They Never Come Back

In the fourth round, it looked for a moment or two as if Joe Louis might do it. He shuffled in, jolted Ezzard Charles with a series of stiff lefts, trying to set him up for the old layaway punch. The 22,357 fans, thinly scattered through Yankee Stadium, began to wonder: Was tired, fat, old (36) Joe Louis going to make a comeback, and heavyweight history?*

Before another round had ended, the sentimentally pro-Louis crowd had the answer. The doomsday lefts & rights that won Joe the title from Braddock, and turned Max Schmeling and Max Baer to butter, were gone. For a dozen years Louis had been the best in the business, but the years had run out on him. At 218 Ibs., 17 over his prime weight, he was a paunchy shadow of the Brown Bomber. Charles spotted Louis 33^ Ibs., but he out-jabbed and outsmarted him almost all the way.

When it ended, after 15 bruising rounds, Louis stood silently in his corner and heard the judges' decision: unanimous for Ezzard Charles. Only one judge awarded Joe as many as five rounds.

Said Joe Louis: "I'll never" fight again." His last fight had earned him $102,840, about $97,000 short of what he owes the U.S. Treasury in back income taxes.

*Other ex-heavyweight champs who tried, and failed, to regain their titles: Gentleman Jim Corbett, 33, against Jim Jeffries in 1900; Bob Fitzsimmons, 40, against Jeffries in 1902; Jeffries, 35, against Jack Johnson in 1910; Jack Dempsey, 32, against Gene Tunney, in 1927.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.