Hello Hive friends, today is Saturday and that means we are in the “Sports Saturdays” of Freecompliments. Today I want to tell you one of those stories that makes you reconcile with sport in these times when only money and social posturing seem to matter.
It is the story of a boxer who was born out of necessity, James Braddock, better known as "Cinderella Man." Maybe some of you have seen his story in a movie starring that great actor Russell Crowe.
James Braddock was born at the beginning of the 20th century in New York into a humble family of Irish origin. It was a tough time and young James started boxing and at 21 he was a professional. Although the professionals of that time had nothing to do with those of today. He did not have great success in his first fights and given the hardships of the time he had to go to work as an estivador in the port and leave boxing. A job that made him even harder.
In 1934 he had the opportunity to return to boxing in a fight against John 'Corn' Griffin in which he had to be cannon fodder. But to everyone's surprise he managed to knock out Griffin. That gave him the opportunity to compete in other fights in which he always came out like a poor old boxer who was going to lose. But to everyone's surprise he won again and again. Making himself worthy of being able to compete for the heavyweight title against Max Baer.
That was a historic fight. Max Baer was a super favorite so much that the bets were 10 to 1. But in June of '35 at Madison, James went down in history and won the title of world heavyweight champion.
His reign did not last long due to his age and the injury problems he had from his time as an estivador in the port, but it is still an example of how necessity can push a man to achieve glory.
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