No. To me it does look like a clean punch, and Donovan was in position to see it clearly. (There were also multiple cameras at the venue which would have picked it up, and numerous spectators who had a clear view of it. No controversy surfaced over it.) Jack shouldn'a pissed 'im off by saying before the fight, "I have no trouble with colored fighters. I had no problems with Harry Wills." Joe seethed, and there's a photo of him with a mean smouldering purse to his face as he looks back at a fallen Sharkey after one of the knockdowns. Jack deserves credit for getting out of the second round. He wasn't out cold at the end like Braddock, but you can tell he knows the score when he takes out his mouthpiece after the final knockdown.
I can't say I give Louis much credit for the win because Sharkey was finished as a world class fighter but it was a good comeback fight after the Schmeling loss. Jack Johnson, much like when he predicted Schmeling would win, said Louis would lose to Sharkey too but he didn't quite get it right this time.
"The Shark" was there for a payday..... Sharkey was age 34 and over 200 pounds.... He wanted the money....... Shark's only hope was to nail Joe Louis with a bomb early on... It didn't happen and Sharkey was KO'd in 3 rds......... MR.BILL:hat
Sharkey was shot and took a terrific beating. Anyone who doubts his heart should watch this fight. Louis comes right back post Schmeling beating with a terrific performance. Thats a wrap ...
After the Schmeling fight, some people thought that Sharkey could beat him, and Sharkey himself used that argument. It was probably not so much a last payday for Sharkey, as a last chance to score a big upset.
Even though I no longer look at age 34 as old, if you are a fighter who's never been hammered to death in prior fights.... But I still think that Jack Sharkey took the fight for the money... Of course he was there to upset Joe Louis, but "The Shark" came to realize that it was futile after round 2....... I have this fight on tape... I think Sharkey weighed a career high 207 pounds in that massacre of '36.?.? Jack Sharkey would later be seen as the referee for the 1958 epic title fight between "Moore & Durelle." Jack Sharkey was age 58 by then..... MR.BILL:thumbsup
Imo Sharkey looked pretty sharp. He landed some good left hooks and uppercuts on Louis, although he missed even more, and his jab looks pretty good too. Louis has no trouble with him but imo this has not much to do with Sharkey beeing shot but Louis beeing that good.
One of my favorite kayos from the Brown Bomber, however the win meant little if not nothing, considering Sharkey was completely washed up at the time. It was a miracle he managed to last into the 3rd round. He summed it up best, "someday Joe will be my age, and a young kid will knock him out too." Nearly two decades later, that exactly happened when Louis met Marciano.
I really enjoyed watching this as I had never seen it before. The clarity was also very good. Sharkey was indeed a shell (compare to the Dempsey fight - absolutely no muscle-tone at all in comparison). I could see the punch early in the 1st round that was going to do the damage (the overhand right). A good comeback from a bad KO for Louis. A prime Louis-Sharkey match would have been fun, albeit with the same result but much later. I've always liked Sharkey, a real enigma. Even at this stage I really liked the way he would roll with those Louis bombs on the ropes. Scartissue
What bugs me is how inconsistent Louis was in this period. Looked rubbish against Schmeling I. Looked great against Sharkey and Ettore. Looked rubbish against Farr, and nearly lost the fight. Then absolutely demolished Nathan Mann with a set of highlight-reel KD's. It makes him very difficult to analyse in this period.