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Joe Louis “The Brown Bomber” was born on May 13th 1914 and died on April 12th 1981.
On June 19th 1936, Joe Louis was knocked out in the 12th round by former World Heavyweight Champion Max Schmeling. On June 22nd 1937, Louis fought James J. Braddock who won the World Championship from the lethal puncher Max Bear. In the 1st round Braddock dropped Louis with a vicious right uppercut to the chin, Louis quickly got up and dominated the rest of the fight and knocked Braddock out in the 8th round and became the World Heavyweight Champion.
June 22nd 1938, Louis fought Schmeling for a second time and knocked him down three times in the 1st round. During the third knock down referee Arthur Donovan got to the count of five, he could see Schmeling wasn’t going to get up so he signaled the fight was over.
June 25th 1948, Louis knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 11th round. In March 1949, he announced his retirement. Unfortunately, due to money problems “The Brown Bomber” returned to the ring on September 27th 1950 but was beaten by Ezzard Charles on a 15 round unanimous points decision. An aging Louis won eight more fights until he suffered his 3rd defeat in 69 fights on October 26th 1951, when referee Ruby Goldstein, stopped the contest in the 8th round to save Louis from further punishment being delivered by the thunderous fists of Rocky Marciano.
Joe Louis reigned as world champion for almost 12 years. He was victorious in 25 title defenses. He had 69 fights and was only defeated 3 times, two of them in his later years. Joe Louis “The Brown Bomber” is one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.
