‘Big John’ seemed to have potential as vast as his broad shoulders when the 1976 Olympic bronze medallist and undefeated pro captured the WBA belt in 1979. Lost in his first defence and was knocked out by Frank Bruno in 1986.ħ In 1978, at age 36, Ali won his belts back from Spinks to become a three-time champion South African Coetzee’s best year was 1983 when he took on two talented but troubled heavyweights, drawing with Pinklon Thomas then upsetting Michael Dokes to claim WBA gold (his third attempt at the belt). Nicknamed ‘The Bionic Hand’, which sounds great and like he’s boxing’s own Winter Soldier until you realise it’s just because he had lots of surgery on his injured hand. However, these men all had some claim to a genuine heavyweight world title at one stage in their careers - and the world was frankly a poorer place for it. Plus the WBA 'regular' title can get in the bin forever. So we’re not even considering early WBO champs from Francesco Damiani to Michael Bentt, Siarhei Liakhovich to Sultan Ibragimov. Nobody took the WBO heavyweight belt seriously until Wladimir Klitschko gave it some legitimacy in the mid-2000s (thank you, Wlad). After the war I might have been considered a war criminal” he would later say.7 Usyk and Fury, the division's current rulers, are considered the best in boxing right now Credit: Getty I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. “Looking back, I'm almost happy I lost that fight. He returned to his homeland to find his fame had plummeted and he was quickly disowned by the Nazi Party and Hitler, who were embarrassed that their Aryan symbol had been dispatched so brutally - not that Schmeling was particularly upset about being disassociated with the regime. While Louis solidified his status as a bona fide American hero, the story of Schmeling was quite different. “Now - I feels like the champ” claimed the victor after the bout. When the bell finally rang for the rematch, Joe Louis blitzed Schmeling in just 2 minutes and 4 seconds, making amends on his defeat in devastating fashion. Schmeling’s manager, a Jewish-American named Joe Jacobs caused tension between himself and the Third Reich but Schmeling would always stick by him, despite Hitler’s distaste. Although he claimed his support for Adolf after the first fight, he wasn’t a member of the Nazi party and had never agreed with their claims of racial superiority. The ‘Black Uhlan of the Rhine,’ as he was nicknamed, was forced into an impossible position and was forced to walk the line between Hitler’s pride and maintaining the relationship he’d built with the American public. Fortunately for the German, Louis saw that he could never be seen as a legitimate heavyweight champion without correcting the one wrong on his professional record and so on June 22 1938, the two would meet once again but for the world title this time.Īfter the first fight, Schmeling was generally well-received by Americans but on the eve of the rematch a lot had changed around the world and the anti-Semitic ideologies being broadcast from Hitler and his Third Reich were making many nervous and although it’s not what he wanted, Schmeling had become a symbol of Nazi Germany. Louis had strung together seven straight wins since his first professional loss but the truth is, nobody was willing to give Schmeling, a citizen of Nazi Germany, a title shot while Hitler was spewing his fascist rhetoric to the rest of the world. It was a huge blow to millions of African-Americans across the US, many of whom had seen Louis as their hope and saviour, whilst Schmeling returned home a national hero and became a key figure in the Adolf Hitler Nazi propaganda machine.ĭespite stopping the number one contender, it was Louis who would pick up the heavyweight title first, not Schmeling, when he stopped James ‘Cinderella Man’ Braddock in Chicago. In the first meeting between the two heavyweights in 1936, Louis, then the number one contender for the heavyweight crown, was dealt a huge blow when the 10/1 underdog Schmeling stopped him in the 12th round, handing him his first professional defeat.
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