64) Joe Louis Lost TKO 1: America: The Story of the US TV - Bert Randolph Sugar - Adolf Hitler - Henry Louis Gates junior - NBC Radio Commentary - Clem McCarthy - US Fight Commentary TV -
A rematch is arranged. But this time it’ll be the fight that involves the whole world. Though attacked in the press Joe just keeps training ... June 22nd 1938: the rematch finally takes place. The hype is at fever pitch. Seventy thousand people pour into the Yankee Stadium in New York to watch the fight live. Seventy million people tune in via radio across the country. Over one hundred million listen in around the world. The biggest audience to that date for anything anywhere. The fight is no longer just about boxing, it’s a battle of ideologies as Joe Louis knew too well. America: The Story of the US: Bust, History 2010
In two minutes and four seconds, Joe Louis not only destroyed Max Schmeling, he destroyed the myth of Aryan supremacy. Bert Randolph Sugar
There were pickets outside. There was a lot of turmoil in the stadium – Yankee Stadium. This was a massive event. Bert Randolph Sugar
This wasn’t a boxing match; it was a political event. Bert Randolph Sugar
We are with you. Adolf Hitler, telegram to Max Schmeling
The second Joe Louis/Max Schmeling fight took on a proportion far greater than any other fight in the history of boxing ... For one of the first times, if not the first time in American history, American symbolically was being represented by a black man. Professor Henry Louis Gates junior, Harvard University
v Joe Louis 22nd June 1938 New York [r1] ... Louis with the old one-two ... Louis is following him ... Shoots over a hard right to Max’s head ... A right to the head, a left to the head, a right, Schmeling is going down ... is down ... is up ... And Schmeling is down. The count is five! Five … six … seven … eight. Men are in the ring. The fight is over on a technical knock-out. NBC radio commentary, cited Ringside Rivalries
This was the greatest fight of our generation. Clem McCarthy NBC
v Joe Louis Joe 22nd June 1938 New York [r1] ... Explosive right to the jaw hurts Max Schmeling. Joe all over Max Schmeling here in round one ... A dynamite right to the jaw and Max Schmeling goes down ... A crushing right explodes on Schmeling’s jaw. US fight commentary
[8.5] HENRY COOPER 55-41(27)-14-1 [Heavyweight 188-217.5 lbs]: British Boxing Heroes TV - UK Fight Commentary TV -
One of the most controversial fights in British boxing history. British Boxing Heroes: Cooper v Bugner
He’s given it to Bugner! He’s given it to Joe Bugner! And I find that a-mazing! He’s given it to Joe Bugner, and Cooper has lost three titles. And that I do not understand. And the whole of Wembley erupts into a storm of booing. And how in the world can you take away the man’s three titles like that? Harry Carpenter, UK fight commentary
37) Muhammad Ali Lost TKO5: When Ali Came to Britain TV - Alan Hubbard - Harry Carpenter & UK Fight Commentary TV - Angelo Dundee -
But Cooper was certainly the underdog. Cassius Clay was the Olympic champion, undefeated in eighteen professional bouts and about two stone heavier. When Ali Came to Britain
Sitting at the ringside was Elizabeth Taylor ... who had just made the film Cleopatra. His eyes widened and he mouthed, ‘Hiya, Cleopatra.’ And a few seconds later Henry hit him. Alan Hubbard, boxing correspondent Independent on Sunday
It’s sixty-five seconds instead of sixty. Harry Carpenter
v Muhammad Ali 18 June 1963 London: [r1] And Clay has said I’ll beat him in five ... Cooper quick to pick up the left hook, and he’s going in and he’s hurt Clay ... The left hook of Cooper scores quickly. And Clay’s nose in bleeding in the first minute from the left hook of Cooper ... [r2] ... Clay trying to open up his own left jab and hook ... Clay now working on Cooper’s face ... Now Cooper seems to be cut slightly underneath the left eye ... It’s a battle of left hands [r3] ... Henry Cooper is cut over the left eye ... His arms are down by his hips ... This is complete cheek on the part of Clay ... Clay has taken all of Cooper’s punches and has stood up to them ... [r4] ... Poor Cooper keeps putting his left glove up there ... The bell has sounded and he is up at about three, Clay ... There’s a good left hook ... A left hook. Clay took one chance too many. And he still doesn’t know where he is. He’s still half out, Clay. And they are working furiously on him in the corner ... He doesn’t know where he is. He is looking at his corner ... [r5] ... I think Clay has got a torn glove. No, he seems to be all right ... Cooper’s left eye pouring blood ... It’s all over in Round Five. Harry Carpenter, UK fight commentary
He got nailed. Thank heaven the bell rang. Angelo Dundee
I stood him up. Angelo Dundee
[8.5] LEON SPINKS 46-26(14)-17-3 [Heavyweight & Cruiserweight 190-225 lbs] Jim Brady -
The magical, mystical carpet ride, that began in Montreal in 1976, when Spinks won the Olympic light-heavyweight gold medal is over. Now, fate has bought him a one-way ticket to nowhere – with occasional whistle stops in places like Reno, Nevada or Miami Beach. Jim Brady, The Man Who Could Beat Ali But Still Couldn’t Win
No, today, Leon Spinks, the Last Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, knows he’s lucky to pick up fifteen grand, jousting with local gladiators like Rocky Sekorski, in bar room parking lots, in God-forsaken Twin Lakes, Minnesota. ibid.
Once upon a time, in seemingly another life, young, rock-hard Leon Spinks won the heavyweight championship of the world – in just his eighth professional fight. In defeating Ali, it was a case of the crude apprentice whipping the master craftsman, in one of sports history’s greatest upsets. ibid.
Nobody, but nobody, ever self-destructed faster than Leon Spinks. ibid.
Long, long ago, and seemingly far, far away, when Leon Spinks was one of the most famous men in the world, he could proudly strut in his blue fox fur and his wide-brimmed pimp’s hat, top-heavy with glimmering jewellery, flanked by as many as 70 flunkies, some of whom Leon never knew, and laugh at fate. ibid.
But when Leon lost his rematch with Ali in August of 1978, the gladhandlers suddenly disappeared. Leon trudged that long lonely mile back to his hotel room all alone. ibid.
There’s no question that Spinks has a penchant for self-destruction that burns like a butane torch. But in an age when slick media manipulation, or ‘public relations’ is allowed to pass for truth, nobody ever bothered to find out that Leon Spinks, everyone’s favourite punching bag, is a highly complex, perceptive, intelligent human being. ibid.
There’s a terrible vulnerability to Leon Spinks, this kind, decent, misunderstood, unpretentious free spirit, who’d much rather have been back home in Detroit watching women’s soaps and kid’s action-adventure cartoons on TV. Yet, circumstance demanded he come to Miami, in this, the winter of his discontent, and sell what remains of his tattered dignity, in front of thousands of strangers. ibid.
v Muhammad Ali 15 September 1978 Superdome New Orleans: What an extraordinary career! What an extraordinary man he has been! ... That’s the mark of the man ... A combination and the crowd goes wild … US fight commentary