want our kids to grow up proud of
their pop. I want them to have enough food, money and businesses of their own
so they don't have to worry like we did."
The sound of a car horn followed by a knock on the door announced that it was
time for James to leave for Chicago. He took one more moment to lead Mae into
the boy's room to give them each a kiss goodbye and to remind Jay that he was
to take care of everyone while his dad was gone. The last stop was in Rosie's
room and she was far from asleep.
"I'll miss you daddy. You give that Louis guy a good thumping okay?"
"Don't you worry, Rosiecheeks. I sure will. I'll give him such a shot he'll
think he's eating steak!"
"James Braddock, is that any way to talk to a girl?" Mae scolded him, but
there was a smile on her face. She knew Rosie was a chip off the old block at
times.
The knock on the door became more insistent.
"Guess I better go before Joe thinks I backed out. I love you, Mae Braddock.
Keep the home fires burning, honey. Wouldja?"
"I love you James Braddock. There's always a fire for you ...Champ." They
shared a tender kiss just outside Rosie's room. Neither wanted to be apart but
this was the way it had to be. Mae wouldn't go to the fight nor would she
subject the kids to it no matter how much they wanted to go.
"See ya later."
"You better or I'll go find one of my old suitors." Mae teased. Jimmy gave her
a withering look that ended with a warm smile. He placed his cap on his head,
picked up his bag and opened the door to one red faced cigar smoking son of a
bitch named Joe Gould.
"Heya Mae. See ya round kid. C'mon Jimmy or we'll hit all the traffic."
They were in Chicago one day before the fight.
w
"You ready for this, boyo?" Joe asked as he massaged James upper arm.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"How you feeling?"
"I feel good, ya know? This Louis fella is not as hard a puncher as Max Baer
but he's faster. I can lick him just like I licked the guys I licked before."
"Alright buddy boy. You get yourself a good nights rest. The doc will be here
in the morning to shoot you up. You're gonna have to use your left Jimmy."
"Don't worry about it." James was however quite worried about it. He could
hardly lift his left arm let alone use it for a weapon. He'd managed to get
some rest but the jitters were present. No matter what the odds makers said,
Jimmy thought he could win this bout. Look what he did to Max Baer and the
odds were stacked against him there too.
Joe didn't have to wake him the next morning. James was up and raring to go.
After the doc gave him the shot he found some mobility in his left arm but it
was short lived. By the time he stepped into the ring whatever the doctor
injected him with had worn off. He couldn't hold his arm up, had no strength
in it but James held his ground none the less. Louis feinted him and he didn't
go for it. James countered and the younger fighter took the bait. He came at
him low and the Cinderella Man caught him with an uppercut that leveled Joe
Louis to the canvas. If he was standing up and James caught him head on the
fight may have been over. It would have been a classic haymaker. Louis got up
and the fight continued. James got him with a grazing right that missed the
Brown Bomber's face but thundered into his chest with a clap heard up in the
oxygen seats. Joe Louis was a smart fighter and kept his face covered. The
first four rounds were a draw.
From the fourth round right through to the eighth, Joe Louis hit his stride
and he hit James Braddock with more punches then he'd ever been hit with in
all of his eighty-seven fights combined. Though blood trickled from Louis'
nose, James Braddock got cut up for the first time in his career. In the
eighth round Louis caught James with a left hook to the stomach that was
followed by a right to the mouth that was so intense it drove a tooth through
his mouthpiece and then clean though his lip. James J. Braddock went down and
stayed down. The championship now belonged to the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis.
James ended up with twenty-three stitches in his face from that event. He knew
that Mae would be aware of what happened when he called home the next morning.
"Hey, baby. I lost the fight."
"I know, Jimmy. Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I got my clock cleaned but I'm okay. I ain't the champ no more, Mae."
"I'm sorry, baby. You know you'll always be my champ."
"Yeah ... This is the way it is, Mae. You always got to figure you ain't the
best man in the world. There might be somebody better. That's the way it is.
That's the way boxing is. The Champ don't always stand up. There's always
someone coming up to take him. That's a part of life."
"James, it's time to come home. We need you home, now."