Max Baer: Broken hand in the Joe Louis fight.

I see.

 

Yes. I don't go as far back as you, but I go back a long ways, and it is strange that I have never heard this bad hand story before.

The writer Norman Marcus certainly writes well and with an air of objectivity, but he is the fellow who had Louis hitting Buddy Baer in the back of the head after Baer turned to walk to the corner--something that is totally at odds with the film of that fight.

There is no attribution here for any of the "facts" given. Without that, who knows?

I would be interested if anyone has any more info about this bad hand story.

Except for the flurry in the first which Louis turned around, and the punches after the bell in the second, Baer doesn't use his right often on the film.

What is hard, and really impossible, to understand, is why Baer went through with the fight if his hand was that bad. After what Louis had done to Carnera, Baer had to know Louis would be really tough.

 

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The bottom line is that we don’t know how bad the hand was coming into the fight. I doubt that Baer would have agreed to fight Louis, unless he at least thought it would probably hold up. This was his ticket back to the title if he pulled it off. It might well be that the hand injury worked to Louis’s advantage, but that still doesn’t nullify the outcome of the fight. Its not like we can award the win to Baer.

 

In fairness to Hearns, he never cried about it. If I recall, the broken hand he suffered only came to light afterwards, and not via Tommy. He accepted defeat with no excuses, out of respect for Marvin.

As to the thread title, meh. Baer never looked like a winner in that fight, not for a moment.

 

Joe Louis didn’t use the fact that he broke his hand against Tommy Farr as an excuse either.

To be fair, Max Baer qualified this as his excuse against Jimmy Braddock.

 

For the life of me I cant see the logic in his decision.:huh

As far as I am aware there is no proof that Baer went into that fight with a broken hand ,though he did have a history of hand problems,fighting against Braddock with two bad maulies.

 

In his autobiography he said he would have stopped Farr if he hadn't injured his hand,he didn't break it I believe he sprained a finger. Sharkey broke a thumb against Jeffries would he have won otherwise? Probably not.

 

If anyones arse fell out in this fight it was Baer's

 

You are right. Emanuel Steward brought up the broken hand; I have no problem with Tommy at all, he was a noble warrior.

 

You might also be less than impressed by Ali nearly getting ko'd by Henry Cooper and losing to Norton and Frazier. Any fighter's record can be torn to shreds, if you try hard enough.

 

"It can also be verified on Wikipedia"

Wikipedia is NOT a reliable source.