A LONG HEAVYWEIGHT TRADITION CONTINUES

When Chris Byrd takes on Wladimir Klitschko this Saturday on HBO, he will continue a long tradition of American heavyweight champions and title holders facing strong European challengers.

Discuss the Fight Email to a Friend

April 17, 2006 - by William Dettloff

Though until fairly recently the American fight community has been generally dismissive of Europe's supposed "horizontal heavyweights," American champions and their European challengers have produced many of the more memorable heavyweight title fights.

Boxing's first million dollar gate featured Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion and soon-to-be American icon, against France's Georges Carpentier. Leading up to the match, promoter Tex Rickard used Carpentier's reputation as a World War I hero and Dempsey's alleged draft-dodging past to build the fight into a good versus evil matchup. It exceeded even Rickard's grand expectations.

The fight, on July 2, 1921, drew more than 80,000 fans to Boyles' Thirty Acres in New Jersey, with receipts totaling $1,789,238, shattering previous records. Carpentier, the light heavyweight champion, held his own at first and hurt Dempsey badly in the second. But he broke his right thumb in doing it and Dempsey swarmed all over him in the third before knocking him out in the fourth.

The historic title reign of Joe Louis, another American icon, began with a defense against a European. Welshman Tommy Farr was no one's idea of a soft touch to those who knew his history. It included wins over Max Baer, Bob Olin and Tommy Loughran, among others. Louis' promoter, Mike Jacobs, went with "The Tonypander Terror" anyway, believing Louis should look invincible in his inaugural defense and Farr, a boxer rather than a slugger, would be the guy to ensure that look. Jacobs was as wrong as he could be.

They met on August 30, 1937 and although he never was truly a threat to win, Farr was stubborn and tough and gave Louis about all he could handle for 15 rounds. He got low and crowded Louis whenever the champion loaded up and if it didn't seem a big deal then that Farr lasted the distance, it did later when Louis stopped 20 of his next 22 opponents.

Of course, it was Louis' fights against Germany's Max Schmeling that are recalled more frequently perhaps than any of Louis' bouts. By 1936 Schmeling had won and lost the heavyweight title and was considered on the downside of his career. Going into their match in June, Louis was undefeated and considered the best prospect in the sport and a future champion. In a huge upset Schmeling floored Louis and stopped him in the 12th round.

The rematch took place a year later in front of more than 70,000 fans in Yankee Stadium. Its outcome carried enormous political and social importance. Schmeling was viewed, accurately or not, as a symbol of Adolph Hitler's Nazi movement and the world was on the brink of war. In boxing terms it was the Louis' fourth defense of the heavyweight title he won by knocking out Jimmy Braddock, but it was much more.

It lasted less than a round. Louis attacked from the start and before a befuddled-looking Schmeling appeared to know what hit him, he'd been battered, floored and had two vertebrae in his back broken by Louis' right hands.

The next significant European challenge of an American heavyweight champion came in May 1955 when England's Don Cockell challenged Rocky Marciano, the undefeated puncher from Brockton, Massachusetts. Cockell came in with some credentials; he'd beaten Tommy Farr, Harry "Kid" Matthews and Roland LaStarza and figured to give the crude Marciano some rounds. He did, but that was about all he gave him. Marciano hammered him from the start, fouled him with impunity, and stopped him nine rounds.

Not all of the challengers Europe sent to America came home empty handed. Sweden's thunderous-punching Ingemar Johansson confounded observers with his lax training regimen before his challenge of heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in June 1959. Turned out he didn't really need to train hard. In the third round he started landing right hands and Patterson starting falling. Seven times Patterson hit the deck before referee Ruby Goldstein finally stopped it in the third, making Johansson the new heavyweight champ.

In the rematch, on June 20, 1960, Patterson electrified the crowd of 45,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York when he stretched Johansson in the fifth round to become the first fighter ever to regain the heavyweight title. The two fought once more, in March 1961, with Patterson winning by knockout in the sixth.

Just over five years after Johansson's brief reign as the heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali defended the heavyweight title three times straight against European challengers. The first came in May 1966 against left-hook specialist Henry Cooper, whom Ali had beaten, controversially, two years prior in London. That was the fight in which Cooper had floored and badly buzzed Ali, who moments afterward had the good fortune to suffer a hole in his glove, the discovery of which necessitated a long, head-clearing delay. Ali needed no such miracles the second time around and stopped Cooper, a notorious bleeder, in six rounds.

Three months later, again in London, Ali needed just three rounds to topple Brian London, a wholly nondescript English puncher. A 15-1 underdog, London told Ali afterward that he'd like a rematch but only if Ali wore a 50-pound weight on each ankle.

Next stop on Ali's European tour was Germany, where Karl Mildenberger awaited him. Mildenberger had a couple of things going for him: he'd never lost to an American heavyweight, and he was a southpaw. Ali had never faced one as a pro. In fact, a southpaw had never before fought for the world heavyweight title. Facing Ali before a crowd of more that 45,000 at Wald Stadium in Frankfurt, Mildenberger did well over the first four rounds, but after an Ali right dropped him in the fifth, he slowed. Ali floored him several more times on the way to stopping him in the 11th round. Ali's affection for European title challengers did not wane as he grew older. In 1976 and '77 he faced Spain's Alfredo Evangelista, whom he decisioned over 15 rounds, the Belgian Jean Pierre Coopman, whom he stopped in five, and England's Richard Dunn, also a five-round kayo victim.

The late 1980s and '90s brought a rush of European heavyweights into the heavyweight title picture. First came England's chiseled but limited Frank Bruno, who, after suffering title fight defeats against Americans Tim Witherspoon and Mike Tyson, not to mention fellow Brit Lennox Lewis, finally won a version of the belt in 1995 with a decision over American Oliver McCall. He quickly lost it in a rematch with Tyson.

Poland's skilled but temperamental Andrew Golota became a force in the division and had three shots at pieces of the heavyweight belt, losing to John Ruiz and Lewis, and drawing with Byrd. Up until the time of his 1996 disqualification losses to former American heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe, which revealed Golota's unpredictable and volatile nature, Golota was viewed by many as a dangerous contender likely to win at least a version of the title. Lewis was by far the most successful European heavyweight of the modern era. He beat American contemporaries Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Tony Tucker, Razor Ruddock, Ray Mercer, McCall, Hasim Rahman (he also lost to Rahman and McCall) and others before retiring as the world heavyweight champion after beating the Ukraine's Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir's older brother. Klitschko also was recognized as the heavyweight champion after beating American Kirk Johnson and the South African, Corrie Sanders.

Of course, Saturday's fight between Byrd and Klitschko will be their second meeting. Klitschko dominated Byrd, flooring him twice and taking a unanimous decision over him in October 2000. If he's able to do it again, it may mark the continuation of a shift in the fortunes of the elite of the heavyweight division - away from America, and to the shores of Europe.