On this day: Joe Louis stops Primo Carnera

Proxy wars are fought in the boxing ring as they are in any other major sport, from soccer to rugby to ice hockey and beyond.

Perhaps the biggest the world saw, was the 1938 rematch between Joe Louis and former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling. With Adolf Hitler leading Germany through a devastating war that would bring unimaginable pain and destruction to much of the planet, Louis found himself tasked with the unenviable task of shouldering the honor of the free world against the representative of those they chose. “a superior race.” Although Schmeling never took it upon himself (publicly, at least) to advocate such guilty views, and although he later in life rejected them though both words and deeds, the conflict of those two principles was very real to millions of viewers around him. The world. And Joe delivered in devastating fashion, crushing Schmeling in a brutal display of boxing skill and sheer force to defend his heavyweight championship less than two years after losing his undefeated streak to Schmeling in their first fight.

The win elevated Louis to the status of a national hero in the US, and cemented his place in history. But that landmark achievement was a collection of other earlier wins that gradually won Louis the admiration and support of his people, first as a symbol of his African American community, and then of the entire country.

His fight with Primo Carnera was probably the single biggest leap Louis took towards his now legendary status.

Carnera was a towering 6’6” former heavyweight champion born in Italy and aptly named “The Ambling Alp.” Slow, flat-footed and unskilled as a warrior, Carnera carried a wall in his right hand that was decent enough to cut the lows of his day’s toughest stages with ease, aided by smart matchmaking from his even smarter mentors. . Several of those punches piled on the man of one Ernie Schaaf with enough force to knock him unconscious first and then die a few days later. In his next fight in 1933 after Schaaf’s death, Carnera stopped Ring champion Jack Sharkey from lifting the heavyweight belt he had defended twice before surrendering it to Max Baer a year after winning it.

Joe Louis (right) and Primo Carnera (left) pose for the cameras as former welterweight champion Ray Robinson (center) hosts the bout – Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images

With an 82-7 record and an impressive number of stoppage wins to his credit, however, Carnera was still considered a valuable asset on the heavyweight circuit. And Louis, with a 20-0 record and seven wins in six months in 1935, was ready for his first serious test.

But when this war was closely watched by the media and promoters, war drums were heard in Africa, where the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, was deeply involved in the campaign to expand this country’s colonies in the African continent, which already includes Libya, Somalia. and Eritrea. His next target was Ethiopia, the enclave ruled by the now-legendary Emperor Haile Selassie I. As the infamous ‘Duce’s troops prepared for a brutal attack on one of the last free colonies on the continent, the looming battle between Louis and Carnera was seen as a pitched battle between armies. a devastating offensive against the frustrated Ethiopians in particular and Africa as a whole.

With the declaration of war, the African American community began to rally around Louis after years of vocal admiration for the Alabama-born singer who made Detroit his childhood home. Talented as he was, it was difficult to deal with Louis in his quest to become the next African American heavyweight champion after the infamous Jack Johnson, a man who had sparked anger and passion on both sides of the divide with his extravagant antics. In an attempt to cultivate an image that would appeal to the masses, Louis’s management kept him under strict control, avoiding any confrontational situations such as photo shoots with white women and other situations that would cause outrage during the height of the Jim Crow era. Some black people who respected him, as devoted as they were, often disagreed with these and other tactics designed to disguise his persona and make him palatable to a hostile public.

The mainstream media have done their part to label Louis as a dark brute by experimenting with several different nicknames, some more derogatory than others, that portray him as such. “Mahogany Maimer,” “Chocolate Chopper,” “Safari Sandman,” “Harlem Hammer,” “Tan Torpedo,” “Panting Panther,” “Oscillating Ocelot,” “ Ebony Elephant” and a host of other equally absurd and cacophonic monikers piled on Louis as colorful writers of the day searched for the perfect combination that would ultimately captivate their readers.

With these ingredients in play, the stage was set for a heavyweight contest between Louis and Carnera that would take place simultaneously in the boxing ring and in the geopolitical arena.

Scheduled for June 25 at Yankee Stadium, this 15-round fight has received the same attention that a heavyweight championship belt has received, where two top fighters put it all on the line in a crossroad for years.

Joe Louis stands next to Primo Carnera after scoring a knockdown in their fight at Yankee Stadium, New York City in 1935 – Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images

Giving his European opponent nearly five inches in height and weighing no less than 65 pounds, the boyish-looking 21-year-old Louis could have looked completely out of place to the untrained eye, just as the helpless little Ethiopian could not. look at the powerful army of the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III.

Easily avoiding Carnera’s slow and uneven attacks, Louis countered with precision and power with his dominant right hand from the start of the fight, peppering the front line with jabs and hooks and retreating from the dangerous path.

The recipe worked, and Louis repeated the dose round after round. As the bell rang for the sixth round, it was clear that Carnera would not go far. A crushing right hand bomb landed on Carnera’s jaw less than two minutes into the round and sent him down in a heap. A few seconds later, a similar punch sent him to the mat again, this time on his knees. Seeing an opportunity, Louis launched a brutal attack on the bloodied and broken Carnera until the Italian giant was subdued again, only to get up on his rubber legs. Without bothering to start the count, referee Arthur Donovan stopped the massacre at the 2.32 mark of the sixth round to hand Louis the victory.

Along with Carnera’s personality, the hopes of white people around the world were also defeated in that Bronx ring. However, their will to conquer and destroy would not end so easily. Mussolini’s troops eventually conquered Ethiopia in a murderous invasion that sent Selassie into exile and turned the once independent African nation into a colony for a few years. World War II broke out soon after, with Louis already the heavyweight champion of the world after defeating Jimmy Braddock on June 22, 1937. In that fight, both fighters weighed 197 pounds and were about the same height. Similar levels of equality in society as a whole, however, will still have to wait a few years.

As the red light of the rockets fired by the Allies rained down on Europe in the most important war in history, Louis’s delivery against the proxies of tyranny and evil continued to explode in the air to inspire his people as they attacked the war.

It was only then that Louis got the nickname he should have had.

With his performance in the ring, “The Brown Bomber” gave proof to the world that there was still hope for freedom. Now, the son of a cast member who could not speak his voice until he was six years old was carving his name into history with the popularity of his boxing.

An action that has no nickname, although it may be imagined, that can be symbolized.

Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a voter for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. She has won two first place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He worked as a copy editor for the second season of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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