Proxy battles are disputed in the boxing ring just as much as they are in any other major sport, from soccer to rugby to ice hockey and beyond. The greatest one that the world has probably witnessed, however, was the 1938 rematch between Joe Louis and former heavyweight champ Max Schmeling. As Adolf Hitler psyched Germany up for a devastating war that would bring unimaginable pain and destruction to most of the planet, Louis received the unenviable task of carrying on his shoulders the honor of the free world in a fight against a representative of the self-appointed “superior race.
” Even though Schmeling never took it upon himself (publicly, at least) to represent such reprehensible ideas, and even though he denounced them later in life though both words and actions, the confrontation of those two ethos was all too real for millions of observers around the world. And Joe delivered in demolishing fashion, crushing Schmeling in a brutal display of boxing ability and sheer power to defend his heavyweight championship barely two years after losing his unbeaten status to Schmeling in their first bout. The win elevated Louis to the category of national hero in the US, and cemented his place in history.
But that crowning achievement was an accumulation of other previous wins that progressively earned Louis the admiration and the support of his people, first as an icon for his African American community, and then to the entire country. His fight against Primo Carnera was probably.