v Evander Holyfield 5th December 1987 WBA Junior- Heavyweight Atlanta ***** [r1] … Holyfield devastating right now, just out-speeding the champion … Qawi is a good defensive fighter … Evander is getting through … It’s off to a great start … [2] … He taking some licks from Holyfield … Evander has to defend himself … [3] … Holyfield a couple of big punches … Holyfield is going for it … Boy, their exchanging so many punches … Qawi the thick neck, built like a tree-trunk … [r4] … He [Holyfield] is very very tired … Good body shot by Qawi … Holyfield stumbled … That combo has worked well for Holyfield … [r5] … This bout has been fought at a tremendous pace … Right and left combo to Holyfield … [r6] … The rounds have got closer and closer … Here’s Holyfield … and came back and landed punches of his own … This one is moving along at a great pace … [r7] … Another low blow [Qawi] … Those combinations not getting in, simply hitting the gloves of Qawi … Another right uppercut from Qawi … [r8] … Qawi has been a bulldog throughout … Good combination from Evander … Nose to nose … He has Evander hurt … Just a gruelling battle of attrition … Good body shots by Qawi … [r9] … It’s a tough fight to score … Holyfield still bouncing … [r10] … Using the jab, using the movement … That one from Holyfield got in with authority … Qawi has a tremendous heart … [r11] … Holyfield with a vicious combination of punches … Qawi will rally … Scoring combination from Evander … [r12] … Tee-off on Qawi … A tremendous learning experience … A powerful right [Holyfield] … He took a good stiff jab … [r13] … Teeing off on the head of Qawi … Evander’s just outbusying him … Good combinations through to the chin of Qawi … [r14] … They’re loving it in Atlanta … Dwight is just not throwing … Still the pursuit unrelenting … Both men showing unbelievable courage and determination … [r15] … Another left coming in from Qawi … Qawi landed a good left hook there … 144-140 141-143 147-138. ABC US fight commentary
Evander Holyfield II 5th December 1987 WBA & IBF Cruiserweight Atlantic City [r1] … Good counter-punch by Holyfield … He’s boxing a bit more cleverly … The first fight over 2,300 punches combined … [p2] He’s bringing the fight to Holyfield … Holyfield 100% business … Holyfield pressing the attack … again on the attack … [r3] … Welcome to the second war … Holyfield triggers off … A solid right by Holyfield … Qawi comes back … and then Holyfield finishes with a flurry … [r4] … The pace has been wild … Holyfield to the body and the head … Qawi is down! Good sharp hook … Down again … It’s all over. US fight commentary
[8.5] MAX SCHMELING 70-56(40)-10-4 [Heavyweight 173-207 lbs]: Al Bernstein -
He helped Jews escape Nazi Germany. In addition to the people he hid. Al Bernstein, boxing journalist
60) Joe Louis KO12: Max Schmeling - Geoffrey Simpson - Beckley Post-Herald - Chris Mead
I see something. Max Schmeling, televised interview
Looking back, I’m almost happy I lost that fight. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. After the war I might have been considered a war criminal. Max Schmeling
It is the title [Schmeling] wants on behalf of himself and the German nation. If successful he promises to defend the championship in the United States next September, but my guess is that he will take the next boat back to Germany. That’s what the Americans are scared of. Geoffrey Simpson, Daily Mail
Everybody fears that Max will take his title back to Germany – in case he wins it. Nobody with a sense of fairness wants to see the next heavyweight championship fight staged in the land bossed by Hitler. Beckley Post-Herald editorial
Bill Henry of the Los Angeles Times described the fight as a ‘pugilistic drama starring Joe Louis as the hero and Max Schmeling as villain’. Chris Mead, ‘In Three Rounds, Chappie’
American hostility towards Germany and Schmeling increased when the US government indicted 18 American citizens four days before the fight, accusing them of spying on America for the Nazis. ibid.
Der Ansgriff, another Nazi paper, accused the United States of baiting of the worst sort of stupid attacks on Schmeling and said the Americans were making ‘a racial question and political affair’ of the fight. ibid.
Schmeling himself understood what was happening. Certainly he neither wanted nor deserved the role as representative of Nazism. ibid.
After the Second World War Schmeling took great pains to bring about a reconciliation with Louis. The way the press played the two boxers off against each other clearly bothered Schmeling. ibid.
The two boxers nodded to each other, not speaking. Schmeling weighed 13 stone 11 pounds, Louis at 14 stone 2 and a half pounds. ibid.
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