Seventy-six years ago this weekend, on March 1, 1949, one of the greatest fighters of all time announced his retirement from the sport. In so doing, Joe Louis called a halt to a heavyweight reign that remains unequaled in its number of consecutive defenses: 25 (or 26 if one includes a quasi-exhibition in 1944), over a span of 11 years (including an almost complete interruption of four years while Louis served in the US Army during World War II).

A reign that lengthy inevitably included much filler; but although some of his challengers were far from worthy, the “Bum of the Month Club” appellation given to a chunk of his reign is unfair. The likes of Max Schmeling, Billy Conn, James Braddock, John Henry Lewis, and Jersey Joe Walcott would become Hall-of-Famers, and he frequently faced opposition that was ranked in the Top 10.

Rewatching, and re-reading about, Louis’ title reign is to be reminded of three things above all: he had one of the best right hands in heavyweight boxing history, he attacked the body with a ferocity rarely seen among big men today, and he was untouchable in rematches.

Here, in capsule form, is the story of that heavyweight reign, a chronological list of his title acquisition and defenses.

1937

June 22: KO 8 Jim Braddock

The “Cinderella Man” had not fought since upsetting Max Baer to win the heavyweight crown in 1935, and had initially been scheduled to make his first defense against Germany’s Max Schmeling, who had inflicted what was to that point Louis’ only defeat. But, concerned that the Nazi government would not allow Schmeling, if he won, to defend against a black man, Louis’ manager offered Braddock a portion of his fighters’ purses for the next 10 years to get the deal over the line.

Braddock knocked down Louis with an uppercut in the first round, but the challenger recovered, established his jab, ground down Braddock and knocked him out in the eighth to become world champion.

August 30: W 15 Tommy Farr

Louis was expected to roll over Welshman Farr in his first defense, but the “Tonypandy Terror” proved resilient and difficult until Louis began to take over the contest down the stretch. The announcement of the decision was met by boos in the crowd.

1938

February 23: KO 3 Nathan Mann

Mann had done little to earn a shot and Louis dealt with him swiftly, decking him four times in three rounds. The United Press reported that Louis "could not have been any more effective if he had carried an axe in one hand and a black-jack in the other.” 

April 1 KO 5 Harry Thomas

Thomas, another unheralded contender, made a bright start, but Louis took over in the third, dropping him four times in the fourth and stopping him in the fifth.

June 22: KO 1 Max Schmeling

This one really mattered. Schmeling had beaten up the young Louis a couple of years previously, but the Brown Bomber annihilated him in the rematch, stopping him in the opening frame and sparking wild celebrations and Louis’ adoption as America’s champion – as well as, reportedly, disgust among Adolf Hitler and his henchmen.

1939

January 25: KO 1 John Henry Lewis

Lewis had been a dominant light-heavyweight champion for three years, but his attempt to lift the heavyweight crown ended in disaster, as Louis dropped him three times and stopped him in round one.

April 17: KO 1 Jack Roper

Louis’ third consecutive first round KO saw him finish off Roper with a right hand from which his challenger could not rise in time.

June 28: KO 4 Tony Galento

Louis didn’t much care for “Two-Ton Tony,” who before the contest had confidently predicted that, “I’ll moider da bum.” Galento hurt Louis in the first and dropped him in the third, but the rest of the contest was a slaughter until a battered, bleeding Galento collapsed into the referee’s arms in the fourth.

September 20: KO 11 Bob Pastor

These two had met in 1937, Louis struggling to impose himself on an opponent who had only survival in mind. He was more emphatic second time around, scoring a total of six knockdowns on his way to a late stoppage.

1940

February 8: W 15 Arturo Godoy

Louis was taken to a split decision by the awkward, mauling Godoy. The crowd was unhappy with the decision, but most ringside reporters saw it as a 10-5 fight for the champion.

March 29: KO 2 Johnny Paychek

Louis dropped Paychek for three nine counts in round 1 and knocked him out cold in the second. 

“I would like to meet him again,” Paychek said afterward. “I think I can do better.”

June 20: KO8 Arturo Godoy

The closeness of the first bout earned Godoy a rematch, but Louis sliced his face to pieces, dropped him twice in the seventh and once in the eighth. “That’s the worst beating I ever gave a man,” said Louis.

December 16: TKO 5 Al McCoy

Louis dropped McCoy to one knee in the first with a trio of body shots and battered him to the point that McCoy stayed on his stool after the fifth.

1941

January 31: KO5 Red Burman

Burman, a protégé of Jack Dempsey, fought like one, taking the fight to Louis and showing no sign of backing down until a right hand to the heart caused him to “crumble like he had been shot” in the fifth.

February 17: KO2 Gus Dorazio

Louis iced Dorazio with a right hand that dropped him, face-first and unconscious, to the canvas and scrambled his synapses so completely that afterward Dorazio complained that the bout shouldn’t have been stopped.

March 21: TKO 13 Abe Simon

Simon was another who produced a challenge of far greater authority than had been expected of him, one that ended only when Louis’ right hands sent knocked him down twice in the thirteenth round. He got up twice, but after the second knockdown staggered into a corner, prompting a referee stoppage.

April 8: TKO 9 Tony Musto

Musto stepped in when a third fight with Godoy fell through; he was dropped in the third and was well behind on points when the contest was stopped due to a cut over the challenger’s eye.

May 23: W DQ 7 Buddy Baer

Baer got off to a flying start in the first heavyweight championship fight ever to be staged in Washington, D.C., when he blasted Louis through the ropes and onto the ring apron in the first round. Louis, however, asserted himself and dropped Baer with a right hand in the sixth. Baer rose at seven, but Louis immediately put him down again, this time for the count of nine. As the crowd roared, the bell sounded to end the round; Louis didn’t hear it, and hit Baer again, knocking him out. Baer’s trainer and manager entered the ring to remonstrate with  referee Arthur Donovan, but when they wouldn’t leave the ring when the bell sounded to start the seventh, Donovan disqualified Baer.

June 18: TKO 13 Billy Conn

Still regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight fights of all time. Light-heavyweight champion Conn came within a whisker of taking the crown from Louis, as his skillful movement and fast combinations had the champion in repeated trouble.  In round 12, Conn had Louis reeling around the ring, and it seemed victory was almost in his grasp. But, overly emboldened, he abandoned his boxer-puncher style and went for the knockout, playing into the hands of the bigger Louis. As they exchanged, Louis landed a right hand to the head and one to the body that had Conn hurt and helpless, and then another right hand that put him down for the count.

September 29: KO 6 Lou Nova

Nova had been in the hunt for a shot at Louis for a while, but when his opportunity came, he blew it. Nova failed to win a round and was put down for the count in the sixth; his trainers were suspended for encouraging him to fight negatively.

1942

January 9: KO 1 Buddy Baer

Six months after their controversial first fight, Baer earned a rematch but was blown away. Louis attacked his hulking challenger from the opening bell, putting him down three times in the first round, the third time for good. Said Baer afterward, “The only way I could have beaten Louis that night was with a baseball bat.”

March 27: TKO 6 Abe Simon

Once again, a contender who had given Louis a tough fight was annihilated in the rematch. Louis dominated the first five rounds before felling Simon in the sixth.

After this fight, Louis would spend four years in the U.S. Army.

1944

November 14: KO 1 Johnny Davis

While in the Army, Louis boxed a number of exhibitions; this was supposed to be one of them, but when the chair of the New York State Athletic Commission ruled that there were no exhibitions where the heavyweight champion of the world was concerned, Louis decided to make sure nothing went awry. He knocked out Davis with the first right hand he threw. 

1946

June 19: KO 8 Billy Conn

Another rematch, another dominant Louis win. “He can run but he can’t hide,” said Louis beforehand, and he was correct: Conn retreated, Louis stalked, and in the eighth round landed a right cross/right uppercut/left hook combination that put Conn down and out.

September 18: KO 1 Tami Mauriello

The unfancied Mauriello sent Louis backward with the first punch of the fight, prompting an annoyed Louis to tear into him, leaving him slumped over the middle rope and out after just 2:09.

1947

December 15: W 15 Jersey Joe Walcott

If there was a fight that Louis should have lost, it was this one. Walcott walked Louis onto a counter in the first round that dropped him to the seat of his pants, and the champion went down again in the fourth. Walcott consistently beat Louis to the punch, and when the split decision was announced in favor of the champ, the crowd booed vociferously. Louis, who appeared to believe he had lost, did not hesitate to give Walcott a rematch.

1948

June 25: KO 11 Jersey Joe Walcott

Walcott dropped Louis in the third and was once more pulling ahead on the scorecards when, like Conn before him, he made the mistake of standing and trading. A Louis right hand wobbled Walcott and then a follow-up barrage knocked him down and out.

When Louis won the heavyweight title, he was 23 years old with a record of 32-1. When he retired, he was 34 and his record was an outstanding 58-1 with 49 KOs. Alas, the U.S. Treasury pursued Louis for back taxes, forcing him to return to the ring. He was widely outpointed by Ezzard Charles in a tilt at his old title and then brutally knocked out by Rocky Marciano, who sent him into permanent retirement. Louis’ final ledger stands at 66-3 (52 KOs).

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com