94 years ago today: Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling vs. William Lawrence Stribling Jr.

...aka "Black Uhlan of the Rhine" vs. "Young Stribling / King of the Canebrakes"

...aka the last (and first!) time a world heavyweight championship tilt featured two white dudes with nine-letter surnames that began with the letter S and ended with "-ling". If you can believe that.

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This was Schmeling's only defense of the world heavyweight title before returning it whence he found it - to Juozas Povilas "Jack Sharkey / The Boston Gob / Sharkboy" Žukauskas. Schmeling had somewhat controversially become champion on a foul in 1930 when Sharkey was struck below the belt line - the only time a HW title has changed hands via DQ - and lost the rematch via SD in 1932. It remains among the sport's great shames that Max & Jack never had a rubber match with the official results never really definitively settling the matter as to who the better man was between the German & Lithuanian in their primes.

Now, as for Stribling - his star may not shine as luminous in the sport's history (Schmeling's name of course being linked with the legendary Joe Louis') but he is the man that Jim Corbett considered the finest p4p fighter he had ever seen with his own eyes. The Gentleman said of "The Fighting Schoolboy" (quite rightly named as "Strib" fought several dozen matches while still attending Lanier HS in Macon before acquiring his diploma) that he was unmatched among feinters, and his only gripe was the he didn't counter more when opponents bit on those feints - as he did so par excellence when he bothered to.

The nosebleeds for this one cost just three U.S. dollars of the day - equal in buying power to about sixty bucks today. Still a great deal to have seen a main event like this - and with an entertaining undercard populated by colorful characters like James Curtis "Battling Bozo" Hambright and Tony "Two-Ton" Galento, no less. Heck, the most expensive seats in the house went for a mere $25 - adjusted from 1931 until the present, that's still only half a grand. By contrast that same $500 would have gotten you an okay view from over a dozen rows away for last week's Jake Paul vs. Julio César Chávez Jr. sideshow, and ringside would've set you back over 3k.

Stribling had just shy of 300 bouts. 291 all told, and besides this he was never stopped before or after. Testament here to Schmeling's vaunted right hand power - and to his chin, as he delivered the finishing blow while simultaneously eating a flush Stribling uppercut.

"Willie The Clutch" would lace up 21 more times after this, before his untimely demise in a motorcycle accident (speeding along the streets of Macon, GA to reach the hospital where his wife and their neonate infant awaited ). In his final outing, just a month prior, he put a bow on perhaps the crown jewel of his career - going 2-0 lifetime over Maxie Rosenbloom, outpointing him for a second time in their rematch. Stribling also held victories over Primo Carnera (in their 1-and-1 split rivalry, but those are both said to have been fixed) plus a pair over Tommy Loughran (going 2-1 in a trilogy where the last laugh was Loughran's) - but few that ever boxed a plurality with Slapsie Maxie could say they got away with a clean sweep...not Lee Ramage, nor John Henry Lewis, nor Tiger Jack Fox. The list reads Santiago Alberto Lovell, Hank Hankinson, George Manley, Tommy Milligan, and Strib - that's it. And some of those others are regarded as dubious if not outright dirty (certainly Hankinson II, and I believe at least one installment of Milligan vs. Rosenbloom).

A major part of the Joe Louis mythos - second perhaps only to losing Schmeling and the road to redemption - is that he beat a great and super game (at least the first time) smaller man in Billy Conn. In my opinion, you can almost regard Stribling as Schmeling's own Conn in parallel. Both challengers - the famously thick Irishman and the apple of Corbett's eye - were natural light heavyweights but debuted much further down the scale (lightweight for Conn, and featherweight in the case of Stribling - although starting at 14 probably had much to do with that).

 

What?

Drawing the colour line was absolutely par for the course for a southern white boxer in the 1920s and 30s. I'm not saying he was right to by any means - but he was hardly some reactionary outlier for his time & place.