The biggest Joe Louis fight that nobody talks about.

Well, i dont know, its possible that there was a backlash because Lou was supposed to win but Fleischer wasnt the only one that mentioned the fouls in his writeup. Hard to say, i have dozens of radio broadcasts though and they very often tend to be very neutral in regards to fouls. Could be either/or.

 

That was dunphys philosophy, he discusses in his book in depth the difference between calling a tv fight and a radio fight. In radio you had to be the eyes and ears of the audience. In tv he felt it was redundant to tell the audience what they were already seeing, so he let the broadcast tell the story and added color that the tv audience couldnt readily ascertain such as how hard blows were, if a bruise was forming, what might be going on in a corner or even at ringside.

Some announcers were better than others Taub seemed to get tripped up mistaking right for left and vice versa.

 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=gCMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5570,6903131&hl=en

 

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/File:Nova.Louis.jpg

 

The day after the fight, distributors viewed the bout on film and decided not to show it in theaters. They thought it was too dull.

Nat Fleischer wrote that Nova didn't win a round and took a terrible beating in the sixth round.


Joe Louis Retains Title By Flooring Lou Nova In Sixth
By Gayle Talbot, Associated Press, September 30, 1941
If Joe Louis has fought his last fight, then the world can say goodbye to a fighting man the likes of which it may never see again.
The right that Joe laid on Lou Nova's jaw in the sixth round last night at the Polo Grounds, knocking the big Californian flat and preparing him for the technical knockout that came a moment later, was the sort of picture punch that a fight fan might wait a lifetime to see.
The big negro, now awaiting his call into the Army, may never again deliver a single blow with the precision and power of the one that paralyzed Nova's senses and shocked a great crowd of almost 60,000 that had been slowly warming up to what it thought was a fairly even contest.
A year of absence from the heat of championship fighting might rob Louis of the perfect sense of timing and the deadly kick that went into that one climactic blow. If that happens, then it will be something to remember.
Nova was close to the ropes, near his own corner, boxing confidently and well, waiting for Joe to give him an opening. Louis, his face impassive as ever, was shuffling about and getting nowhere, apparently. The crowd had been doing some booing, and the champion's most ardent followers were wailing that "he never looked like that before."
Then suddenly, and simply, it happened.
Louis feinted with his left and threw all of his 202 pounds behind his right. It struck the powerful Nova flush on the jaw and he dropped as though he had collided with a boxcar. It was such a terrific blow as to make what happened before and afterward in the fight seem scarcely worth the telling.
Though terribly hurt, Nova managed to gain his feet at the count of nine and to stagger into a barrage of blows. He shuddered under the impact of twenty or thirty cruel shots to his head and body as he sagged and floundered three-quarters of the way around the ring before Referee Arthur Donovan stopped it, just at the bell. But that one punch had ruined him.
"I just forgot to duck," said Nova, almost cheerfully, after the wobble came out of his legs and he reached the dressing room. "Joe's the hardest hitter I ever fought. I saw the punch coming all the way, but I couldn't get out of range. It must have been a beauty."
Ray Carlen, Nova's manager, was bitter because Donovan had stopped the bout with only a second remaining of the sixth round. He argued with seeming logic, that Lou should have been given the minute rest period to see if he could come out and fight. But Nova refused to join him in his beef.
"Maybe I could have taken care of myself if I had had a rest," he said, "but I've got no complaint about Donovan. He can referee all my fights."
As a matter of plain fact, a rest wouldn't have done Nova a particle of good and would have earned him only a worse beating than he got. A full two minutes after the bout ended Nova got to his feet and made his way out to the center of the ring, and his knees still were wobbling and his face still was a blank.
As it was, the worst the challenger had to show for the fight was a slight cut on the bridge of his nose and a shattered dream. He really thought he could whip Louis and he gave it a good, brave try. He learned differently, and took it very well.

 

What happened to the cosmic punch?

 

James Braddock I believe inadvertently referred to it as the "cosmetic punch".

 

Nova is the only title challenger apart from Schmeling, and Walcott in the rematch, who people seem to have given a significant chance of beating Louis.

In the end Nova did not live up to the hype, but he is perhaps a fighter who was on the cusp of being something really special.

 

It was a highly anticipated fight but Nova "froze" and just did not fight well at all during the bout or maybe just did not fight at all! The right hand that ended the fight seemed to be one of Louis all time best. As per the 1975 Ring record book Louis was the 13-5 favorite to win. So almost 3-1.