June 13, 1935: Braddock vs Baer

“I thought I could lick Baer. I thought I can outpoint him. They never gave me a chance. But he was just another opponent and I was in there to fight him.”

“I knew from the start that I could lick him. I seen Tommy Loughran lick him in the Garden and I boxed Tommy and I knew what kind of boxer he was and I said to myself, if I ever fought Baer I’d do the same thing Loughran done with him, the left hand and move…”

“Oh, yeah, he landed. Dynamite puncher. If he hit you right, he’d knock you out in the third row. In my opinion, the guy was a harder puncher than Louis. Louis was a faster puncher and he hit you more punches, but Baer was a guy that could hurt you.”

“He hit me a couple of times and I said, ‘Is that as hard as you can punch?’ So that took a little bit out of him. Around the eighth round I said, ‘Hey, Max, you better get going. You’re way behind.'”      — James J. Braddock, in Peter Heller’s In This Corner