Joe Louis vs. Paulino Uzcudun

Joe Louis (right) vs. Paulino Uzcudun

Joe Louis 200 lbs beat Paulino Uzcudun 207 lbs by TKO at 2:32 in round 4 of 15

• Date: 1935-12-13
• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Arthur Donovan
• Judge: Charley Lynch
• Judge: Marty Monroe

• Photo from the weigh-in
• Fight Photo #2

Notes

• There was a crowd of 19,145 at Madison Square Garden.
• Uzcudun had never been knocked down in 69 professional fights until Louis dropped him with a right in round four. United Press reported that the right hand "landed with such impact it ripped open a gash in the Basque's face large enough to thrust a finger through." Uzcudun rose on shaky legs at the count of eight, but Louis landed three straight haymakers to finish him off.
• "For Louis, Uzcudun was a puzzle that had to be solved while exposing himself to the least amount of danger," Lew Freedman wrote in Joe Louis: The Life of a Heavyweight. "Louis was patient, trying to penetrate Uzcudun's awkward style where he bent forward in a crouch with a cross-arms style and his face protected. Louis jabbed and moved, jabbed and moved, all the while studying Uzcudun's unorthodox methods. It took a few rounds for Louis to figure out his best approach, but when Louis saw his opening and slammed Uzcudun with a strong right, he knocked two of his opponent's teeth through his lower lip."
• "After the fight, trainer Whitey Bimstein, who worked in Uzcudun's corner, told me that he never saw anybody hit a man as hard as I hit Uzcudun that night,” Louis said. "I was ready for the world."
• This was Uzcudun's last fight and his only knockout loss. [1]