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Considering his connection to Joe Jeannette, one of the great heavyweights of his era who never got a shot at the title, it’s fitting in a way that Braddock lost the championship to Joe Louis, one of the greatest boxers of all time and only the second African American heavyweight champion ever.Â
Braddock’s first and only title defense came a full two years after he defeated Baer; he and Louis met on June 22, 1937 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, home of the White Sox. The fight almost didn’t happen, according to Schaap’s biography (via the New York Post), as the Illinois Athletic Commission objected to it on racial grounds; the two men had to file a court appeal in order to force the commission’s hand and allow the fight to proceed. After a first round knockdown by Braddock, Louis rallied and delivered a brutal knockout in the eighth round. For the first time in nearly three decades, a Black man held the greatest title in sports.
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If that is all Louis had ever accomplished, it would have been enough to secure his place in the history books. But the Brown Bomber held onto that title for 12 years and over two dozen title defenses, the most of any fighter on record. Because of Louis — and, in a way, because of Braddock — there would never be another era when Black fighters were excluded from championship consideration. “[Braddock] broke the color barrier,” said notorious promoter Don King, who served as a consultant for Howard’s film. “That’s what gave us the Brown Bomber.”
