Chapter 45: Bradock VS Joe Louis

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  May 15, 1937, New York, Madison

  Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!

  "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Madison Square Garden, the highly anticipated heavyweight championship bout is about to begin, and the opponents are heavyweight champion James J. Braddock!!"

  The announcer calls out Bradock's name and the whole arena erupts in applause, cheers, and whistles! Bradock is a legend from the Great Depression era.

  "James J. Braddock, 6 feet 3 inches (1 m 89) tall and weighing 89 kg, with a record of 51 wins, 24 losses and 6 draws, won the heavyweight title on June 13, 1935 by defeating Max Baer, let's cheer for the champion!"

  The on-site commentator's provocative tone quickly stirred up the enthusiastic atmosphere. Bradock walked onto the stage wearing a boxing robe.

  Sun Xiang saw clearly that Bradock was indeed an older boxer, but he couldn't be underestimated because of his age. When he stepped onto the stage, his footsteps were light and agile, yet not floating, showcasing his strong foundation in basics. His upper body muscles were well-proportioned, and his punches had no fatal weaknesses.

  "And in the opposing corner is last year's Fighter of the Year, 'The Brown Bomber' Joe Louis!!"

  The on-site reaction was also very enthusiastic, but it's clear that everyone loves Bradock a bit more.

  "Lewis stands at 6 feet 2 inches (1.87 m) and weighs 90 kg, with a record of 12 wins and one loss prior to this fight, notably knocking out his opponents in seven of those bouts, the challenger is here!"

  Joe Louis sprinted up to the ring, waving to the audience in all directions, his actions won the support of the on-site audience. Sun Xiang looked at Louis' pace and smiled lightly, both people's characteristics were quite obvious, James' skills were more comprehensive, while Louis was inclined to attack, no wonder he was nicknamed 'Bomber'.

  The referee reads out the rules before the match, and the seconds of both sides cheer on their boxers below the stage.

  Judge: "Both boxers, please note that you cannot hit each other's back of the head or groin."

  The two boxers nodded in understanding.

  A beautiful woman in a cool outfit held a round card and walked around the boxing ring, Sun Xiang looked at this Asian beauty very familiar, but couldn't think of who she was.

  Sherry hummed, while Rita looked at Sun Xiang with her shining eyes. Sun Xiang awkwardly touched his nose and pointed to the Asian girl on stage, saying to the two jealous beauties: "Sherry, don't you think she looks familiar?"

  Cherry took a closer look and couldn't help but exclaim: "Oh my god, she's Jin, the waitress from that bar!"

  Sun Xiang slapped his forehead and suddenly remembered that she was the beautiful Korean waitress Jin Xiuyan.

  Jin Xiu Yan quickly walked down from the ring with her corner card, and Sherry immediately went to pull her over to sit beside her...

  The boxing match officially began, and Sun Xiang's attention was drawn to the ring. Louis immediately started to take the initiative to attack, James covered his face with both fists, carefully observing Louis' attacking routine.

  James is a boxer with an extremely high IQ. Many times he will observe his opponent's weakness before using that to launch a counterattack.

  Joe Louis was slightly shorter but had a similar arm span to James, several of his attacks were parried by James, and when Louis made an error in one attack, James immediately raised the flag high.

  James threw a flurry of left jabs, but Lewis blocked most of them.

  "Ah! After the opening, Bradock counterattacks for the first time, and Lewis dodges his consecutive punches."

  Suddenly, James's right fist struck out, a powerful punch hooked from the side, and Lewis didn't expect James's probing attack to be over so quickly, as a result of this carelessness he immediately took a heavy blow.

  His fiery personality made him unwilling to take a loss, and he immediately countered with a punch. However, due to his hasty action, the punch didn't land with much force and didn't pose too great a threat to James.

  Joe Louis stepped back two paces, creating some distance and slightly recovering his state. The referee came forward to wipe off Louis' gloves, and the match continued.

  On the ring, the two men continued to fight, James always took the defensive position, only counterattacking one or two punches when Lewis made a mistake in his attack, attacking beautifully and defending wonderfully.

  "Round one, halfway through, Joe has been dominating, oh? Now James is starting to launch an attack, consecutive left and right fists heavily hitting Joe Louis, Louis uses his gloves to block a series of attacks, James again with a heavy punch hits the defensive Louis, the huge power blows away Louis's defensive right hand, James seizes this opportunity and with a left-handed heavy punch hits Joe Louis on the right cheek, this heavy blow immediately takes effect, Joe is hit continuously, James gains the upper hand, James forces Joe into the corner, oh Louis is hit by a right-handed punch! He falls to the canvas, Louis is knocked down by James in the first round."

  The scene suddenly burst out a huge cheer! Such a wonderful knockout made the audience's blood boil.

  Louis felt very uncomfortable, James' experience was extremely rich, the timing of the counterattack was very accurate, and many times it was when Louis was about to take out his signature move, a series of punches in a row, that he would counterattack, breaking up his own continuous offense.

  James, who had never attacked before, suddenly launched a surprise attack this time and caught himself off guard. He couldn't be led by the nose anymore, Joe said to himself in his heart.

  Another attack failed, and the two men clinched together. At this time, the technical table below the ring sounded the bell for the end of the first round. The three-minute match ended, and both sides retreated to the corner ropes to receive massage and simple medical treatment from their coaches.

  Kim Joo-hyun explained her story, it turned out that the person who was beaten at the bar was a vagrant and a gambler from the neighborhood, often causing trouble in the area. Since being beaten, he had been hanging around the bar, wanting to take revenge on Sohn Xiang and others, but after failing to find them, he came to bother Kim Joo-hyun instead. As a result, for the sake of his bar business, the boss had no choice but to fire Kim Joo-hyun from her job. Having lost her job, Joo-hyun found work as a ring girl on the boxing stage to make ends meet.

  The second round begins immediately, with Kim Soo-hyun holding up a sign and walking around the ring once before the fight resumes.

  From the second round onwards, both sides entered a stalemate stage, with the sound of fists hitting flesh on the boxing ring making the audience cheer.

  "Hey Joe! Don't circle around him, cut off his retreat!" Joey Louis' agent yelled from the sidelines.

  In Sun Xiang's view, the game seems a bit monotonous, after all, the later generations' boxing championship is obviously more intense than this era. Boxing has become more scientific and diverse in its training methods over the decades, with more varied fighting styles and more famous players, making the games more exciting.

  However, those who can stand on this boxing ring are the peak of this era. Both sides have similar strength and more and more grappling moves.

  Louis bit his teeth and changed his strategy, this time he didn't give James a chance to breathe, seizing the opportunity was a stormy attack.

  Commentator: "Joe lands another combination, two consecutive heavy punches to James' head. Looks like James is running out of energy, his punching power has visibly decreased. Oh? James counterattacks with a heavy punch on Joe, Joe wraps James up... boom! boom! boom! boom! Oh! The timekeeper rings the bell for the end of Round 5."

  "Hey! Listen up, James. Don't get tangled up with him, you're at a disadvantage physically. You gotta counterattack, got it? Counterattack, hit his head, use your heavy fists!! That's right, pow~pow~pow!" Manager John slapped James' cheek forcefully.

  James spat out the mouthwash and nodded: "Alright, I get it, hit him in the head!"

  In the sixth round, James was clearly controlled by Lewis' rhythm.

  Joe Louis landed a solid right hand to James' head, followed by quick jabs with both hands, the thudding sound echoing through the air.

  "Damn it, Bradock, strike back!"

  "Joe, keep attacking! Don't stop!"

  Both fighters' cornermen cheered them on between rounds, and the momentum in the ring gradually shifted, with James's punches becoming increasingly heavier.

  At the end of round seven, Joe Louis was far ahead on points over James Braddock and if James couldn't knock out Louis then the fight would be over.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, after a one-minute rest, the eighth round began.

  James came up and started attacking, hitting Joe Louis in the ribs with two consecutive heavy blows. Louis left an opening, James threw a powerful right-handed punch, but unexpectedly Louis ducked and when James turned around, Joe's big fist was slowly enlarging in front of his eyes...

  "Ah ha! Brodick's attack was dodged by Joe, oh my god, a heavy punch hit Brodick's head, and it's not over yet, another heavy punch with his left hand, Brodick is dazed! Oh our 'Brown Bomber' has started his performance, continuous attack! Brodick was knocked down... The referee starts counting 1...2...8, the tenacious Brodick got up, his eyebrow is bleeding, fortunately he got up, the match continues."

  James' vision was blurring, the sounds around him fading away, he knew he was about to face his biggest crisis yet, the referee wiped his gloves clean, signaling for the match to continue.

  He rushed towards Joe Louis, trying to hug him and delay time until the end of the match.

  But Lewis didn't give him the chance, quickly taking a step back and dodging James' tackle, then landing a powerful right-handed punch to his opponent's face, sending James crashing to the ground.

  "Get up, James, you bloody well can do it, Jimmy!! Get up!!" James' agent John yelled hoarsely. But all of this was in vain.

  The referee counted to ten seconds before raising Joe Louis's right fist, and from that moment on, Louis began his twelve-year reign.

  Champion! Joe Louis!!

  Announcer: "Ladies and gentlemen! A new heavyweight champion is born!!! He's another black champion after Jack Johnson, let's cheer for the 'Brown Bomber'!!!"

  The scene was one of utter chaos, with the cheering crowd blowing whistles and waving their fists in the air, jumping up and down on their seats, while those who had lost money sighed and lamented.

  Huse grabbed Sun Xiang's arm: "Hey, buddy, this game is exciting!"

  Sherry replied impatiently: "I really don't know why you like this sport so much, it's just too cruel."

  Huse smiled and said: "People are all aggressive, of course they like this kind of highly aggressive sport. You didn't see Steve's fierce play, that was really something."

  Cherry heard Hughes' words and exchanged a smile with Rita, leaving Hughes looking puzzled.

  After the match, Kim Soo-hyun quit her job here and agreed to become Rita's assistant.