Forgotten Champion

The challenger was cocky. "When the old man begins to tire in the late rounds, that's when I'll take over," crowed muscular Kenny Lane. The old man was 32-year-old Joe Brown, who, almost unnoticed, has been lightweight champion of the world for nearly two years.

Brown is used to obscurity. Born in New Orleans, the son of a Negro carpenter, Brown was early tagged as a fancy-dan by boxing's matchmakers, often had trouble getting fights. "I had to go to Panama for a year and to Australia for six months to find someone to fight." he recalls. But Joe's fortunes improved after Trainer Bill Gore took him over late in 1955, set about making him more of a slugger.

Using the Gore-inspired technique. Joe Brown whipped Champion Wallace ("Bud") Smith in a nontitle bout. He fought Smith again for the championship in August 1956. Joe broke his right hand in the second round, fought the champ one-handed. In the 14th, chancing his right just once, he floored Smith, went on to win the decision.

His broken hand kept him out of action for six months. When his hand healed, Brown set out to bring himself to public notice by taking on any and all comers, and regularly belting them into unconsciousness. He flattened four straight challengers. Last week this dedicated purposefulness paid off as a crowd of 10,994 jammed Sam Houston Coliseum to see Brown take on 26-year-old Lane, a left-handed farm boy from Michigan who had not lost a fight in three years.

Confused by Lane's southpaw style, Brown found it difficult to land his wicked left hooks and right uppercuts. But in the end, it was the young challenger who tired. Brown began boring in, bloodied Lane's face in the 9th round, knocked his mouthpiece out in the 10th, made use of his six-inch advantage in reach to power hard rights deep into the challenger's stomach. By the 15th round, Lane was out on his feet, and Brown won a close but unanimous decision. The undisputed king of the lightweights went home to his wife and four children in Baton Rouge, forgotten no more.

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