Joe Brown

Sport: Boxing

Induction Year: 1976

Induction Year: 1976

No lightweight boxer defended his world championship as often (or as effectively) as the man they called “Old Bones.”

Joe Brown of Baton Rouge, La., had nearly 100 bouts in 11 years of pro boxing, fighting for peanuts in smoke-filled arenas throughout the Deep South and Southwest, when he got his title shot against Wallace “Bud” Smith of Cincinnati in New Orleans on Aug. 4, 1956.

Brown suffered a broken hand in the second round of the 15-round fight, but he kept punching—and used the broken hand to put the champion on the canvas twice in the 14th round. The bell saved Smith from a knockout, but it didn’t save his title.

Six months later, the rematch at the Miami Beach Auditorium was no contest. With Brown predicting a 10-round knockout, Smith was so badly outclassed that his handler, Adolph Ritacco, begged Dr. Alexander Robbing of the Miami Beach City Commission to stop the fight after the tenth round. His request was quickly granted.

That was the first o f 12 title defenses for Brown in a little more than five years—breaking the previous record of nine title defenses set by Benny Leonard.

Four months after the second Smith fight, Brown was matched against Cuba ‘s Orlando Zulueta in the Denver Coliseum.

Zulueta, who had battled Brown to a draw four years earlier, had never been knocked off his feet in 100 pro fights. But when the Colorado Athletic Commission ruled the boxers had to wear six-ounce gloves instead of regulations eight-ounce gloves, the hard-hitting Brown predicted another knockout.

He got a controversial technical knockout with 21 seconds remaining in Round 15, after dropping Zulueta for a nine count in the 13th.

Referee Ray Keech was booed for stopping the fight after Zulueta got up at the count of eight in the 15th.

“I asked Zulueta if he was all right when he got up,” Keech said. “He only mumbled. His eyes were glassy, and I thought there was no use in taking a chance that he might be seriously injured.”

“I felt fine,” Zulueta protested. “My head was clear. I wasn’t a bit dizzy.”

“Yeah, the referee was right in stopping it,” Brown said as he soaked both hands in a bucket of water after the fight. “That boy was hurt.”

I was a moot point, because all three officials had Brown ahead on points in the nationall televised bout.

“We don’t want any long layoffs,” said Brown’s manager, portly Lou Viscusi.

He had a few overweight, non-title fights in mind, but Joey Lopes threw a monkey wrench into the champion’s schedule when he held Brown to a draw in a non-title fight in Chicago Stadium two months later—and demanded a shot at the title.

Lopes got his shot in a nationally televised bout in Chicago on Dec. 4, 1957—and Brown toyed with him for 10 rounds before putting him away in the 11th. Lopes was in a fog after the tenth round, staggering to Brown’s corner and sitting down on the champion’s stool. After two knockdowns in the 11th, referee Joey White stopped it with Lopes bleeding from cuts around both eyes and the mouth.

Another Louisiana product, Ralph Dupas of New Orleans, was Brown’s next victim. It was the first world championship fight ever held in Houston .

Dupas landed only one solid punch in eight rounds, but Brown had to knock him down twice after he knocked him out to make it official. The first time he floored Dupas, who had stirred up a bit of controversy by suggesting Brown was 38 instead of 31 he claimed, referee Jimmy Webb stopped the count at nine and ordered Brown back to his corner. The champion refused, and Dupas got up—only to be dropped two more times before Webb mercifully stopped it.

Two months later, Brown returned to Houston to fight lefthander Kenny Lane, a farm boy from Muskegon, Mich. Lane’s manager, Jack “Doc” Kearns, had been clamoring for a title shot since the two Brown-Smith fights.

Bothered by Lane’s southpaw style, Brown wasn’t able to put his opponent on the canvas—and need a big final round to win a unanimous (but close) decision.

“He’s the only champion to defend his title three times in eight months,” Viscusi said after the fight. “He deserves a rest.”

Brown held the world championship nearly six years—until he met young Carlos Ortiz at the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 21, 1962.

With former heavyweight champion Joe Louis and Billy Conn, who nearly dethroned Louis in an epic 1941 fight, at ringside, Brown went into the fight as an 8-5 favorite. But youth was served, and generously, as the 25-year-old Ortiz dominated the fight from start to finish.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ortiz was a sergeant in New York ‘s “Fighting 69th” Regiment of the National Guard. He had a tougher time making the weight limit of 135 pounds than he had in the fight, needing 45 minutes of calisthenics to get down to the required weight on his third attempt.

He stole Joe The Jabber’s favorite weapon to control the fight, viewed by a live crowd of 5,881 spectators and a national TV audience.

“Annoying” was Brown’s description of the Ortiz jabs. “I’ve met fighters with harder left jabs, but this one just kept coming. I just couldn’t get going.”

Ortiz thought about trying for the knockout, but after seeing Conn and Louis seated together he decided to play it safe. He didn’t want history to repeat itself.

Judge Dave Zeno called it 74-66 for Ortiz. The score was 74-60 on referee Frankie Van’s card and judge J.H. “Bud” Traynor called it 74-58.

Brown’s share of his 12th and final title defense was $50,000. he continued to fight until the age of 44, going out a winner wit a victory over Ramon Flores in his last fight. Of his 104 victories, 47 were by knockouts.