![]() I mean, wherever his kisser was, I had a punch there, a left hook, a right cross, it was one of them nights." When I beat him in fifteen rounds, I hit him with everything. There was no talk about the heavyweight championship fight because they figured Lasky'd lick me. Jimmy later told a reporter, "So they matched Lasky and I. In March of 1935, with the nation in his corner, Braddock defeated Art Lasky in 15 rounds. ![]() Jimmy proved the critics wrong with a ten round victory. Once again, most predicted that Braddock wouldn't make it through the fight. This time the opponent was John Henry Lewis. To the amazement of everyone, he went on to upset Griffin with a third round knockout.Īs word of Braddock spread, he was given another chance to fight. In 1934, due to a last minute cancellation, Braddock was given the opportunity to fight John "Corn" Griffin on the under-card fight for that evening's heavyweight championship fight between Max Baer and Primo Carnera. At the bottom of the barrel, Jim swallowed his pride, hung up his boxing gloves and filed for government relief to help support his family.īut Jim's luck was about to change. He lost sixteen out of twenty-two fights during which time he shattered his right hand landing a punch. ![]() However, along with the economy, Jim's fight career hit the skids as well. With no work available, Jim struggled to win fights so that he could put food on the table for his wife and three young children. As the banks went under, Braddock, like so many other millions of Americans lost everything. On September 3rd 1929, less then two months after the Loughran bout, the stock market crashed and the nation plunged into the "Great Depression". Braddock would never land a clean hard punch and lost the 15 round bout to decision. Loughran who had studied Braddock's boxing style knew about Jim's powerful right hand and spent the match ducking and dodging Jim's punches. On the evening of July 18th 1929, Braddock entered the ring in Yankee Stadium to face Tommy Loughran for the coveted light heavyweight championship. But even with his trim physique, Jim's powerful right hand was more than a match for even those opponents that weighed close to 220 pounds. Problem was that although he stood over six feet, two inches, he seldom weighed over 180 pounds. During his first year, Braddock overwhelmed the competition, knocking out opponent after opponent in the early rounds of most fights.Īs a top light heavyweight, Braddock thought of moving into the heavyweight class. It was during this time that Jimmy discovered his passion for boxing.īraddock spent a few years honing his skills as a successful amateur fighter throughout New Jersey and in 1926 entered the professional boxing circuit in the light heavyweight division. Like most kids, Jimmy enjoyed playing marbles, baseball and hanging around the old swimming hole on the edge of the Hudson River or under the Hackensack River Bridge while he dreamt of someday becoming a fireman or a train engineer.įrom around the year 1919 to 1923, Jim Braddock worked a series of jobs: A messenger boy for Western Union, a printer's devil, a teamster and an errand boy in a silk mill. The Braddock family was growing and with five boys and two girls, Joseph and Elizabeth relocated across the Hudson River to the peaceful township of West New York in Hudson County New Jersey. Braddock was born on June 7th, 1905, to Irish immigrant parents Joseph Braddock and Elizabeth O'Toole Braddock in a tiny apartment on West 48th Street in New York City.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |