Historical narrative can often be grafted on to sporting events in retrospect. When one of the world’s most famous black Americans, Joe Louis, bludgeoned Germany’s Max Schmeling to a first-round defeat in 1938, it was symbolic of free-world endurance against the fascism of Schmeling’s Nazi homeland.
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In two minutes and four seconds of brutal efficiency, Louis exploded with a barrage of uppercuts, crosses and hooks to put his opponent on the canvas three times. By the time the fight ended in technical knockout, Schmeling had thrown just four punches, two of which had missed, to Louis’s 31. Many spectators had yet to take their seats.
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In victory, Louis delivered the geopolitical message President Franklin D Roosevelt had called for when the fighter had visited the White House just a few weeks prior. “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany,” the New York Times quoted the president as telling the Brown Bomber ahead of the bout ...