Jim Braddock is severely underrated.

[Jmangho]

Everyone only really knows him for beating Max Baer and being the main character in "Cinderella Man", but the dude's an incredible boxer.

For instance, did you know when he fought a prime Joe Louis he hadn't fought (or presumably trained) for 2 ****ing years, that's a hell of a lot of time to take away from fighting of all things, it makes you rusty, and he still knocked Louis down once:


Furthermore, for most of his boxing career he suffered from injuries to his hand, due to losing his fight with Tommy Loughran, he injured it in a bout of what was probably depressive anger or something, and from then on he had a pretty long losing streak (I'd like to remind ya'll that he was only ever knocked out ONCE, by a prime Joe Louis, and every other loss he ever had was by decision).

Then in the VERY LAST fight of his career, beats Tommy ****ing Farr, this is the dude that gave Joe Louis one of the toughest fights of his entire boxing career (everyone in the place booed when Louis was given the decision btw), and defeated Max Baer and Tommy Loughran earlier on:


People like to talk so much about how Baer "hardly trained for 2 weeks" before his fight against Braddock, and that's true, but people forget Braddock was also disadvantaged against him due to his hand.

Finally, I think this may just be Joe Louis trying to show respect to Braddock, but dude said he was one of the bravest fighters he'd ever fought.

Also, safe to say he was a pretty nice guy as well, lol. One of the first white men in years to give Joe Louis, a black man, a shot at the title, he also returned a lot of money to the poor and the church.

I do think that, yes, he should be regarded as one of the greats, I don't think he could beat, for instance, Rocky Marciano or Mike Tyson or something like that, but I do think he'd be good enough to make it to a decision with them 9 times out of ten.

Hoping this controversial thread sparks a debate, tell me what ya'll think.

[klompton]

You do realize he didnt fight for two years before facing Louis because he was ducking his number one contender. He also got a gift decision against Farr. He was an abysmal boxer. One of the worst to ever hold a title. He was merely in the right place at the right time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyH6GlYZRCs

[Jmangho]

You do realize he didnt fight for two years before facing Louis because he was ducking his number one contender. He also got a gift decision against Farr. He was an abysmal boxer. One of the worst to ever hold a title. He was merely in the right place at the right time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyH6GlYZRCs

Oh, so his huge win streak, him knocking down Louis were both BS too, right? A PRIME Louis.

Your video shows Braddock at his absolute worst, it picks directly at his worst moments and ignores his highlights.

He was on a huge win-streak early in his career, guess that was all BS too, and if he had retired with that, people would have praised him.

"Terrible Defense", when he was only ever knocked out once in his entire career, by... again, a prime Joe Louis. You know who else had garbage defense? George Foreman when he fought Evander, but he had the CHIN for it, he should be praised for his chin that took hits from Max Baer, who had killed Campbell in the ring by knocking him out, not called a shit boxer for having bad defenses.

It's a fact that if you have the chin for it, you don't need great defense, a lot of boxers with Granite chins had bad defense as well.

[prewarboxing]

All credit to the man for what he achieved but....

James J Braddock really wasn't that great

Miles Templeton

[Onetimeonly]

All credit to the man for what he achieved but....

James J Braddock really wasn't that great

Miles Templeton

[klompton]

You do realize he didnt fight for two years before facing Louis because he was ducking his number one contender. He also got a gift decision against Farr. He was an abysmal boxer. One of the worst to ever hold a title. He was merely in the right place at the right time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyH6GlYZRCs

Oh, so his huge win streak, him knocking down Louis were both BS too, right? A PRIME Louis.

Your video shows Braddock at his absolute worst, it picks directly at his worst moments and ignores his highlights.

He was on a huge win-streak early in his career, guess that was all BS too, and if he had retired with that, people would have praised him.

"Terrible Defense", when he was only ever knocked out once in his entire career, by... again, a prime Joe Louis. You know who else had garbage defense? George Foreman when he fought Evander, but he had the CHIN for it, he should be praised for his chin that took hits from Max Baer, who had killed Campbell in the ring by knocking him out, not called a poo boxer for having bad defenses.

It's a fact that if you have the chin for it, you don't need great defense, a lot of boxers with Granite chins had bad defense as well.

HIs huge win streak was built up against nobodies and after he got in the ring he was exposed. He was embarrassingly bad and it was noted by the press.

Nothing I wrote or put in that video is false. The guy was beyond ordinary and damn lucky he got a title shot against unmotivated Baer who not only may have thrown that fight but who, if you watch the complete film, wasnt that far behind on points either. Everyone knew Braddock wouldnt survive his first title defense and thats why he ducked Schmeling, his number one contender, and sold the title to Louis. Yes he knocked down Louis but why dont you go watch that knockdown. Louis was hammering Braddock, squared up to him leaving him off balance and got clipped and went down. He popped right back up unhurt. Dont pretend he hurt him. Other mediocre fighters dropped Louis as well. The guy is famous because of the bullshit story that he was a diamond in the rough that just needed the opportunity to shine i.e. the Cinderella man. Thats horseshit. You dont lose more than 30 percent of your fights by bad luck. He just wasnt that good.

[oogiebe]

I think Braddock is rated just fine for what he was. Decent fighter; terrific story. Not a great.

[Ambling Alp II]

Pretty much how I see.
Obviously he wasn't severely underrated or terrible. He had some boxing ability, a good chin and a lot of heart.

He lost a lot fights. To a certain extent, you have to take into consideration his taking fights on short notice.
As for the Louis fight, it was not an earth shattering knockdown, but it was legit. Only the second fighter to do it. He lasted until the 8th round, which is further than a lot of guys.
He deserves some criticism for not defending the title for two years.

His wins over Jimmy Slattery Art Lasky, and John Henry Lewis was respectable. A terrible fighter doesn't win those fights.
Other guys would have beaten Baer on that night. However, many would not have. That win has to count for something.

He was one of the worst heavyweight champs. Still a good fighter.

[oogiebe]

Pretty much how I see.
Obviously he wasn't severely underrated or terrible. He had some boxing ability, a good chin and a lot of heart.

He lost a lot fights. To a certain extent, you have to take into consideration his taking fights on short notice.
As for the Louis fight, it was not an earth shattering knockdown, but it was legit. Only the second fighter to do it. He lasted until the 8th round, which is further than a lot of guys.
He deserves some criticism for not defending the title for two years.

His wins over Jimmy Slattery Art Lasky, and John Henry Lewis was respectable. A terrible fighter doesn't win those fights.
Other guys would have beaten Baer on that night. However, many would not have. That win has to count for something.

He was one of the worst heavyweight champs. Still a good fighter.

Think of how good you have to be in order to be even one of the worst HW champs of all time.

[margaret thatcher]

Pretty much how I see.
Obviously he wasn't severely underrated or terrible. He had some boxing ability, a good chin and a lot of heart.

He lost a lot fights. To a certain extent, you have to take into consideration his taking fights on short notice.
As for the Louis fight, it was not an earth shattering knockdown, but it was legit. Only the second fighter to do it. He lasted until the 8th round, which is further than a lot of guys.
He deserves some criticism for not defending the title for two years.

His wins over Jimmy Slattery Art Lasky, and John Henry Lewis was respectable. A terrible fighter doesn't win those fights.
Other guys would have beaten Baer on that night. However, many would not have. That win has to count for something.

He was one of the worst heavyweight champs. Still a good fighter.

Who wins, Wlad vs Brad

[gilgamesh]

I think Braddock is rated just fine for what he was. Decent fighter; terrific story. Not a great.

Yep. A great Boxing story, but not a particularly great fighter.

[SwayzeWithNoShirtOn]

Dempsey said something to the effect "To be a champion you must have a punch, and be able to take a punch". He didn't say anything about being good.

Braddock might be the worst of the lineal champions. He really is hard to watch. The win over Baer is super suspect. But as bad as that was, his effort against Louis was heroic.

I think the thing he did best was be awkward. You can almost see the prototype for Walcott-Lous and Spinks-Holmes. Braddock might be called the antithesis of Willie Pep, but if you can't be Willie Pep, you can still do one-better than Jimmy Braddock - and I think that's the conclusion of virtually every fighter since them.

[Duran1970]

Why is the win over Baer super suspect

[Tony1244]

I think Braddock is rated just fine for what he was. Decent fighter; terrific story. Not a great.

[zuru]

He couldn't be worse than Wilder.

[SwayzeWithNoShirtOn]

Why is the win over Baer super suspect

Have you seen the fight?

[Duran1970]

Yes

[Jaywheel]

Why is the win over Baer super suspect

Have you seen the fight?

Nobody ever wins a fight.

[oogiebe]

Why is the win over Baer super suspect

It's not.