Carlos Acevedo takes us back to 1937, for the match-up between heavyweights Max Baer (pictured) and Ben Foord at the Harringay Arena in London.
Photos courtesy of Antiquities of the Prize Ring
After fraying American purse strings on an outlandish “comeback” tour against an assortment of bindlestiffs and saloonkeepers throughout the Great Plains and Badlands, Max Baer, former heavyweight champion of the world, sailed for England in 1937 in an attempt to jumpstart his stalled career and took on tough competition for the first time since his battering at the hands of Joe Louis in 1935.
Baer, whose brittle hands forced him into refereeing wrestling matches and conducting a music orchestra (“I already got,” he said, “one of them wands a leader uses.”) began his comeback away from the bright lights of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. If his performances against Jim Braddock and Louis earned Baer the kind of press normally reserved for rainmakers, his barnstorming tour, with its vaudeville connotations, brought him even greater condemnation.
read more
