Right now I'm paying off my first $200,000 worth of annuities, have an apartment building in Chicago, and another $500,000 in sight this summer.
I never saw Max Schmeling in action, but the movies of his knockout over Young Stribling in Cleveland in 1931 left a lingering impression of a great fighter. I was just a kid then, getting my baptism with gloves at the Detroit A. A., and hadn't been in any real bouts. But I was warming up to the game mighty fast, and saved my pennies to see the Schmeling-Stribling film when it arrived at my neighborhood show. Then I sat with my mouth open and marveled at the way Schmeling slipped under Stribling's piston jabs and countered with short jolts to the body, gradually raised his fire to the chin, and scored a knockout in the fifteenth round. At that time I got the idea Stribling might have done better by drawing away from the German's fists and stepping in with counters.
Now I know just how I'm going to fight Schmeling. I'll let him come winging into me, pull away from his gloves by doing my "backward shuffle," and then step in with counters. If he rushes too fast and furious, I'll grab his arms and spin him before opening up.
I know the "tip" that I'm weak against rushers has spread like a scandal in an old maids' home. That's partly because Adolph Wiater, a mediocre heavyweight, gave me the toughest shock of my career by pushing me back off balance and churning windmill arms. At the time I fought Wiater, which was my first ten-round shindig, I hadn't learned to shuffle in reverse.
Blackburn taught me a system of boxing on balance, as I explained in Liberty last November. At first he showed me how to shuffle forward into an opponent and keep my feet always in position for leverage so I could punch without waste motion. My right foot always is slightly behind the left — not too far, but enough to keep me from falling forward off balance when I strike. Blackburn had me watch a shot putter heave the iron marble at a track meet.
"Push your right cross off the right foot something like that," Jack said. "At the same time hold that right toe against the floor for an anchor to keep from falling into a clinch as you punch. Imagine that toe's a stake holding down the corner of a circus tent."
So I learned to shuffle into an opponent, and quick knockouts resulted. Then Wiater came along, hurtling headfirst into me, and I was fuddled for a couple of rounds, but never in distress.
Blackburn immediately taught me the backward shuffle. I simply moved the same way in reverse gear. I discovered I was at my best when a foe came charging into me, because primarily I'm a counterpuncher. In my first clash with Lee Ramage I shuffled ahead for seven rounds before catching up with the retreating Ramage in the eighth. Then, in our return match, Lee decided to wage a charging fight and take a chance on outslugging me. This time I shuffled out of his range, made him miss, and stepped in with counters that iced Lee in the second round.
Maybe Schmeling will switch from his usual style and wait for me to lead; but I don't think so. The German has forced the fighting in all his bouts and would be foolish to change at this time.
Blackburn says Max drops his left hand when he shoots the right. The first time he drops his left, there'll be a race of right hands, and I think mine will ring the button. I know the Teuton has a cast-iron jaw.
I never expect to hit another man as often with hard punches as I hit Baer before melting his chin, but I expect Schmeling to swing at me plenty. And I expect to get tagged by a few. I am prepared to take as well as dish out the leather poison this trip.
Schmeling is the big hurdle in my path to the championship match. If I can whip him decisively, I expect to leap right into a title shot as the next stop, although we might take on a warm-up bout in midsummer.
I feel that I've got a mission to fulfill for my race — to win the title and then prove that a colored man can wear the crown and still act like a gentleman.
Joe Louis - June, 1936
