Joe Louis: The heavy weight champion that eliminated fascism

By Owais Tabassum: The year was 1938. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had just annexed Austria. Humanity breathed as the world was on the shores of the most devastating conflict in history: World War II.

In the midst of this catastrophe, another battle was playing a leading role through the New York City lake. The air was thick with the smoke of the Great Depression, as seventy thousand spectators packaged the Yankee stadium, and it was estimated that one hundred million listeners on the world were confronted, as the heavy boxing champion of boxing, Joe Louis, faced Max Schmeling in Germany.

Adolf Hitler and the “main propagandist of the Nazi party” Joseph Goebbels had led to Schmeling as advertising in the world of boxing and with a good cause.

Schmeling was a boxer, fast on the feet and a ring technician who had the power eliminated by both fists. He had shown his skills to stop Louis on his first encounter two years earlier, inflicting him with his first defeat. He was a formidable pugilist and Hitler knew it too well.

The public sentiment affected a victory of Louis; Millions sank around the fissure of their radios in anticipation. This was the seriousness of the event that President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally told Louis: “These are the muscles we need to defeat the Germans.” The situation was a tension and the load of Louis’s shoulders was heavy.

“FDR” does not have to worry, Louis understood the task. Going to the central ring in an elegant stance and similar to an exciting one, taking advantage of its devastating power, punched the head and body of Schmeling. He demolished it three times, stopping the contest in an entertainment way with a first round of the first round.

The image of fascism was all decimated in 124 seconds.

A furious Joseph Goebbels frantically pointed out the diffusion engineers to throw the cap on the transmission while Schmeling was on his ropes, succumbing to the Louis punches.

As Louis’s word triumph spread rapidly, the streets of all states exploded with joy. The people sang and danced to celebrate the victory of their hero. Louis’s victory had helped to open the way to race relations throughout the country. Louis, an Alabama -born African American for a sharing family, had literally fought his departure from dirt and defeated Adolf Hitler’s notion of Ariana supremacy. The victory was sweet.

Louis later joined the war effort in 1942, becoming the original inspiration for Marvel America’s captain’s exhibitions in the army fields, entertaining troops and encouraging unity between the different races that fight with this bloodiest conflict.

Schmeling, meanwhile, never joined the Nazi party; His relationship with the Führer was complex. He risked his life and reputation to help Jewish children escape persecution. He was also a hero.

Returning to the ring, Louis reigned as a heavy weight champion for almost 12 years, an impressive success that is still unmatched to date. It was not until 1950 that exceptional Ezzard Charles treated Louis only the second loss of his legendary career

Louis’s later life was affected by financial problems, his managers had packed most of his career gains leaving only a fraction of his victories. Louis was also extremely generous, helping family and friends out of poverty. But, unfortunately, many of Louis’s business companies had also failed.

Perhaps the most devastating blow of Louis’s career did not reach the ring, but from the IRS, which stated that he owed more than $ 500,000 in later taxes. With interest and fines, this figure increased to more than $ 1,000,000, equivalent to today’s $ 13 million. When Louis’s mother died, she left her life savings, a modest $ 500. Tragically, the IRS seized immediately. Although my exploration of the tax laws of the time confirmed that the Government acted within its legal rights, I found no justification for the moral indecency of confiscating a personal gift from a dead mother to her son.

Louis, with a stellar career of 66 wins, 52 Knockouts and only two losses, was forced to return to the ring for the last time.

This time, his enemy was none other than the future Hall of Famer, a future unbeaten album holder, a devastating eliminatory artist; The “Brockton Blockbuster” Rocky Marciano.

Although Rocky expressed his lament of having to fight his hero the victory against Schmeling, he himself had celebrated as a youth. The way Louis dismantled would have thought the opposite. Marciano had demolished Louis in the eighth round with a right hand that breaks on earth, sending it through the ropes and erased from the ring. As Louis was desperately helping at his feet, a sense of sadness passed over the world of boxing. Louis’s boxing race is over

Louis’s legacy lives in the modern media.

It is fascinating that only decades later, we can see these historical encounters of impressive color and definition. Technology has advanced to the point that we can now enter the ring as an almost perfect graphic interpretation of Joe Louis in the recent launch of the boxing simulation game, “indisputable”. Could fans of this age have imagined a leap like this? “”

Louis and Schmeling became friends for the rest of his life, and Schmeling even provided Louis financial assistance during his most desperate years. This bond was the proof that reconciliation is possible even among enemies at the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.

Other boxing figures and the world of broadest celebrities, to know, Jack Dempsey, the baseball icon Jackie Robinson and the legends of music Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, helped Louis financially in their last years

The boxing icon, Muhammad Ali, took care of Louis’s funeral arrangements when he died on April 12, 1981. The 69th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, the boxing world cried the loss of one of his most titanic figures.

Joe Louis lived through an age defined by deep segregation, racial hatred, World War II and Great Depression. However, with nothing but a couple of boxing gloves, he destroyed racial barriers, built bridges, united a divided nation, and eliminated fascism.