In the documentary, "Joe Louis--America's Hero Betrayed", his son says that Louis had to "share" his purses with Braddock. It sounded like Braddock's cut came at least in part from Louis' share. Schmeling raised all kinds of hell about it. Hitler's propoganda minister Goebbels offered all kinds of concessions to get Braddock to come to fight in Germany. Whatever Braddock wanted, "Ja, ja, you haf it." Until, according to legend, Braddock's manager said he would do it if Goebbels would have all the Jews in the concentration camps released. Goebbels abruptly ended the conversation.
Thank you for pointing out that he had arthritis. But if he was aware he had arthritis and knew it would only get worse, why did he avoid Louis for 2 entire years ? Regarding the Farr bout, the sports writers, Farr and even Braddock himself all had looks of shock on their faces when it was announced that Braddock had won. I've questioned several historians and all appear to agree that it was a freebie decision handed to a nice guy that was retiring. His avoidance of Schmeling was curious, and not entirely due to the political climate ... I think Ron Howard neglected to cover Braddock's final years because he was too busy burying Max Baer's legacy. His avoidance of a rematch with Max Baer was very curious. Here's what I've uncovered from primary source files: This content is protected Cat www.maxbaer.org