Braddock pursued boxing, fighting as a
light heavyweight. His first fight in a
ring occurred on November 27, 1923. On March 21, 1925, Braddock knocked out Johnny Emerson and won the
New Jersey amateur light heavyweight championship. The fight lasted 107 seconds. Two days later, he defeated Tom Bodman, a fighter forty pounds heavier, to take the state's heavyweight title. Braddock turned professional at the age of 21. After three years, his record was , with 21
knockouts. On April 13, 1926, Braddock fought Al Settle at Amsterdam Hall in
Union City, New Jersey in his first professional fight. In 1928, Braddock pulled off a major upset by knocking out highly regarded
Tuffy Griffiths. The following year he earned a chance to fight for the title, but he narrowly lost to
Tommy Loughran in a 15-round decision. Braddock was greatly depressed by the loss and badly fractured his right hand in several places in the process.
Max Baer fight In 1934, Braddock was given a fight with the highly touted
John "Corn" Griffin. Although Braddock was intended simply as a stepping stone in Griffin's career, he knocked out the "
Ozark Cyclone" in the third round. Braddock was given a title fight against the World Heavyweight Champion,
Max Baer. Despite Braddock's recent impressive victories, he was hand-picked by Baer's handlers because he was seen as a little more than a journeyman fighter, an easy payday for the champion. Baer hardly trained for the bout; Braddock, on the other hand, trained hard. "I'm training for a fight, not a boxing contest or a clownin' contest or a dance," he said. "Whether it goes one round or three rounds or ten rounds, it will be a fight and a fight all the way. When you've been through what I've had to face in the last two years, a Max Baer or a
Bengal tiger looks like a house pet. He might come at me with a cannon and a blackjack and he would still be a picnic compared to what I've had to face." The bout occurred on June 13, 1935, at
Madison Square Garden Bowl, in
Long Island City, New York. Baer, ever the showman, "brought gales of laughter from the crowd with his antics" the night he stepped between the ropes to meet Braddock. As Braddock "slipped the blue bathrobe from his pink back, he was the sentimental favorite of a Bowl crowd of 30,000, most of whom had bet their money 8-to-1 against him." During the fight, a dogged Braddock took a few heavy hits from the powerful younger champion (30 years versus 26 years for Baer), but Braddock kept coming, wearing down Baer, who seemed perplexed by Braddock's ability to take a punch. In the end, the judges gave Braddock the title with a unanimous decision, outpointing Baer 8 rounds to 6. A 10-to-1 underdog, Braddock won the Heavyweight Championship of the World in what was called "the greatest fistic upset since the defeat of
John L. Sullivan by
Jim Corbett". Braddock argued he would have received only a US$25,000 purse against Schmeling, compared to $250,000 against rising star Louis. There was also concern that if Schmeling lost, the Nazi government would deny American fighters opportunities to fight for the title. Finally, American commentators had expressed opposition to the fight in light of the connections between Schmeling and
Adolf Hitler, with whom the German fighter had been associated after his earlier victory over Louis. The
New York State Athletic Commission fined Gould and Braddock $1,000 each for canceling the fight with Schmeling. In his only defense of the heavyweight title, Braddock lost to Louis in the 8th round by a knockout, the only one of his career. Braddock and Louis saw each other frequently over the years, and the "Brown Bomber" always greeted him the same way: "Hello, Champ." As Jeremy Schaap wrote, "[Louis] fought eight world heavyweight champions, more than any other fighter ever, but he never called anyone but Jim Braddock 'champ.'" On the other hand, shortly after winning the title, Louis was quoted as saying, "I don't want to be called champ until I whip Max Schmeling". (
Louis defeated Schmeling in 1938, part of his 12-year reign as Heavyweight champion, the
longest championship reign in boxing history.) Seven months after the Louis fight, Braddock had his next match with
Tommy Farr and won in what turned out to be his last match. While the fight with Louis was the end of Braddock as a major boxing force, part of his contract for that bout was to gain a portion of Louis' earnings over the next decade, which proved very lucrative for him. == Later life ==